I feel SO defended

[melchar]

Saw an alert on Windows defender and - like an idiot - let it 'repair' the vastly dangerous virus it claimed to have detected. It removed my dsl network connect; removed Firefox - but left IE - removed Thunderbird - all of which I've managed to find and replace shortcuts for.

Still among the missing is my connection to NC Soft [City of Heroes shortcut]; 2 of 4 shortcuts to games on Aeria.com; the Emerald viewer [used to access 2nd Life]; and shortcuts for $ games fully installed on the machine [Alpha C, Bioshock; Baldur's Gate 2 & Baldur's Gate 1]

Comments

[melchar.livejournal.com]

PLUS, more game shortcuts lost - and my bookmarks in IE are gelded [there are -seriously- like only 30 left in the folder. The interior 'find programs' menu [accessed from the windows tab in the left corner] is EMPTY except for open office!. This is just fricking pathetic!

[melchar.livejournal.com]

3 hours of grrrrr. Most of the icons are back. I was able to import my firefox favorites back to IE. Most games are OK - but Bioshock won't work at all.

I still can't find how to put the connection status back in the task bar [the 'bars' of connection icon]. I also lost the windows sidebar, but that actually came back on its own 2 restarts later. And for some unknown, weird reason, all the icons on my desktop are now transparent.

[threeoutside.livejournal.com]

Not so much pathetic as, I would think, illegal? Isn't there any recourse against those bastards? I hope you get everything back (except your time and aggro; and that doth suck truly).

[melchar.livejournal.com]

My guess is that the virus detector saw some common driver and its miniscule 'mind' decided 'virus!!!' - and removed everything with that driver set.

3 hours and things are working again. ....Except for 'Bioshock'. And my screen icons are transparent. [bwuh?] Other than that, things are back to normal.

[maestrodog.livejournal.com]

Maybe late to suggest after all the work you've done...but did you not try a system restore to a previous configuration?

[melchar.livejournal.com]

My last system restore was [my bad] 2 years ago. I have all my -files- backed up as of last week - but that does nothing for shortcuts and making the programs work. For reinstalling, I was all set up. [sighs]

[maestrodog.livejournal.com]

ick...well, now you know to set your restore points at more frequent intervals once you've got everything back...it really sucks when this happens. I set mine to back up weekly.

[narile.livejournal.com]

Might not have been Windows Defender. There are some malwares that pop-up a window that looks like Windows Defender alerts, and when the person clicks the remove the virus, it actually installs one. And you've given it permission as well.