A non-OSNews-reader asks: "I've got 5 PCs that I'm trying to use to train disadvantaged young people. The problem is they are riddled with viruses and a firewall blocks me from updating them. The people in charge of maintaining the
PCs won't fix them or give me the admin password (Win XP) to let me
install a new or updated antivirus. The centre is being shut down in a
few months. If they were working, I could still do a lot with them, so I've been
looking for a good online virus scan - but they all try to download a
little .exe onto your PC first, and the settings on the PCs won't
allow that. Suggestions? Solutions? Links?" Read on for our recommendation. Update: It appears that this question is part of an elaborate email scam designed to propagate malware. See here for details.
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Member since:2006-11-19
Member since:1997-10-01
I wrote this article because this was actually something that was emailed to me personally, and after I wrote a response, I thought, "I bet other people have had a similar issue, and instead of just letting my answer float out into the ether, maybe I could get my advice, mixed with the good advice of a bunch of smart people, and immortalize it at OSNews."
The reason for this article is that I advise him to not be afraid to nuke those machines and install Linux on them (or reinstall Windows). Helping to spread the word about how people have OS options is what this site is all about, and although this reader isn't in OSNews' target audience, OSNews readers are just the the kind of folks who are best qualified to give all the people out there in this guy's position some words of wisdom.
Edited 2009-09-25 18:07 UTC
Member since:
2006-11-24
OK. So why did you make a news item out of something that is really a help forum request? - I don't mind if you take a current issue to write an article that has actually something to say, i.e. offer solutions. But bigging up a random user issue to a news-entry is terrible.