Mcafee problems

You're right when you say (paraphrasing) "there's more than one way to skin a cat"... or, "different strokes for different folks".   both your advice, as well as mine, may work.   Agreed!

one significant  advantage of my suggestion is that it's completely FREE.   in contrast, your advice entails BUYING the external hard drive, the USB hard-drive enclosure, and (the admittedly "not cheap") Kaspersky. See below

as for time --- you complained about the 4 hours you had to use HJT ---- how long does it take to go out and shop for the necessary equipment, connect/set everything up,  format both [external and infected] hard drives, backup/copy all the desired files to the external drive, reinstall windows, and restore/copy the desired files back to the cleaned system??? I bought my Hard Drive enclosure for £20.00 (US$36.00) on-line and delivered to the door.  The Kapersky anti-virus, anti spam, anti hacker software for £40.00 (US$72.00) again delivered 'to the PC'.  The HD enclosure is a useful addition to existing h/w; the Kaspersky software a vastly superior to Norton and runs for a year.

the one point on which i agree with you is that HJT "is not the easiest o programs to use".  which is why i clearly stated a disclaimer about its power, stressing that it should ONLY be used under expert supervision [such as is offered in the Dell HJT forum]. You will see that the 'victim' is still attempting to have his inflictions resolved, whereas if he had taken my path he would have rid himself of this plague.  Time is money, by taking the 'cheaper' and longer route it has cost him more.  I rest my case.  It's all a matter of one's viewpoint.  Formating a Hard Drive is not difficult - I will acede that one must have the original software, something that Dell is not shipping out with laptops these days.

i think we've already agreed that it's entirely possible that your approach would have worked [perhaps faster]... and that my approach may still work.  we've carefully presented differing views here, in enough detail that people who read this should be able to make an intelligent decision on their own, based on their particular needs/considerations [such as time/money to invest]. - I couldn't have put it better myself

i just want to clarify, that since many people here [sometimes young-adults or students, with very limited finances] often indicate a lack of funds when they seek a solution, I make it a point to offer a free solution whenever I believe a free and potentially viable/successful solution exists.  i don't know that i've ever recommended a paid program here, in part because I wouldn't want to be accused of "pushing" anything --- lest anyone get the false impression that I'd personally benefit from their purchase.   Again, I agree.

you're right that "time is money".... and for the corporate world, fixing something as quickly as possible is often desirable [if not absolutely required], regardless of the financial cost involved.   But for the average person, with limited resources, they should at least realize there's an alternative.  True, but with the amount spent, the cost involved is not an inordinate amount.

hopefully, we can bring this "debate" to a close now... with both of us rooting for tiklar to succeed. I accede to you viewpoint, and will close this thread with the thought "What a boring place the world would be if we all agreed about everything  :smileyhappy:  :smileyhappy: