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hottweelz

hottweelz

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Like a non-technical newbie Idiot, I tried out some new software I saw advertised on the internet...

Just like HiJackThis, Ad-Aware, and SpyBot... Error Guard promised to fix up my Laptop ...

I happened to have one spyware issue that was killing me, Ad-Aware (which is really crap) and SpyBot (Up until now I thought was great) always treated me well with defeating SpyWare...

So I jumped the gun and went for Error Guard the credit card merchant is a well known merchant: 2Checkout who I've used myself in the past for E-Commerce.

So Error Guard announced to me that I had 9,219 errors on my PC.

(Remember, I'm the highest level Tech here on Wall St)

Quite disturbed over this, and tired, not thinking clearly at approximate midnite last night, I said "Show me these errors!"

Which Error Guard proceeded to display a lot of Registry Keys of dirty words, and known spyware companies!

Shocked and dismayed at my routine use of AdAware and Spybot, and closing firewall ports, I went ahead and clicked "FIX"

Error Guard proceeded to uninstall IIS, VNC, RDP, MS-Office 2003, AIM, Trillian, Photoshop CS,

At this point I freaked out and tried to kill the process ERRORGUARD.EXE ... but it WInblows siad "DENIED" and ERROR GUARD apparently launches an "Automated" regedit.exe that when stopped, relaunches itself immediately...

After much aggravation and watching more software get uninstalled, I powerd off the laptop....

When I rebooted... "Missing Operating System" appeared.

I now own a freshly formatted and clean install "Win XP" Dell Inspiron 8200...
Some of my software is lost forever!
And I paid $29.95 for my own death.

Avoid Error Guard found at http://www.errorguard.com like the plague. They are NOT to be trusted. IP Research shows that it seems to be some Dude running on the famously known for corruption "Everyone's Internet" Hosting Company...

Oh, they will hear from me. They will hear from me for sure.

Please DO NOT UTILIZE this software.
 
That totally sucks! Hopefully what happened to you will prevent someone else from enduring the same fate. Good luck.
 
Damn... James That's horrible....

So, AdAware and SpyBot are still OK right???
At least they never tried to delete all my SW and OS....

Thanks for the warning....

JC
 
Dude that blows. However I must stick up for AdAware. I've had great success with the product and recently, much to my surprise, I'm in love with the Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta 1. It works and works well. Some false positives but I rather see that and be able to say ignore than to miss something important.

Also I love HiJackThis. It must be used with caution. You need to know what you're looking at. HiJackThis only shows you what running/installed. It doesn't know the difference between good and bad. It just gives you the picture. Telling it to fix something important can destroy an OS beyond repair.

SpyBot is ok. I was never impressed with it. I hope that wasn't a production box you wrecked.
 
Not sure if this feature is included in anything but HP computers but it's worth a try.
Go to the start menu and see if you have a program listed under system tools called "system recovery".
This is different from "system restore".
What this program does is, brings your computer back to what it was like the day you purchased it .
The software that was on it from the factory will be restored to that day.
The settings will all be as they were when the computer left the factory.
This program also gets rid of thoes pesky viruses that no other software can.
The big disadvantage to a system recovery is that software that was added once you purchased the computer will have to be downloaded once again from what ever source you got it from.
Hope this helps.
 
Thanks Bob, Unfortunately, DELL has not discovered the wonderful technology of O/S Imaging... I'm reinstallling, and tweaking now, just did Service Pack 2 last night, once it's right where I want it, I'm going to burn an Image of it with Ghost, (not that I plan on making this mistake ever again) :(
 
An excellent spyware/ adware killer is Microsoft's Anti-Spyware. It's free and it kills the bugs that Norton and all the other useless programs cannot kill...
 
Wow that sucks but I have done that with beofre with another program which is no longer around. So I feel your pain.
 
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