Endless Paradigm

I was asked by a friend to take a look at his machine; he'ed just installed Norton, and none of his applications would load up. I took this on assuming it would be a nice simple issue, one I'd seen a million times with viruses, and as a result I'm going to make myself look a fool.


Basically, i ran a shortcut, only to be told that it couldn't find the file, but an identical file was in the system restore folder if i cared to redirect it. As it was, i said no, but went to check program files, and, much to my shock, it was genuinely empty. Barring a few system applications and Norton itself, the entire drive had been cleaned of applications, excepting that none of the shortcuts moved

So, after a system restore, it just gets wierder. Same problem, excepting that the files are no longer recognised as being in the system restore folder, when it shouldnt have moved them. Fuck Vista. Fuck it to hell.


So, any takers? And no, the applications aren't just hidden and broken, the drive space is physically empty

norton is the paranoid schizophrenic of anti virus suites

So a virus was the reason Norton got installed?

Not Vistas fault.

Don't blame Vista ; _ ;

Aspheric Wrote: [ -> ]Not Vistas fault.

Don't blame Vista ; _ ;

and that ^

virus level: Norton

ProperBritish Wrote: [ -> ]norton is the paranoid schizophrenic of anti virus suites

Indeed, but its a clients computer, and as i have advised him against it, it is not my place to tell him what he can and can't use

And have solved this by nuking the machine, as ie is gone and won't reinstall, as are a lot of system tools, and sfc failed to find any system errors, so i believe something majorly trippy has gone down

If you can't fix it, try a sledgehammer. If you can't fix it with a sledgehammer, you're not hitting it hard enough