Virus Fixes/MS Office Source

[ChileMass]

OK - I have finally had enough. You geeks may laugh at my incompetence, but I cannot figure out how to get all the viruses, pop-ups and other crap out of my home computer and it's getting worse. My computer is hijacked by some pop-up about every 15 seconds, and I have had it. The combination of Norton, AdWare and Spybot cannot seem to kill everything in the system, and I am worried I am being actively spied on (who knows?).

So I am contacting a local "PC Doctor" to do a housecall and clean out my system.

3 questions -

1 - what should I do in advance about backing stuff up that I want to keep? Should I try to do this myself or pay to have the "PC Doctor" do it? I'm capable of burning my own CDs, so I'm guessing that will take care of it.

2 - are there any particular PC Doctor/housecall geeks in the Framingham/Worcester area that anyone knows of that are reputable and don't charge $300/hr? Some of the quotes I have gotten are high ($165-275/hour plus any applicable software). Are any of the national service providers (esp Geeks on Call) any good?

3 - I originally got my installation of MS Office (XP Pro 2003) from a former employer and do not have the disk. A new MS Office package at Staples is $400. There are a zillion discount software vendors online that offer cheap versions of Office, but I don't want to get ripped off by buying a copy that is illegal and can't be upgraded. Any recommendations for a software source that is reliable, legal and cheap?

Thanks for the help - any other recommendations are appreciated.

[Greg]

Originally Posted by ChileMass

1 - what should I do in advance about backing stuff up that I want to keep? Should I try to do this myself or pay to have the "PC Doctor" do it? I'm capable of burning my own CDs, so I'm guessing that will take care of it.

Depending on how much data you have, you might be able to put it on CDs. Probably a better solution would be to pick a a second hard drive and backup all data to that. They're simple to install. Chances are any EIDE hard drive will work unless it's a new machine with SATA drives. What model is the PC? Don't forget about backing up things like bookmarks, address books, Email, etc...

Originally Posted by ChileMass

2 - are there any particular PC Doctor/housecall geeks in the Framingham/Worcester area that anyone knows of that are reputable and don't charge $300/hr? Some of the quotes I have gotten are high ($165-275/hour plus any applicable software). Are any of the national service providers (esp Geeks on Call) any good?

If I was closer I would do it for you. It's not hard to reformat and reinstall Windows. It's simply a matter of booting to a Windows CD, reformatting the partition and reinstalling. The end result is a nice clean stock Windows installation. You'll then need to update it and reinstall all your applications.

Originally Posted by ChileMass

3 - I originally got my installation of MS Office (XP Pro 2003) from a former employer and do not have the disk. A new MS Office package at Staples is $400. There are a zillion discount software vendors online that offer cheap versions of Office, but I don't want to get ripped off by buying a copy that is illegal and can't be upgraded. Any recommendations for a software source that is reliable, legal and cheap?

I'm not sure of your working environment right now, but if you use Office at work, that license entitles you to install a copy of it at home. Check with your IT guys at work.

[ctenidae]

I'm not sure of your working environment right now, but if you use Office at work, that license entitles you to install a copy of it at home. Check with your IT guys at work.

Interesting. How solid is that legal interpretation? I like it.

[Greg]

Originally Posted by ctenidae

I'm not sure of your working environment right now, but if you use Office at work, that license entitles you to install a copy of it at home. Check with your IT guys at work.

Interesting. How solid is that legal interpretation? I like it.

Read the EULA. This used to be the case. It might have changed.

[riverc0il]

try running those programs in safe mode to remove the crap. some of it will run on start up which prevents a proper removal from the system but iirc that stuff won't auto load in safe mode. worth a shot at least. it worked for me with some stuff i was trying to clean up.

[ALLSKIING]

Ad-aware has always worked for me to get rid of the popups. Have you done all the updates?

[BeanoNYC]

If I were you I'd try to contact the local college and see if some computer major can come over and fix it for you. I'm sure she or he will fix it on the cheap for you.