The laptop is fixed. Sometimes I have to laugh at my customers, not for their stupidity, but for their total computer innocence. Today’s customer told me she was having problems with a game. Her desktop looked weird after she installed a freeware game that she downloaded.
She dropped it off on the way to work this morning, while I was still asleep, so hubby left a note telling me what game she installed. I didn’t even turn the laptop on until I was finished with my last post.
The problem was so simple. She downloaded the game, but she never installed it. What she did was extract the zip file straight to the desktop. That left her with a ton of little files with extensions and icons she’d never seen before.
I deleted the files from her desktop, installed the game, and she’s good to go. I figured if something like that caused her to freak out, I might as well go ahead and run a cleanup. There’s no telling what else she has lurking around.
I always double check for antivirus and install anti-spyware protection for all of my customers. I show them how to use it. I type out a very simple to follow list of instructions, and I place it in a folder on the desktop called “Do This Once A Week”.
Well, she hasn’t. Her virus definitions haven’t been updated since January 13. I know she’s got a Verizon internet card, so my guess is she only connects the card when she wants to get online, and she still expects her definitions to auto update.
Hers were set to automatically update on a time schedule. I changed it to automatically update when she “dials up” since that’s how her card interacts even though it’s not dial up. Now I guess I better check the anti-spyware definitions and run another scan.
Tags: antispyware, antivirus, auto update, installing games, scan for viruses, spyware, viruses, zip files
