I use Firefox. I never use Internet Exploder because of the way it is tied into the OS. When I use a M$ product, I always use a user account, not an administrator account.

If the folks from IT can't rescue you, you'll probably have to go into safe mode to start reversing the damage. Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware usually handles the false AV problem.

McAfee's Site Advisor is good for identifying dodgy sites when you are conducting a search.

You do realise that none of this sort of weirdness is relevant to you if have a Mac (sorry if I sound like a stuck record)? I don't know why you MS users put up with this. I'd never heard of any this until Shooey's thread here.

I lost a friend once over OS preferences. She was obsessed with famous people having coitus and would click on any banner with the vaguest promise of taking her to a site where she could see more celebrities in delicto flagrante. She would get high, drink beer from a can and watch awful sitcoms while laughing loudly and pointing at the TV while I was ripping out her disease-riddled OS and installing Fedora Linux. I told her to look at what I was doing and that it was very important "yeah yeah whatever I'll figure it out". Then the next morning she called me crying because everything was new and different. I had nobody to blame but myself for that one.

Anyway I digress. A host file is easy to install and if kept updated regularly, will block a lot of crappy ads and nastiness across all your internet connectivity
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Last edited by The_Shooman (2011-03-03 21:58:05)

I have had long experience with macs - I first had them at a work place in the the early 80s - before that it was mainframes and an Osborn luggable with an acoustic coupler - ah those were the days (wipes tear from rheumy eye) and my offspring are graphic design /animation/filmaker types.

The problem with macs for me is that it cost me around $1800 to get in a mac what I can get in a PC for $900.

The part that really shits me is the nonsense mac dealers go on with - there is no competition amongst mac dealers as they are restricted by geographic area from competing with each other.

They have ridiculous prices on "mac approved" hardware such as hard drive - all hard drives are manufactured by a couple of companies in the world. A hard drive is by and large a hard drive - paying $300 for a "mac" hard drive that costs $90 as a normal hard drive is a bit much to take - same with RAM and other stuff. Plus they make macs almost impossible to upgrade anything yourself.

With PCs I want a 2 TB HD I just buy one unscrew case and plonk it in - no way with a mac. The cd/dvd drive has stuffed up in our big mac - its built in - so it would have to go to the rude arrogant Mac dealer for replacing with a "mac approved" cd/dvd player - min = $250. PC cd/dvd drive goes - I go out and buy one for less than $100 and plonk it in myself in 10 minutes.

And so on and so forth.

The only reason I run windows instead of Linux with Open office etc - all FREE and open source btw - is that a lot of places I work with run windows only and have no idea of standards or compatibility issues.

If I get a document /spreadsheet/ presentation/ database from one who hasn't a clue and it wont open properly on my machine - or vice versa then the dumbed down place doesn't want to now its really their issue - I have to be able to conform.

Otherwise I'd be running linux and open source. My eeePC runs on linux etc.

I would also recommend having a live boot CD /DVD linux that will run the whole OS and applications off a CD/DVD - I carry one in my bag always - so that if your windows goes down or is infected you can plonk in the CD and run the machine from the CD/DVD player independent of whatever crap is on the hard drive of pc. That way you can rescue files from corrupted drives etc to a USB or send them over network or by email from inside the live boot linux programs.