Anti-virus software is supposed to protect you from having your PC trashed, but one dodgy update is all it takes to put your PC out of actions.
That’s what happened to BitDefender customers this weekend after an update sent on Saturday resulted in key system files on 64-bit versions of Windows to be quarantines, resulting in an unbootable system.
Users are understandably angry, and many claim to have lost faith in the product. It’s not surprising really given the scale of the damage caused to some systems. While some users had to reinstall their PCs completely from scratch in order to get back up and running, others had to pay to have their systems fixed. Others are likely to still be off-the-grid trying to figure out what to do next.
I wonder how many of our readers were nailed by this update?
Thanks to John E. Quantum on Cage Match.
I always find it a bit amusing when people say “But I’ve never got a virus.” The last person that told me that needed me to set up some networking for them. I opened a terminal and typed in ipconfig, I got back thirty lines of garbage text.
BitDefender is running my system and hasn’t crash with any updates. So I’m not too sure about the story. I have at least 8 others pcs that have been updated as well and none has crashed.
Whatever the reason, listen to #4 and go to DU’s software discussion section and review the list of helpful and free software one SHOULD have.
The BitDefender update got me good today, also, so it’s not really me posting.
Buy a USB hard drive for a hundred bucks.
Download and install Drive Image XML Use it to create a back up of your system on the new hard drive, the whole dang thing, a bit for bit copy. When you make a major change, like when CS-5 is installed next month, do it again.
Now beg borrow or steal a real windows system disk, not one of those OEM things.
With it create a BartPE disk. Search for info on PEBuilder..
If your as intelligent as you let on when posting here, you have the ultimate back up system. And you can continue to use the wide array of software available for the PC without giving everything up to be shoehorned into what Steve Jobs will let you use at his outrageous prices.
I don’t use shitty anti-virus programs. eSet NOD32 is the only thing good enough for people who know what they are doing.