Windows Vista Sidebar Gadgets are Pretty Pointless

…and yet I wrote one anyway, just to try it out: App Killer

Stopping VirusRemover2008

Once again some major fool has created more work for me…this time, a client intemperately clicking a link in Huffingtonpost.com’s comment section has installed an app called ViruRemover2008, supposedly an antiviral program, but in reality an annoying piece of malware.  Pop-ups continually distract you indicating that there are viruses on your computer.  To ‘fix’ this problem, you are advised to purchase the full version of VirusRemover2008.  VR2008 will never stop asking you, and will not allow itself to be uninstalled.  This is a business model?

So I spent some time trying to remove the program fragments in the manner suggested at Symantec.com, but I never did find them.  SAV might have found and deleted them by the time I arrived on the scene, or the VR2008 author may have read the same page and changed his code.  The virus was only active in a single user’s profile, so the actual fix was:

• let Symantec AV do its thing
• copy the user’s profile
• delete the user’s profile
• after making sure the problem is gone, restore the user’s desktop items and internet favorites.

So far, that has worked.  Try not to get too angry.

Installing Infotrieve Ariel under Windows Vista

I wrote a little instruction set for this task, since it was a bit of a pain.  You can download the MS Word Doc from the URL:

http://www.indiana.edu/~libcasd/ariel-vista.doc.

/updated 7/24/2008

The Daily WTF – Library IT edition

Definitely check out today’s Daily WTF for an example of what happens to coders who try to meet every contingency.