(Off Topic) Windoze spam and corruption

[Ted Roche]

paul.cour1 at verizon.net wrote:
> I have a Win XP machine that is terribly infested (Ugh!)
> ... 

> While my last and most effective option is to wipe drive and reinstall
> Windoze,  I am having fun clicking around and deleting as much stuff
> as I can until I corrupt things beyond a capable "boot"...
> Besides that, up til now I am not interested in Windoze,
> but I am learning some "OS" kinda stuff.
> 

If you're serious about restoring it to health, you can't trust what the 
File Manager is telling you about what is on disk nor whether files are 
truly deleted. There are a couple of freeware utilities you can use to 
clean off the majority of malware. I recommend using more than one, and 
running them several times, as malware masks both its own presence and 
those of other files:

Trend's HijackThis: 
http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/tools/security_tools/hijackthis

Spybot Search and Destroy:

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,22262-page,1-c,antispywaretools/description.html

A strong caution: ensure that the Anti-Spyware programs you're 
downloading are from a reliable source, as there's quite a bit of social 
engineering going on in the space where malware authors are promoting 
their products as spyware cleaners.

Both of these products should scan and produce informative listings to 
further your education. Lather, rinse and repeat.