Doesn't bother me, though I don't have any Birkenstocks. I probably have more online hours than most of the people on the board and have yet to get infected with anything running OSX. Doesn't really matter what the reason is and I don't care about market share. It is a non-issue at this point. I can't say the same thing about my son's laptop running windows. And given the number of threads on PPOT about windows viruses and malware, it appears to be significant with MS operating systems.

If someone asks about a solution for not having to deal with viruses and malware, to-date "running a Mac" is still a viable answer. It just may not be the best answer or the one that they want to hear :D

I've had PCs that were online 24x7 for about 12 years, IIRC. I've had virii/trojans/etc... come to the PC, but I don't remember it ever being infected. I'm trying to remember how many times over the years I've been infected. I think the first was back in the late 80s and came from an infected floppy disk. I think I have had a virus since I got on the Internet, but it was back in my Win 95 and dial up days, or maybe Win 98 SE.

I actually went for many years without virus protection at all and had no issues.

A big part of staying clean with a Windows PC is knowing what to do and what not to do online.

so you're saying stupid people should buy macs :D

Hahah, well, I'm not sure I'd put it like that exactly....

;)

:D

Just got an email from a friend who said his daughter's PC is not running and "some program is asking for $ to register", so there's another one for me to fix tomorrow...

Resorting to an in place install on mine. This is going to take hours.

I have not experienced this one yet. But, I am sure it is just a matter of time until someone calls me to fix it for them. Has anyone tried this fix yet?

Remove Win 7 Antispyware 2012 and Vista Antivirus 2012 name changing rogue (Uninstall Guide)

Fixed'er for ya!

Sent from an iMac SmileWavy

I'll be cleaning up a Lenovy Y550 laptop later today, I'll let you guys know how it went...

Finally! The in place install worked for me. I can get online again. I started at around 8 last night and it finished sometime in the middle of the night.

I tried this and everything else, but only after I had manually removed a part of it and it killed a portion of networking on my laptop. Nothing works if you get in my situation, other than an in place install or full install.

Buy a Windows machine and support the computer support industry!

I have an automatic Symantec scan scheduled for my PC twice a week. This morning before the scan began everything is operating as usual. The scan begins and takes about 30 minutes and I continue to websurf. The scan finds four problems and quarantines and deletes them. This is rare/odd that it has found 4 at once. After they are deleted I notice that my favorites bar (IE) is blank, I click on the favorites tab and ALL my favorites are gone. I had HUNDREDS of sites in folders; all gone. The history is still there but not all of it. Some sites that I know I visited yesterday are not in the history. Also ALL my icons on my desktop are gone.

Also when I try to rebuild my list of sites and want to name a folder "Auto Forums" I get a message that the folder name already exists. So are my favs hidden somewhere?

I know I can rebuild the list but what a PITA. Anyone know how to restore the list?

It just got worst................it wiped my C drive.

Not much on it but it's gone.

I'm puter dumb but I *think* some of these "fixes" go kill "exe" (execute) commands with a broad brush......see your other thread.

Everyone who has viewed or posted on this thread has been infected with a virus.

Is that why my nose is running....or is it that white powder?

Used the Windows 7 "System Restore" utility and restored everything like it was 2 days ago, before the Trojan (Alureate, or something like that...) got on the laptop and everything is OK now. Took about 30 minutes...

Yes, that's a recent one. A bunch of your stuff gets hidden so you think it's gone, but it's not. I think my wife got it earlier this year.

Remove Windows Recovery (Uninstall Guide)

My Documents and IE Favorites hidden by "Windows Recovery" - Microsoft Answers

https://www.google.com/search?q=desktop+icons+and+documents+hidden&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#pq=desktop+icons+and+documents+hidden&hl=en&cp=1 9&gs_id=5i&xhr=t&q=windows+recovery+virus&tok=6Jbp pgY5jr3f3RVUezzZhw&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&client=firefox-a&hs=Qme&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&source=hp&pbx=1&oq=windows+recovery+ vi&aq=0&aqi=g4&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_g c.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=ea6ae9a9dec1fb30&biw=1309&bih=78 2

Hearing this, I am so happy my family switched to Mac. Supporting the entire family with their PCs became a chore. I just hope I don't get this virus on my work PC.

So what site are you guys going to, to get these viruses? Sounds like a nightmare.

My father opened an email from "UPS", along with an attachment because he was curious. My friend's daughter still doesn't know where she went or what she did to get infected...

The applications I use (Visio, VPN client for work, etc...) do not run on a Mac, so I'm stuck using PC's...

I restored it to an earlier date but didn't get it all back. Trying plan B now.

This below was plan B and it seems to have worked.........

My Documents and IE Favorites hidden by "Windows Recovery" - Microsoft Answers

VMWare Fusion. Run those apps in Windows right on your Mac desktop. You can even drag and drop between operating systems. Virtualization and cloud is the future. Creating a Windows VM (virtual machine) is dead easy and quick. Copy the original (or take a snapshot) and if something goes wrong (virus) you toss it and start with the original. You can manually copy the VM (files) or take what in virtualization world is called a "snapshot". No more problems.

Great product. Love the Appliance library.

Anyone that wants to try out VM's or alternate operating systems should grab VirtualBox from SUN/Oracle.

https://www.virtualbox.org/

Not as full featured as Fusion but it's free and a great primer on what you can do with VM's.

Whenever I've tried virtualization, I was disappointed by the lack of speed, poor performance and compatibility issues. I'm sure the technology will "get there" soon, though...

Good heavens, what a bear. I had the 2011 round of this virus on my home machine, decided it would be easiest to reinstall from scratch than try to surgically remove it. My Father-in-Law got it on his computer and wouldn't let me wipe-reinstall, so I spent most of a day researching and going through the process to make it die. What a PITA!

The worst part, in my mind, is that there's no reasonably sane way to stop the d*** thing. You can't just close the popup (which is what everyone does) to keep from getting infected. Firewalls are useless. It was pretty much unfazed by the AV that both of us were running. (Avast! and AVG, if memory serves.) Crazy.

Dan

Several folks at our church told me this AM that their PC's are "acting funny" with lots of pop-ups saying they have a virus....

Does anyone know how to get rid of the "Norton Security Scan"?

I've done the usual....control panel uninstall and the going to start, search and open the file...also there is an uninstall program.

Nada.

edit....did the chat with Norton Symantec.....took them 20 minutes of screwing around....finally got rid of it.

Going to a website doesn't seem to be a problem, but opening a link (video, movie, whatever) on a website can get ya.....it opens a hole there. It appears to be spreading like wildfire.
I've found nothing that stops it. The antivirus folk are way behind it and the malware folks seem to be as far back. Thus far, the porsche websites I frequent & Youtube seem to be safe, but....

More work for Art.

Yeah, I need more work.... unpaid work at that.

No A/V software I know will stop this particular strain of malware, at least for now. So far, the "recovery point" feature in Vista and Win7 have taken care of it, but it's a long, tedious process that is beyond the technical abilities of most home PC users...

If you have a modern multi-core machine with decent memory then performance should not be an issue at all...especially for diagram apps like Visio. My i7 Macbook (2 cores + 2 virtual cores) and 4GB RAM runs my Win7 VM really well - WinXP VMs are really fast. I plan to upgrade to 8GB of RAM and will be able to run 2 VMs at the same time when needed.

One of the professional hats I wear involves supporting locked down WinXP client workstations configured with many integrated applications (some of which I provide). In the past that required me to maintain multiple PC boxes for each install version (5 of them) to debug and test with. Now they all live as VMs on my MacBook. I cannot stress how happy I am with this setup.

Good luck.

So, the best cure is prevention? ctrl-alt-delete when any pop up looking even remotely suspicious comes along?

There is no warning or hesitation differing from the opening of a link that I could detect. When it pops up on your desktop (lower right on mine) you're screwed.
I did find a trick to do restore that works & is fairly simple.....PM me if you need it.
As I said, the effinturds are modifying the bug and there's no sense broadcasting
about a hole in their software.

The only way to avoid it is to modify your Internet browsing habits, me thinks.

That alone won't do it. This thing is network aware. Lets say you have four pc's on a home network. You do everything you can to avoid the seedy areas of the Internet, but your kid happens to hit a wrong site and gets it. It starts scanning your network and finds your pc - bang, you get it too, then another pc on the network and another.

OK, I agree, but what do you recommend? a family meeting?:D

Hey, if that works... :D Though, I think the pep talk would go in one ear of a kid and right out the other. :D

Whatever this malware is, it's got to be on some well known websites, not the "bad" places. My father got his from a bogus UPS email with an attachment and a friend's daughter got it from "normal" browsing. It used to be that you could stay away from the "bad" sites and avoid this malware, but not any more...