Extreme Stupidity
No What I Saw essay tomorrow morning.
Advice to the World: Do not try to remove a Trojan Horse from your system while hepped up on cold medication.
I installed a new anti-virus program on my computer Saturday, and it promptly discovered a Trojan Horse that had buried itself in my system file and registry. The anti-virus couldn't get it out, so it was up to a manual removal.
I cleaned the registry fine, but then I had to dig into the System file. Windows refused to delete it, so I was forced to go into DOS and attack it at the root level.
Never a good idea, but I've done it before, so I should be fine. So said my clever brain, floating on a sea of NyQuil.
I knew the name of the file started with "A", so I figured I'd do a directory listing to make sure I had the name right and to check and see if there were any associated files.
I meant to type "DIR A*.*" which means "List all files starting with the letter A".
Of course, my brain had jumped a step, saying as soon as I know the filename I can type "DEL filename" and be done with it.
You see it, don't you?
Of course. I typed "DEL A*.*".
I deleted every file in my Windows System directory that started with the letter A.
Nothing works. Explorer crashes every time you try to browse a directory. The video driver is messed up, it can't find my CR-ROM and somehow my BIOS isn't working right.
I need to re-install Windows 98, but I can't get the system to read the CD-ROM drive, so I can't even do that.
I could only have done more damage with an axe.
So no entry until things clear up. Next week we'll figure something out, assuming the computer isn't fixed.
Sigh.