This morning was not a good day for me. I had inadvertantly downloaded an infected file from one of the newsgroups I trawl for interesting stuff. Fortunately my Command AntiVirus software spotted it (even though I was only saving it to disk and not running it). Unfortunately the AV software had an eppy and refused to let me do anything and just kept alternating between two flashing warning message boxes at the rate of about 20-30 cycles a second. As a consequence I couldn't click anything to say 'delete this file' or 'clean this file', so had to do CTL-ALT-DEL thing and kill Command.
Then my problems really started.
I can only assume that the virus was capable of executing even though I was only saving the file. It managed to delete a number of key files for the AV software and Outlook Express. There are possibly others, but have yet to see what.
Okay so losing a couple of executeables is a pain, but at least I can reinstall right? .... Wrong.
Both Command and Microsoft Outlook Express bale out on install, as they each still think they're installed. There is nothing in the installation app that allows you to force an installation (MS OE has to be installed via MS IE) regardless of whether the code THINKS its installed.
I've now had to shutdown the computer and will have to wait until this evening to see whether the virus did any more damage than just these two apps. It will then be the arduous task of attempting to untangle the registry to get them to reinstall.
Why is it so hard for installation apps to consider the fact that something went wrong and the user REALLY DOES want to reinstall the app of choice. There are several install apps that do it, I think ActivePerl even does it, so it can't be that difficult. Perhaps it's just laziness on the part of the developer or have they got a vicious streak that really wants me to go to a competitor?
