There’s a lot to rant about this week, but none as up close and personal as my computer. I sounded like the old coot that I am when after spending several hours trying to fix it I shouted at my wife: "There ought to be a law.”
The troubles started at the office when I decided to upgrade my QuickBooks program because I am taking on a new responsibility and want to make sure it is done right, plus I don’t want to have to bring my computer to my accountant because my old QuickBooks program was SO old that a copy on a flash drive wouldn’t work on his new and improved version.
I bought the update online after talking to the sales rep over the phone demanding assurances that it would not be a problem. He assured it would not be, but gave me an 800 number for tech support in case I had a problem that he said I wouldn't have. It didn’t take too long in the process before I knew I was in trouble. The new stuff didn’t work, and the old stuff was gone. But at least I was smart enough to back everything up before I started installation. Three hours later the tech guy finally worked through the glitches after taking control of my computer remotely (creepy) and things work sort of fine. I liked the 2007 version better, but at least I got what I need to do my work and keep my accountant happy.
The bigger problem was on my four year old computer at home. This has been a work horse, but it only has 4 gigs of RAM. I wouldn’t recommend less than 8 for most things now. At any rate, when I would sign onto You Tube I kept getting message that my movie player was out of date and should be upgraded. After looking at that for 4 weeks, I gave it a go yesterday morning because my movie player was old. My Norton virus protector said it was safe. Right!!!! Big mistake.
After the download there was a new tool bar on my screen I didn’t want. Pop ups were happening everywhere. Google Chrome was taken over by some other entity 100% with Bing being the browser provider. It was a mess. It took me several hours to undo what this thing did. Even more frustrating I noticed that when I typed certain words on Word, there was a link attached to those words that translated not only to my computer but to my website. It was my website program that discovered the problem by highlighting the words. NOTHING could get rid of the links to something called SmashButtons, which is a site that sells audio equipment.
I did a full computer scan on Norton and a full computer scan on Windows Defender (which took five hours). They found nothing. Finally, after trying everything else, I moved my mouse very slowly over the words that were affected, and ever so briefly it flashed Sidekick Sales Plug In. Some research told me where to find the plug in on my computer. There it was in plain sight as a complete program. I uninstalled it and the problem went away.
These folks didn’t even try to hide who they were!! Sidekick is not a some spooky unknown hacker. This is a business. To me, this is no different than someone breaking into your house. Breaking into my computer and wrecking havoc on it in the name of God knows what violates my property and can destroy my property. These folks should be prosecuted, and no new laws are needed. Ordinary breaking and entering laws as currently exist should suffice. The theories and elements are the same.
Given that this last escapade involved You Tube, Bing, Sidekick, plus numerous other websites that are not stealth sites….prosecutors should look at these folks and take action.
In the meantime, I am going back to my practice of not doing updates. New and improved usually means work and money.
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