I’m asked to ‘clean up’ a pc that was once infected with many nasties (but cleaned up since), and to get it working on an existing wireless network.

I install ewido and antivir, and do a scan & cleanup a few more ‘trojans’ etc…

But it still cannot work on the wireless network… at this stage, since I cannot activate the antivir Guard option, I figure there is something severely wrong with this PC. So I decide its time to work on it from the office.

I remove the HDD and scan it from another computer… it finds and removes a few more nasties (remnants of vundo, webhancer)

Once I reassemble the PC, windows I notice a few more peculiarities:

• I cannot display windows firewall settings.
• I find the solution mentioned at: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/sharedaccess.htm, but it doesn’t help
• It won’t recognise usb drives
• Antivir still cannot active the guard function (I first thought it was the new gard function in ewido that was interfering)
• I had to redo the tcp stack using lspfix (to correct problems with tcp networking)… but that doesn’t help much
• Antivir would stop pc from shutting down.
• Nero complained about unregistered dll’s

I eventually admitted defeat and told the customer that a windows reinstall is the only solution. The only problem is that he cannot find his acer XP CDs.

I backup the PC.

I try my OEM copy of XP home, but it won’t accept the acer XP serial number on the box… Grrr. One of the main reasons NOT to buy a name-brand PC… its much better to buy a nameless PC & get some proper OEM XP cds.

So I now have no choice but to install my ‘special’ copy of XP Pro.

The install and subsequent tuning goes without a hitch (except for a flaky DVD writer). The wireless setup works well.

I take it back to the customer, and installing his usb wireless dongle works perfectly.

A quick training session with the family, and I’m on my way again (at last!).