warning: My PC may be sick

[jim-ratliff]

Ouch, that smarts! Called a dumb blonde and a ponce in the same sentence.? The temptation to respond to this is great, but I don't want to start a p***ing contest.? Besides, if Gary gets involved, neither of us would win.

  I humbly bow to the the winner.? What a wonderful double play on the P___ing word while also tieing back to previous posts.? EXCELLENT.

[Perry]

Well, it happened again today when I was on this site!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YIKES, I just hate the random nature of this thing.? I think this dispels the nasty epic rumor.? I don't think it has anything to do with websites, just something deep in the bowels of my computer!! Sorry if I inconvenienced anyone.? Svend, go and research to your hearts content.

I put my 19 yo on it and we think we got it.? Perhaps the 3rd time is a charm.? I did what I was told and just restarted my computer.? It still loaded some stuff from the pop - up.

[Svend]

Hey Perry,
Well, I'm no computer genius, but whenever I have had a problem like this in the past, I've relied on a couple of programs to dig into the guts of my machine to either clean it out, or failing that, show me what's running in the background, find the nasties, and clean 'em out manually.? If this helps, here's what I've found works for me:

Security suite - Trend Micro PCCillin (anti-spyware; AV; firewall; etc.)

Process finder and malware killers - Hijack This; Dr. Web Cure It; McAfee Stinger; Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool; Spybot Search and Destroy

The former costs about $50 for 3 licenses; the latter are all freeware.? If you need links, I can dig some up for you.? Also, Trend Micro's website has a free scan called Housecall, which is said to be very effective.

Jim seems to know a lot about computers (is that your profession, Jim?), perhaps he can recommend something better or affirm the above.

Good luck!

[jim-ratliff]

Hmmm.  Yes, I work with computers (but so does everyone, including the accounting staff down the hall).   

Almost all of the major vendors have good products.  I've used McAfee Stinger recently.  No need to pay just for a scan tool, the free ones do very well, and is a good approach if the local A/V got turned off or corrupted.  The manufacturer web sites are also very good about providing information on how to get rid of some of the more "well written" virus/malware programs.

I do have a BS/MS in Computer Science along with a degree in Business Administration, but there are plenty of people on the street with greater detail knowledge of desktop stuff than me.

[Svend]

Very humble and modest, Jim. 
I think my computer knowledge pales in comparison to yours.  Mine is limited to keeping 3 PCs running smoothly in our (very) small office.  Basic stuff, but nothing deep.

[Perry]

Jim, I love how you renamed the thread.  So far today not a sniffle from my machine

[Svend]

Perry -- crossed my fingers, closed my eyes, and clicked on my Epic bookmark....no explosions, no meltdown...all is well.  Browsed around the site a bit, and checked my User CP...no glitches.  But thanks for the heads-up -- much appreciated.

[Philpug]

Not Mac users, are ya?

[Perry]

"Not Mac users, are ya?"

used to be, and would be but I must work on a windows based PC for my medical software.........bi te me (emotional response). Professional response is that I would prefer the mac over the Toshiba.  Next time I will get a Mac that is dual platform.  Then when I am at home looking at ski based web sites, I won't have to worry about crashing unless I am dreaming about tree skiing too fast

[Perry]

phil - please note that the previously ambiguous "bite me" is directed at the IT people at work who closed me out of my Mac.  I read it again and realized that it may be read as a hostile response to your post.

[Svend]

Regretfully, not a Mac user either.  I've got 17 years of business files formatted in PC software that I've been running -- WP, QPW, DOC, XLS -- that I could never switch at this point.  I would probably have to reformat all my templates...a nightmare.  Unless the Mac imports all these with the original formatting intact, I'm stuck.  Besides, some of my technical software isn't available for Mac -- Win XP only -- so I'm doubly stuck.

[jim-ratliff]

There is Virtual Machine software available for MAC that allows you to run a vritual XP (or VISTA or anything else Microsoft) on the MAC while the MAC is running in native mode (so much more versatile than a dual boot environment).? We've been running virtual Windows servers on Linux (actually VMWare) for several years with great success.? There is VMWare for MAC, but I believe Paul (one of my techs) found a freeware program and is running that on his MAC in order to have an XP window. I can get the name if anyone wants.

One of the really nice features is the ability to take checkpoints before any major upgrades.? If anything blows up, you just tell the virtual monitor to go back to the pre upgrade checkpoint while you research what went wrong.? Of course, the other is the flexibility to move virtual machines from one hardware host to another as the computing requirements change.? Upgrade without reloading the entire system.

[Svend]

Hmmm...that sounds promising.? Does that mean I can run technical software that can only be run in XP? One of them (an important one) uses MS-SQL server...is this also possible?

[jim-ratliff]

Hmmm...that sounds promising.? Does that mean I can run technical software that can only be run in XP? One of them (an important one) uses MS-SQL server...is this also possible?

Yes, and the SQL server could be installed on the XP "virtual machine" or could be running under Windows Server in a second virtual machine, the virtual machine software doesn't much care what OS is under it.? We have some smaller customers where we virtualized 2 or 3 smaller servers onto a single hardware box, such as an Exchange server and SQL server running as virtual machines on a Windows file server/host.? You need to pay attention to performance and processor utilization, but most windows server systems are typically 90% idle (on average).

Summary.? The host hardware can be running Windows Server/XP/Vista, VmWare, Linux, or MAC.? The virtual OS running under that host can also be all of the above and combinations of the above. (i.e. you can be running a Linux and Windows virtual machine under a Windows host system).

[Svend]

Cool...thanks Jim.? I will have to look into that, although I must say it sounds a bit daunting.? Like I said, I'm no computer wiz, and your tech talk kinda makes my eyes glaze over (don't take this personally -- just me being a bit tech-shy).? Is the setup of the VM software difficult to do? And how about getting the other software to run within it...also tricky to set up, or just as easy as loading into Windows? Can these machines also be networked with stand-alone Windows machines, or do they all have to be the same main platform (Mac, Linux....)?

The reason I ask, is that we're about to replace two of the four PCs here in the office -- my main machine, and my laptop.? Didn't really want to replace the other two at the same time for cost reasons.? For a mini company like ours (three people), buying four new Macs is a bit pricey.