Dear People,
Once upon a time I blithely attempted to download an
innocent song for my grandchildren from an innocent looking site called BearShare. Immediately my anti-virus
software sent me a message warning me of a suspicious virus, so I cancelled the
download, and went to run the virus scan. Strangely, that had been
disabled, but I got it up and running again, but it was unable to detect any
virus. Then I discovered that BearShare had substituted its home page for mine in
internet explorer. I began to get nervous, and tried to uninstall the BearShare files, but they refused
to budge. I then engaged the services of my regular computer technician
who spent a half a day working on my computer via remote control, at the end of
which time, BearShare had
been uninstalled, but it had taken large chunks of my Windows Vista operating
system with it. It then took the technicians another three days working
on the computer before everything (?) was fixed. Everything, that is,
apart from the past two years worth of Windows Updates that still had to be
re-loaded, certain other items of software, and my preferred settings for
everything in Microsoft Office. All my macros have disappeared and will
have to be rewritten.
Fortunately, I ensured all my data was backed up onto my external
back-up drive before the technicians took my computer away, so I have not lost
any of my photos (I think), but I still have to keep going back to it for bits
and pieces that have not been brought back to my C:\
I am too embarrassed to tell you what it cost me dollarwise,
but in total I have been six days without a computer, and expect things to be
pretty slow going for a few more days as I rewrite macros and readjust all the
settings back to the way I had them.
Just in case you didn’t get the name of the source of
the virus, it is BearShare
avoid it like the
plague.
Feel free to
forward this message, but please copy the text into a new message, as I
don’t want my email address being circulated further. Thank you.
