Your internet could be gone July 9th.

Rising Dead Man · Post by **Rising Dead Man** » Sun Jul 08, 2012 10:49 pm

You people must of heard this by now. It's scary because I'm a total internet addict.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/254279/f ... paign.html

Spookymufu · Post by **Spookymufu** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 12:37 am

And you can use this site to check and see if you've been infected

http://dns-ok.us/

NeverMore · Post by **NeverMore** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 1:31 am

They estimate only around half a million computers world-wide are infected. Chances are pretty low that any of us would be affected. Doesn't hurt to be sure though.

Pumpkin_Man · Post by **Pumpkin_Man** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 8:49 am

My hard drive on my home computer completely crashed, and I mean it went out with a "bang." It started making this horendous noise, and a little smoke came out, and then the "blue screen of death" came up but with nothing on it at all. just a blue screen. I opened up my PC, and the hard drive actualy had a few puffs of smoke comming out of it. At any rate, I am going to need a new hard drive, and I am likely going to have to pay for an operating system, and all of my softwear I lose, not to mention everything that I saved to that drive. At least the really important things were backed up to CD ROM.

Mike

NeverMore · Post by **NeverMore** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 11:24 am

That's a bummer Mike. Good thing you backed up! You just don't realize how irritating it is to have something like that happen until you discover you've lost all your carefully organized internet favorites and your contacts, if you still use an offline email program. Most people don't back those up. Then like you said, having to reinstall your OS and update it, then your programs, then transfer all your files back.

You sure you don't have your install disks laying around, or did all that stuff come preinstalled on the computer? I hate that!

Did you know Windows 8 is coming out in a few months? October. It might be worth waiting. Then again, Windows 8 is going to be drastically different than anything that came before, you'd have to learn new ways of doing things. It may ultimately be easier though. I like it. Been using it for months. They're still fine tuning it for working with a mouse. It's more geared towards touch screens.

Problem with going with Windows 7 is that eventually they are going to stop supporting it, sort of the situation Windows XP users are in right now. Once they stop supporting an operating system the hackers have free reign to break in. I did read if you buy a computer with Windows 7 on it you can get the upgrade really cheap. Maybe it will be the same if you buy the Windows 7 install disks?

When you get your hard disk, before you decide what to buy, you can give Windows 8 a try by going here and downloading the consumer preview. You'll obviously have to download and burn it to a disk on another computer. It will only work until a certain date but you can experiment with it and see if you like it. If you don't, just erase the drive and install Windows 7, or Windows 3.1 if you like. Hee hee. No hackers trying to break into Windows 3.1 since no one uses it anymore.

Morticia · Post by **Morticia** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 1:27 pm

The detection site is no longer active.

NeverMore · Post by **NeverMore** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 4:50 pm

Morticia wrote:The detection site is no longer active.

It must have been overrun by traffic. The link Spooky left just worked for me. Though at this point, if someone was infected they wouldn't be able to view the site, or any site, anyway.

Spookymufu · Post by **Spookymufu** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 8:14 pm

Morticia wrote:The detection site is no longer active.

The site I posted is working, last night and earlier today it was taking forever to load tho.

Pumpkin_Man · Post by **Pumpkin_Man** » Tue Jul 10, 2012 10:39 am

NeverMore, My home computer is a Compaq Pressario which I was given as a Christmas present back in 08 It came with Vista already installed. There were no back up CD ROMS with it, so I am pretty much going to have to start from scratch. I'll have to look into Windows 8, but before I install any softwear, I have to be sure that I have enough RAM. Some operating systems require more then others, and I need a lot more softwear on my computer then just the operating system. I don't think RAM will be a problem. the bad news is, however, that there are no additional expansion slots to install more RAM like I have with my e-machine, which was hit by a bogus security softwear virus which hyjacks the computer until you click on their link and send them money. I bought the e-machine in 06, but it has expansion slots for the addition of more RAM. I like dht Compaq better, though, because it has a CD/DVD burner.

Mike

NeverMore · Post by **NeverMore** » Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:19 am

Bummer Mike. Presarios usually come with a restore partition, which does no good if the hard drive is physically damaged. I hate it when they don't give disks! I've dealt with lots of Compaqs and HPs.

What I always do when I set up a new computer is install the operating system (if it's not already) and apply all updates, then I install all the required programs and apply any updates for those. Next I adjust any system settings to preference. Before I copy the user data to the hard drive I use a program like Acronis True Image Home to make a disk image of the system drive.

If there's a system crash, or the computer just gets bogged down with junk or viruses, the system can instantly be restored to original. You'll just have to restore your data, apply updates, and install any minor programs you collected since the initial system backup. With Acronis, you can do the backup to a hidden partition but again, if the drive goes bad, the backup will be inaccessible. Safer to do it to DVDs. I usually make multiple copies in case a DVD goes bad.

I store my user files on another hard drive so I don't have to copy the files back. Just have to update the location of my Documents, Pictures, Music, ect system folders. This also makes it easier to back up my files. I just set up Acronis to back up the whole user disk on a set schedule, when I'm not using the computer. Once you do the initial backup it will just record the changes since the last backup.

As for Windows 8, it has pretty much the same system requirements as Windows 7 and Vista. If your computer was running Vista it should work with 8. Might be a problem finding drivers since Compaq/HP uses proprietary hardware.

Interesting thing I read about Windows 8... you can install it and all your programs on a thumbdrive and carry your computer system in your pocket. Just put the thumbdrive in any PC and you can boot up to your own computer environment. No more need to carry a laptop. I've yet to read anything on whether this works as advertised but it will be cool if it does. I guess you'd need a big thumbdrive if you have a lot of programs and files. I see no reason it wouldn't work on an external USB hard drive.

Pumpkin_Man · Post by **Pumpkin_Man** » Wed Jul 11, 2012 8:25 am

A lot of softwear,now a days, is only available vie the web. The bad news is, that if you can't access the web because of a virus or a hard drive failure, which is my case, then your only option is to run a disc and reinstal everything. At any rate, I have a mortgage payment due, so I am going to have to wait until my next payday before I can even start planning my repair. I know that a new hard drive is not very expensive, but I'm not too sure abut what a replacement for Vista or Windows 8 is going to cost.

Mike

NeverMore · Post by **NeverMore** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 6:59 pm

Anyone who doesn't already have a Microsoft email go grab one now. They've opened up the outlook.com domain, and the names are going fast! This could be your chance to get an email address with your name in it. Just go to outlook.com and sign up for a new account. You'll have to make sure you're signed out of your hotmail or live account if you have one.

The reason this is important is because your online identity will be tightly integrated into future versions of Windows. Since your email address will be prominently displayed on the desktop it's not a bad idea to get one you like instead of one that has a bunch of numbers after it. Remember the old AOL days?

Most of the good names are taken on hotmail.com and live.com so outlook.com is your best bet. I got two of the three personal names I wanted. I don't know if Microsoft will someday let you sign into Windows using another email provider but I didn't want to take the chance.

If you're never going to buy a new computer or upgrade to a new version of Windows, or if you use Linux or Apple products this is no big thing.

Welcome to the cloud, the future of computing.

Spookymufu · Post by **Spookymufu** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 7:36 pm

mine has always been "Spookymufu@(domain).com"

Boogeyman · Post by **Boogeyman** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 8:21 pm

Mine has always been KoRnymisfit@(noneofyourdamnbusiness).com. I had that back when AOL was the main IP. Never have had a problem since.

NeverMore · Post by **NeverMore** » Wed Aug 01, 2012 3:03 am

I just noticed you can sign on to Windows 8 with a local account, no need for a Microsoft email address. You do however lose the ability to sync your settings and files between your other computers and devices. So basically it's business as usual once you get past the interface changes.

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