PM Computers

Keep It Real - Windows Genuine Advantage

This week on The PM Computers show, we cleaned out a laptop for a local business woman. it was filled with all sorts of malware like funwebproducts, mywaysearch, and minibug. i was lucky it didn’t have anything serious like smitfraud or vundo. After I got all of this cleaned using safe-mode, I started applying updates. This is when the fun began. Live update started complaining because Norton had been violated. I then pointed the system towards Windows update. It turns out the system did not pass The Windows Genuine Advantage test. Microsoft was nice enough however to let me install XP service pack 2. it was at this point I decided this had gone beyond a routine cleaning. I Immediately requested the original OEM restore discs from the customer. (People never give you these unless you ask). Later this week i will be doing a full backup and restore of the system. The laptop has a sticker for XP Home - the system was running XP Professional SP 1. It turns our a friend of the family offered to upgrade/look at the laptop before they brought it to me.

I’m writing this post to remind people to keep it real. You will save your self a lot of headaches and frustration in the long run if you are running a real version of Windows. it allows you to keep up to date, prevents you from becoming a zombie bot, and could even protect against identity theft.

Updating for Linux users is a whole ‘nother story. Upgrading the the latest kernel can sometimes wreak havoc with you hardware setup if you are not careful. I’m going to keep this post Windows only.