Now, for those of you that read the update you may know that I have recently survived a
computer attack. Now, having survived this attack I've come up with a few tips for you
to use which we will go over later. So, I was looking to download an ISO for my PSP
the problem was, i couldn't find any. Well, i thought, i'll go download limewire,
download it, and then uninstall it. So I downloaded limewire, I found a file that seemed
to be exactly what i wanted. I downloaded it. When i unzipped it i found out it had a "Setup.exe"
file in it. "hmmm" i thought, for this seemed strange that an ISO file would have an EXE file.
However i ran it anyways.
When i double clicked on the file, a screen came up, telling me something or another was corrupt.
this is when i realized, "@%#$!" I got this sinking feeling, all the sudden my mouse pointer
got the little hour glass next to it, even though i wasn't loading anything. "Crap, crap crap!"
I then watched as my computer changed, first my wallpaper changed, then i got a search bar on my
start bar, and shortcuts started popping up all over the place. "@#$#! @#$#! !@#$%^$^!" I thought as
i watched in horror. This is when i immediatly unplugged my internet adapter, a smart move, which would
no longer allow the program to download any more crap. Then, in the bottom right corner, a windows
balloon popped up telling me i had been infected with spyware, and click here to solve the problem
I began to see a glittler of hope in getting out of this mess. I clicked the balloon and a program
called brave sentry popped up, and began to search for the spyware. "hurray" i thought, i went downstairs
to tell my dad what had happened, he said to me "uh oh, you better go make sure that removal program isn't
the spyware." "hah" i thought, for windows itself had alerted me of the problem! there was no way
it could have been fake. However i went downstairs on our second computer to look on google and make sure
it was real. 10 seconds later i ran up the stairs yelling out "It's fake! it's fake! it's fake!"
I went upstairs and tried to hit control alt delete, so i could close the processes of the virus.
I became scared when nothing happened. "@#$$^#$^%@$$!#$@#%@!!!!!!" I thought, but i had one more trick
up my sleeve, i hit start, run, and typed in cmd, the command interpereter for the operating system,
i figured if i could get into this, i could stop the virus. A window popped up with the following message
"cmd is not a valid win32 application" I stared at the screen, my mouth gaping open as i futily tried
control alt delete again. I xed out of brave sentry and ran downstairs to go find out how to remove
it, i printed out the instructions and sprinted up the stairs, breathless. I looked over and saw my
dad sitting there, a black screen in front of him, and a frown on his face. He uttered to me 2 words.
"It's dead"
We shut it down, and restarted it, this time, I turned to the final option, full, destructive, system
recover. This would format my whole computer, and destroy every file. Then reinstall the OS and everything
back to like it was out of the box. Well, it worked, and right now i'm typing on my computer which
no longer has my music, my programs, my school work, or anything else.
What can i do?
Right now, if you have limewire, go uninstall it. Get if OFF your computer, limewire is littered with
viruses, in fact, this is probably the third time i've had to get rid of a virus from stupid limewire.
Get some sort of virus protection program, I personally have Norton, and mcaffee. Also keep these
programs up to date. Don't think you can do without them, and survive off your computer skills,
thats what i thought and thats why i got that virus.
Stay away from illegal downloading! Even if it's not from limewire, illegal downloading also
has tons of viruses, plus, I take a strong morale stand against stealing, even if it is just
software, don't do it.
Avoid running .exe files that you aren't entirely sure of, these are almost the only files that
can have viruses in them, so avoid them whenever possible.
Other than that, avoid software thats a little sketchy, try to stick to name brand software,
and you should be fine, i hope....
Last resort, the system restore
Ok, let's say you've got a terrible virus, it's totally taken over,and you've tried just
about anything else. It's time for a system restore. When you boot up your computer
before you even load the operating system (before the windows screen comes up) you should
see the option to press something such as F11 or some other F number. Press this key repeatedly
to go into system restore mode. Once in here, if worst come to worsts, and the virus has totally
taken over, do a full, destructive system restore, this will delete ALL FILES, and restore back
to like it was when you bought it. Just follow the onscreen instructions and you should be fine.
keep in mind that my old windows 95 computer got bricked from doing this. So i only recommend it
as a last resort. Bear in mind that this also, based on your PC, could take up to like, 6 hours
or something totally ridiculous, however for me it probably took about half an hour.
Hope you enjoyed the tutorial, good luck!
- Ataxic Wolf
