Nuisances.

The laptop has a double dose of malware at the moment. An irritating and obvious program called System Check showed up and started mucking around, and so I went to Google the most effective ways to get rid of it. The program most broadly recommended by several seemingly reputable sites was called Spy Hunter.

Spy Hunter, I discovered post-installation, is also malware.

Neither responds properly to standard attempts to uninstall, and until I have cast a broader net, I refuse to download some other program and be the old lady who swallowed the fly.

Tell me, oh wise and terrible fiendslist: how to I cleanse my poor machine of this b.s.?

Bah, humbug!

ETA 1:  Okay.  Super AntiSpyware seems to have allowed me to uninstall SpyHunter, but the Internet warns me it is probably still buried in my registry.  Is there an easier way to get it out than inviting one of my tech-savvier friends over and making him get rid of it?  Also, System Check has had some of its files pruned, but it's still hiding folders and parts of my start menu from me, is still visible on my bottom toolbar whatsis, and alas still invisible to the Control Panel's uninstall listings.

Any suggestions for a second step?

ANY OTHER KEY.

Got my writing done for the day -- 632 words of Any Other Key, an AU story for The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.

If you're familiar with the movie or the book, you should recognize the beginning -- the point of divergence -- as the scene late in the movie when everyone has been re-assembled in the clubroom, and Kyon is staring at the computer. 

( Spoilers )

So, here's the Introduction and Chapter One of the story.  I can't decide whether it should be in past or present tense, or if I ought to post it anywhere else.  Tell me what you think.
( Any Other Key -- 1296 words )

 

 

 

Computer: apparently healthy again.

Thanks to SuperAntiSpyware, MalwareBytes, and CCleaner, in that order, it looks like I wiped out everything evil on the laptop.  Still, going to be paranoid for a day or two.  Thanks for the recommendations, my fiends -- couldn't have done this nearly as quickly or thoroughly without you!

I think what alarms me most is that all the top google results for how to get rid of the first piece of malware appeared to be reputable recommendations for the second piece of malware.  Incredibly annoying.

Writing progress.

714 more words on Any Other Key.

I think I'll still try for 550 words of original fiction as well, but it's nice to have the words flowing before the rest of the world goes to bed.