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My girlfriend is still on her shitty HP laptop and it is so incredibly painful to watch her worry about viruses and malware on a daily basis. WTF is your gf do

My girlfriend is still on her shitty HP laptop and it is so incredibly painful to watch her worry about viruses and malware on a daily basis. WTF is your gf doing on a daily basis? Does she do reviews of shady porn sites? Install MSE (it's free) on your gf's computer and tell her not to install programs sent in email from people. Then tell her to stop worrying. And if she does do reviews of shady porn sites, tell her to use a VM.

cosgroveb 15y ago
This blame the user bullshit has to end. My own girlfriend got a virus (it was hostage-ware to be precise) last year and doesn't visit porn sites, runs up-to-date anti-virus, and keeps Windows up-to-date and patched. She knows better to run random shit sent to her via email. She's very defensive and doesn't even open an email that looks shady. It was probably a drive-by-download, Flash, PDF, or Java, I don't know. Running combofix, anti-spyware scanners, and everything I could find on forums didn't help. She wasn't happy that I had to wipe her HDD. It is painful to watch her worry about viruses.
- smackfu 15y ago
  All it takes is one or two mistakes. Typo in URL, click a link, blindly click past a prompt that you should be reading, and you have malware and you probably didn't even notice it, no matter how smart your girlfriend is.
  - isleyaardvark 15y ago
    Ad networks. Or just a reputable site screwing up. People often mention porn sites or incorrect urls, but it's worth repeating that the user doesn't necessarily have to do anything wrong.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- kenjackson 15y ago
  This blame the user bullshit has to end. Honestly, if you worry about viruses, it's your own fault. Period. Either get a different kind of computer. Don't use a computer. Or don't use the internet. Worrying about an event that isn't likely to happen with reasonable precautions is irrational. Sure zero-days happen that aren't patched yet, but those are rare. Nuclear meltdowns happen to, but I don't worry about it. My point wasn't that it was her fault for getting a virus. But rather why is she worrying about it on a daily basis? The only sensible rationale is that she's doing something where the risk is relatively high. And if it is painful to watch her worry about viruses, you should do something. Either get her to do something less risky -- whether its change OSes, stop using the internet, etc... Or get counseling for her. I've just never heard of someone so worried about it, and further never seen anyone in pain due to the irrational worries of computer viruses in a loved one. And I know I sound like a jerk for saying all of this, but honestly, I think you'd both be much happier with some relatively simple changes in life.
Caballera 15y ago
The real 'shitty' thing about HP, and many other Windows laptops isn't even the malware, it's the @#$@# that the manufactures pre-install on these laptops and desktops that they sell. Three years ago my gf and I ordered HP laptops and had to use a program called Crap Remover to get rid of all the Nortan Antivirus junk, the HP software bundled junk and all the preinstalled crapware junk they put on it. After that it ran fine (as fine as Vista got that is) with MSE.

cosgroveb 15y ago

This blame the user bullshit has to end. My own girlfriend got a virus (it was hostage-ware to be precise) last year and doesn't visit porn sites, runs up-to-date anti-virus, and keeps Windows up-to-date and patched. She knows better to run random shit sent to her via email. She's very defensive and doesn't even open an email that looks shady. It was probably a drive-by-download, Flash, PDF, or Java, I don't know. Running combofix, anti-spyware scanners, and everything I could find on forums didn't help. She wasn't happy that I had to wipe her HDD. It is painful to watch her worry about viruses.

smackfu 15y ago
All it takes is one or two mistakes. Typo in URL, click a link, blindly click past a prompt that you should be reading, and you have malware and you probably didn't even notice it, no matter how smart your girlfriend is.
- isleyaardvark 15y ago
  Ad networks. Or just a reputable site screwing up. People often mention porn sites or incorrect urls, but it's worth repeating that the user doesn't necessarily have to do anything wrong.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
kenjackson 15y ago
This blame the user bullshit has to end. Honestly, if you worry about viruses, it's your own fault. Period. Either get a different kind of computer. Don't use a computer. Or don't use the internet. Worrying about an event that isn't likely to happen with reasonable precautions is irrational. Sure zero-days happen that aren't patched yet, but those are rare. Nuclear meltdowns happen to, but I don't worry about it. My point wasn't that it was her fault for getting a virus. But rather why is she worrying about it on a daily basis? The only sensible rationale is that she's doing something where the risk is relatively high. And if it is painful to watch her worry about viruses, you should do something. Either get her to do something less risky -- whether its change OSes, stop using the internet, etc... Or get counseling for her. I've just never heard of someone so worried about it, and further never seen anyone in pain due to the irrational worries of computer viruses in a loved one. And I know I sound like a jerk for saying all of this, but honestly, I think you'd both be much happier with some relatively simple changes in life.

Caballera 15y ago

The real 'shitty' thing about HP, and many other Windows laptops isn't even the malware, it's the @#$@# that the manufactures pre-install on these laptops and desktops that they sell. Three years ago my gf and I ordered HP laptops and had to use a program called Crap Remover to get rid of all the Nortan Antivirus junk, the HP software bundled junk and all the preinstalled crapware junk they put on it. After that it ran fine (as fine as Vista got that is) with MSE.