Computer virus, you gotta love 'em

[Phil Thien]

If it wasn't just hysteria, what was the virus you supposedly had? If you actually had a virus, the Norton technician would have made a big deal about telling you that you did.

We don't typically waste time trying to tell clients what they had, they wouldn't understand anyhow.

[Rick Christopherson]

We don't typically waste time trying to tell clients what they had, they wouldn't understand anyhow.

But you're not Norton. They do, because it solidifies the meaning of their existence in the minds of the subscriber that pays them money. That's the same reason why they make such a big deal out of trivial things, like, "hey we found a tracking cookie on your computer".

The point is that the majority of people that assume their computer has a virus do not have a virus. I'm not saying they are not out there. But the infection rate is far lower than most people believe.

[Tom Stenzel]

If you're running XP, run regedit and change
HKLM:Software:Microsoft:Windows NT:CurrentVersion:Winlogin:allocatecdroms to 1.

Thanks Phil.

Just gotta love SMC, get good help without asking!

-Tom

[Phil Thien]

But you're not Norton. They do, because it solidifies the meaning of their existence in the minds of the subscriber that pays them money. That's the same reason why they make such a big deal out of trivial things, like, "hey we found a tracking cookie on your computer".

The point is that the majority of people that assume their computer has a virus do not have a virus. I'm not saying they are not out there. But the infection rate is far lower than most people believe.

I can't agree with that.

The Norton tech probably won't reach-out for a convo after they're done because there is no upside. Tell the person you found "xyz.123" and they may come back with "well, I had Norton, why didn't it prevent this?" Now you have to explain zero-day viruses yada yada yada. Next they want to know if their bank accounts were compromised, if they need to change all their passwords. Those conversations can go on for thirty minutes to an hour.

And on the issue of whether people assume they're infected when they're not, I really don't get a lot of that. It happens. But I'd say it is a far greater occurrence that someone asks me to look at something ("I can't print") and I see obvious signs of an underlying infection.

[Ole Anderson]

If it wasn't just hysteria, what was the virus you supposedly had? If you actually had a virus, the Norton technician would have made a big deal about telling you that you did.

Excuse me? What point are you trying to make? Virus, malware, whatever, my computer was rendered useless and now I have it back. Resurrected might be the best single word term. The problem, as explained by the Norton tech, and as I already explained if you took the time to read, was with someone installing a (insert: virus, malware, whatever) on my computer that replicated the rundll.exe files with the description com surrogate. And it showed up when the "System infected: Trojan.AdClicker Activity" as well as another Norton message started showing up every time I opened up my laptop. And that was the straw that broke the camel's back. There was 5 years of accumulated "malware" and miscellaneous junk that was also removed. Was it from some action I took while trying to use my computer? Probably. Or maybe not. Semantics.

And after 5 hours the second time and removing multiple issues, the tech wasn't interested in spending 2 more hours going over exactly what he did. He wanted to either go home or get on to the next customer as I bet he gets paid by the case. Nor did I want to listen as his Indian accent was so thick I would have only understood 30% of what he said. I finally ended up communicating through the log he was posting as he went.