Yesterday I removed some malware called ThinkPoint from a coworker’s laptop, and after removing the virus and installing Microsoft Security Essentials I received the following error when I tried to run it: This happens because the virus adds popular antivirus applications to a list of restricted programs on your computer. Even though the virus was gone the restriction was not.  To solve this problem, open REGEDIT and delete the key \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\DisallowRun.

Starting this spring I will be teaching a four-hour crash course on home PC maintenace at SUN Area Career & Technology Center. Because of the length of the course and the unavailability of a good, no-nonsense text on the subject, I’ll be creating the course materials myself and making them available for free online. The main goal of this course is to teach home PC maintainence from a proactive perspective.  Users will learn safe computer [...]

As a small-time computer consultant I’ve dealt with dozens of customers who bring me computers loaded with viruses and spyware.  I’m of the school of thought that a reformat is never neccessary, that–given enough work–any infestation can be overcome.  But there is a point of diminishing returns, and I’d like to know where others think that point lies. I’ve arbitrarily decided that at my current rates it’s no longer worth my customer’s hard-earned money to [...]

It happens at least once a week: a client, friend, or relative calls me in a panic and proceeds to explain, often in colorful terms, that their computer is acting strangely and they’re afraid that they’ve caught a virus. I listen calmly, then make a trip to their home or business to diagnose the problem for myself. In my experience one, maybe two of these calls out of ten actually result in the discovery of [...]