New Comp or OS?

[Chazumi]

Situation: Bought a new computer from newegg, pretty beastly rig. No issues with it.

Deployed to Afghanistan.

Mid-tour leave I have a virus (thanks wife), can't figure it out. Pay an egghead 180 bucks to come out and even he has a hard time but eventually figures it out. (quoting him: "It set fire to my virtual grassland that is my registry").

Computer works so-so.

Go back to Afghanistan, wife says theres another virus.

SHOULD I:

Spring for a new computer when I get back, or just upgrade to Window's 7 (edition?) [Re-installing the OS would remove the virus right?]

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Reinstalling would work but zero-out the drive first, just to get rid of any leftover nasties. DBAN can do this. Make sure to save anything you want to keep!

 

[Chazumi]

Reinstalling would work but zero-out the drive first, just to get rid of any leftover nasties. DBAN can do this. Make sure to save anything you want to keep!

Thanks for the quick reply!

I'm sure theres another thread about this but what are opinions on Windows 7 and other OS's?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Most people like Windows 7, it seems to me. A lot of people hate Vista but I use it myself and I like it, plus the fact that a lot of complaints about Vista came from people who upgraded their XP boxes without taking system requirements into mind.

If you want to see the GUIs, there's screenshots available here:
http://toastytech.com/guis/indexwindows.html

EDIT: Also, I should mention that you don't actually NEED to zero-out the drive, just erase the partition or something, but it's a good idea so you don't accidentally bring it back up with a data recovery program. (Believe it or not, it's easier to accidentally delete stuff and have to use one than you think, and I do know of one case of accidentally recovering a virus -- luckily it was caught before it did any damage)

 

[Fëanor]

Go for Windows 7 and give your wife an account without Administrator rights, it will reduce the amount of vulnerabilities by 90%. (An anti virus is still a MUST, i use AVG Free)

Ninety percent of critical Microsoft Windows 7 vulnerabilities can be mitigated by configuring the operating system for standard user rather than administrator, according to a new report released on Monday.

Removing administrator rights would also protect against exploitation of all of the Office holes reported last year, 94 percent of Internet Explorer (IE) flaws — including 100 percent of IE8 flaws reported last year — and 64 percent of all Microsoft vulnerabilities reported in that time period

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Most people like Windows 7, it seems to me. A lot of people hate Vista but I use it myself and I like it, plus the fact that a lot of complaints about Vista came from people who upgraded their XP boxes without taking system requirements into mind.

If you want to see the GUIs, there's screenshots available here:
http://toastytech.com/guis/indexwindows.html

EDIT: Also, I should mention that you don't actually NEED to zero-out the drive, just erase the partition or something, but it's a good idea so you don't accidentally bring it back up with a data recovery program. (Believe it or not, it's easier to accidentally delete stuff and have to use one than you think, and I do know of one case of accidentally recovering a virus -- luckily it was caught before it did any damage)

With a virus, it's actually a better practice to completely wipe the drive, not just format. Some viruses are sneaky basterds and will hide in places not cleaned by a format.

 

[Zelig]

I recommend a new wife.

 

[wabatt]

Have u tried just getting rid of the viruis? I am a strong beliver of http://malwarebytes.org/

 

[Chazumi]

Have u tried just getting rid of the viruis? I am a strong beliver of http://malwarebytes.org/

I bought malwarebytes awhile back and used it to clean the virus up (Internet Security 2010 virus).

After I deleted the infected files and restarted the computer it was impossible to connect to the internet or access registry files (I ended up having to use the command prompt and a file downloaded on another computer to even be able to access the registry).