It’s now 103,680 minutes and counting—that’s how long it’s been since I had a workable computer.
Okay, that’s an exaggeration. I’ve been working on my son’s computer all summer.
It’s just been 103,680 minutes since I’ve had my own computer to work on.
It is a sad saga, which I shared in Relapse. So Thursday, 72 days after my computer refused to boot up, I had it back. Just one problem— it was running in slow motion. Actually that makes it sound like it was going faster than it actually was.
Once again, I was standing at the counter at Geek Squad in the Minnetonka BestBuy. I listed the symptoms.
It was slow.
I kept getting messages that I had low disk space and that I needed to remove programs immediately.
I cleaned out my deleted email box. 800 emails from January.
I removed 300 songs from iTunes.
Nada.
One moment it said I had corrected the problem. The next it said I had low disk space.
The diagnosis —spyware.
The fact that my computer was suffering from an attack of spyware, took me by surprise .My Sony Vaio laptop with docking station and my son’s Gateway both have Spykiller installed and it runs every time the computers boot up.
Given the number of restarts a person has to go through in a typical business day because of Internet Explorer, Word or Microsoft Office encountering a problem, the computers are checked many times during the day.
So, every time I booted up, I got this phenomenal message, courtesy of
Spykiller that it had successfully annihilated (my word) hundreds of spies.
Having Spykiller made me feel like I was practicing safe sex for my computer.
So, when John, at Geek Squad said the problem was spyware…it was like being told I was pregnant after using the best prophylactics on the market.
“How is that possible, “I exclaimed, somewhat dumbfounded, “ I have Spykiller”
I knew I was in trouble when he said, “I’ve never heard of Spykiller.”
.
Here is where I realized I had been a dolt. The reason I bought Spykiller—it said it was rated the number one spy ware. That’s right. I relied on an advertising slogan to purchase my spyware. I didn't bother to read the Anti-Spyware Review 2004
If I had, I would have found that I had bought the Ford Pinto of Spyware software.
Actually, I had become quite suspicious of Spykiller just a couple of days ago .Despite its proclamations of getting rid of all spyware, I had succeeded in infecting my son’s computer with a Trojan horse that neither Norton’s Antivirus nor Spykiller could get rid of. Every time I clicked on a web page, it rerouted me to About: blank.
It was making me cranky, and I wanted an explanation from Spykiller.
Just one problem, Spykiller is taking their work so seriously that are apparently now working undercover.
They don’t have a customer service department. They don’t provide a phone number (I checked with the Houston 411) or an email address.
They do list a building address but I’ve watched enough episodes of Alias to know that that address is probably an abandoned warehouse.
That’s when it occurred to me that Spykiller might actually be a double agent. Oh sure, it got rid of some spyware but it’s just as possible that it’s a front to let the real nefarious spies like Trojan Horse 2nd Thought invade my computer.
Based on Geek Squad’s recommendation I bought Webroot’s Spy Sweeper. It's ranked number one on the 2004 review.
So far so good. It got rid of the Trojan Horse 2nd Thought. It identified 17 infected software, traces in 1,380 (I have no idea what that means) and tons of cookies.
After the sweep, I decided to uninstall Spykiller. I couldn’t. When I hit the uninstall button, I got the following message.
The item ‘iun6002.exe’ that this shortcut refers to has been changed or moved, so this shortcut will no longer work properly. Do you want to delete this shortcut?
It sounds like a trick question.
On the one hand I want Spykiller to leave. But given my current suspicion that it is actually a double agent; would saying yes cause even more computer damage?
I don’t know. I think I’ll ask Geek Squad when I pick up my computer. They say it will be ready tomorrow.
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