Ian said:
sorry i was unaware of the various interfaces available here. i do
not post on anything at all usually, so...the post you are
feferring to was not directed your way. i am tired of arguing with
people just to try and do a good deed.
The problem is that you made a confusing post with little to no facts to
back it up.
You say that you were infested with some virus or something and how you had
associated *.ini with notepad while troubleshooting - then you proceed to
explain how you scrubbed your computer's hard disk drive, installed anew and
how your *.ini files were still associated with notepad (I can tell you
right now - I just finished three installations from CD of Windows XP
Professional - if you double-click on a *.ini file, it opens in notepad by
default) so you were convinced you were infested again.
Somewhere in there was the mention of 'outlook.exe' and 'svchost.exe' and
the 'slow sending of email'. You even mention (later) 'gotomeeting.exe'
which is not even a default Windows XP file. Somehow, in all this - you
replace your motherboard too. You even flash your BIOS (CMOS) for good
measure. You throw out names like 'Kaspersky labs' and 'Dell' and how they
are 'investigating it further' and they 'know *.ini files are not associated
with notepad by default' as you defend your loose premise that there is
something 'new' out in the virus world.
If you want to be taken seriously - you have to sound serious and describe
things carefully and precisely. Maybe you don't know all the terminology -
but that does not prevent you from 'telling a good story that is easy to
follow and just makes sense'. Your story jumps around, you seemingly start
out frustrated and making things up to fill in gaps. It really feels like a
chicken little scenario when one reads stuff like that.
So - if you really want to do your 'good deed' - go for it. Take a deep
breath and calmly type out, step-by-step, what happened. Start at the
beginning, don't jump to the end, back to the middle, 2/3 of the way through
and back to the beginning of the story - keep it in a logical progressive
timeline. Make sure you give as many details as you can. (If you sent
something to Kaspersky labs to investigate - you will have MUCH more
detail - because they are not going to investigate "my outlook went crazy, I
scrubbed my hard drive and my *ini association keeps reverting to notepad."
They would ask for details, filenames, they might even ask for specific
files (sipped up and sent to them.) Dell - they might just go through the
script and talk you down enough to hang up - could happen. heh)
Right now - all you have done is basically tell everyone... "The sky is
falling and there is nothing you can do because the experts don't know why
either... Have a nice day!"
I'm not saying all that to attack you - I am saying all that so you know
what your posting looks like to those who might read it. I am saying all
this in hopes that you might sit down and take the time to 'do your good
deed' and tell us a more concise and clear story about what happened to
you - in case this is *not* a chicken little scenario.
that was why i deleted the other text as