LolaGeek

Let’s hope so! I spent all night last night and tonight trying to get this junk off my computer. I was hardly even able to watch the Duggars! Anyway, if you’re curious, here’s what I did:

• Started with McAfee, the antivirus software I always had. However, the virus disabled it and it wasn’t able to run a scan or anything. I found one file right on C:\ that was dated with the date and time I know I got infected, and the filename was just a bunch of numbers and letters. Deleted and emptied trash, and McAfee ran again. It said I was clear, but…
• Ran Kaspersky free virus scan, which found two trojan files. The free scan doesn’t let you fix, only view the files and what they are. I couldn’t find them by searching on the computer, though. So I looked up the filenames on Google to see if I could find anything that would remove them. One thing that said it would was…
• Spyware Doctor – it’s got good reviews and is free to download, but you need to pay if you want it to fix things. I’m not sure if I’ll keep it or not (they offer a 30 day guarantee). It found and repaired a ton of stuff that McAfee didn’t even notice. However, I downloaded it because I wanted to delete those trojan files, and after I ran the full scan twice (and repaired everything), I ran Kaspersky again and it found the same two trojans plus three more!
• At the recommendation of, like, everyone, I downloaded Malwarebytes Anti-Malware – free and works great! I tried running a full scan a couple times, but it kept freezing. So I ran the quick scan, and it found and repaired a bunch of stuff. In order to complete the repair, I had to restart my computer.
• Upon restarting, I got a whole bunch of pop-ups from McAfee that it had found and removed all those trojans! I ran Kaspersky one more time, since it seems to find things nothing else does, and it all came up clean! So… Kaspersky I definitely recommend and Malwarebytes I definitely recommend. Spyware Doctor I could take or leave, maybe try it and see if it helps you.
• One more thing: download HijackThis – it generates a log of stuff on your computer… maybe if you’re an IT professional you could make sense of it, if not there’s lots of internet forums where volunteers analyze people’s logs and tell them how to fix anything that appears wrong. (HJT will also fix things for you, if you know what you’re doing.) The people on the forums take a while to respond, though. I found this great guy on Twitter, @savemejames, who was so helpful and checked my log file via e-mail right away.

• As you all know, my heart is going crazy. I do feel like I’m slowly getting better, but even the cardiologist was stumped by some symptoms, so who knows what’s wrong with me.
• The ants came back. Friday morning I saw the cats freaking out around their food dish, and discovered it was covered with tiny ants, as has happened before. I dumped everything, cleaned the whole area (bowls, mat, floor) and put out an ant trap. I hate using the traps, because I have to tape them to the floor so the cats don’t mess with them, and even then I usually find them all chewed up in the middle of the floor after a while. The cats have survived, though. The ants are greatly reduced now, so hopefully they go away again soon.
• My car clunk. How dangerous is it to be driving around with a broken front coil spring? Can’t be that dangerous if Ford knew about it and didn’t issue a recall, right? Anyway, it’s fixed now, but my car still kind of makes creaking noises going over uneven surfaces. I just turn up the volume on the radio…
• My watch battery died, I noticed yesterday when I was dropping off my car. I’d get it repaired, but the watch was like $12 at Target, it’s probably cheaper to just buy a whole new watch.
• I got some horrible computer virus last night. I was visiting the web site of a wind ensemble that a lot of people in my band also play with, and it started downloading something to my computer! I closed everything, but it was too late. From my research I learned that this thing installs viruses/trojans and also a fake antivirus software that it then makes you purchase to “repair” your computer. Luckily I had a system restore point from Saturday, I found a few files to delete, and I ran a bunch of antivirus stuff. I am probably okay at this point, but I was up until 1 AM cleaning this up (and couldn’t go to sleep for a long time, and then got up at 5 like usual). Still waiting to hear back from some virus experts, and until then I’m paranoid that there’s a keylogger or something running on my computer. (Also I really need to start backing up my files. I keep meaning to get an external hard drive to do this.)
• Did I mention I only got like two hours of sleep last night? Today’s going to be really fun…
• There are random little things falling apart all around our house, and I can’t get ahold of anyone to fix them. Doesn’t anyone answer their phone? If you’re running a business, wouldn’t you think that’s important?
• The sweater I was going to wear to work today fell into the cats’ water bowl in our bedroom, so I had to take a different one.
• I’ve had a giant pimple in the middle of my face for like a week now, and it just keeps getting worse and worse. I’m waiting for it to reach the crest and start to get better.

At least one piece of good news… We still haven’t had to set up our air conditioners for the summer yet! Just when it starts to get uncomfortably hot, we get a rainy day and everything cools off again. This is great, usually it’s a struggle just to wait until after Memorial Day.