Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Boot Gentoo to clean windows

[Stroller]

On 28 Mar 2008, at 16:43, 7v5w7go9ub0o wrote:

> Stroller wrote:
> <snip important, informative stuff>
>> Be aware that sometimes Windows isn't cleanly fixable. Although I
>> try to avoid it until I've exhausted avenues for a clean repair,
>> sometimes the best thing to do is simply to back-up & reinstall.
>
> Think this is a great write up.
>
> The last paragraph seems most important - given today's
> professionally-authored compromises, the best thing to do may be
> presume
> that you've been rooted with redundancy, and simply be prepared to
> quickly rebuild the box from scratch.
>
> Especially if you use the computer for business or other sensitive
> matters.

Certainly. I have a number of machines which use roaming-profiles on  
a Windows domain, mail stored on an IMAP server, and I would have no  
hesitation in reinstalling if I thought it necessary.

> So arguably, one should use the second OS (Linux or Windows) as a
> diagnostic tool to determine if it's compromised or not, and except
> for something simple (e.g. an infection vector caught before
> activation by an AntiTrojan scanner in a browser cache, mail
> letter, etc.), one should simply rebuild the box.

I take your point on board - it depends upon how paranoid you want to  
be over the particular PC and its use.

I don't mean paranoid in a negative way, here, of course.

> So to the above, I'd add a "have a rebuild strategy"  i.e. copies
> of data (not executables), addresses, passwords, etc. that can be
> quickly returned to a rebuilt OS. Windows benefits greatly from
> rebuilding - a rebuilt box will seem quicker and faster than ever
> before, and won't have lingering "relics" from earlier maintenance
> levels.

Yes, this is great if you can. Unfortunately many of the most-hosed  
Windows PCs tend to come from home users who have no backup regimen  
in place. How can one be sure that _all_ data is restored? Many times  
my customers - those that use Outlook or Outlook Express - have no  
idea of their email password or wireless-network key, having had the  
"remember" box ticked since they set the machine up 2 years ago.

I would attribute most of the breakage I see not to sophisticated  
viruses, but to poorly-written "sponsorware". to "adware" removers  
that may delete files arbitrarily, to Windows bugs and to filesystem  
corruption (for instance: because the user likes to switch their PC  
off at the wall-socket, and was too impatient when it was shutting  
down!).

Oftentimes, a Windows reinstall gives as much performance improvement  
as buying a new PC would do, and many users are very glad to get a  
"new" machine that is so clean and fresh (this is characterised by  
the reduced number of icons on the desktop - from 30+ to about 5!).  
But this has to be compromised against disruption to the user's  
environment - they may be very familiar with the way everything's set  
up, and all their favourite software is installed. With a not-booting- 
but-otherwise-fairly-clean PC this may tip the balance. Unfortunately  
one often cannot tell whether reinstall or repair is the best  
solution until one has already made a good attempt at repairing the  
system!! And you often don't discover which software - amongst all  
the crud of different p2p, photo programs and whatnot - that users  
depend on, until you after return the machine and they complain "my  
icon is missing" (with usually only a very generic description of  
what the icon does).

One of my biggest bugbears against reinstalling is drivers. Dell &  
Sony are wonderful! You just enter the tag or model number on their  
website and the correct drivers are listed. Advent - and here, in the  
UK, other "brands" of computer which are only available "exclusively"  
from PC World - can be a royal PITA, and once every month or two I  
encounter a machine for which it takes HOURS to find the correct  
drivers for all devices.

Stroller.
-- 
gentoo-user@l.g.o mailing list