Tuesday, January 04, 2005
When spyware's incurable: funny story about erasing computer
New York Times writer Rachel Dodes did a backup, format, and reinstall on her laptop when she couldn't remove all the spyware. How did she decide it was time to give up everything, wipe the slate and start over? She says "My friend the bankruptcy lawyer convinced me".
The article is funny and informative, but I saw one glaring omission. She backed up My Documents, My Pictures, and My Music before wiping her computer clean. If that's all you do then you may lose your old email. Microsoft Outlook stores your email outside the My Documents folder, in a folder called Application Data. A few non-Microsoft programs store data in the same folder as the program. Make sure you know where everything you need lives before erasing your hard disk.
Go read her article. I can't do it justice. She writes about computer security as well as the best of Doonesbury -- irreverent, funny, and with the devastating accuracy of a rapier through the aorta.
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The article is funny and informative, but I saw one glaring omission. She backed up My Documents, My Pictures, and My Music before wiping her computer clean. If that's all you do then you may lose your old email. Microsoft Outlook stores your email outside the My Documents folder, in a folder called Application Data. A few non-Microsoft programs store data in the same folder as the program. Make sure you know where everything you need lives before erasing your hard disk.
Go read her article. I can't do it justice. She writes about computer security as well as the best of Doonesbury -- irreverent, funny, and with the devastating accuracy of a rapier through the aorta.
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