Illustrations by Heather Nelson

We've probably all experienced some annoying spy ware at some time or another. It's annoying, sure, but usually not that big a deal. Have you ever had a virus that tells you every single program you are trying to open is infected? One that won't let you open your computer's control panel? And even tells you that you can't access the Internet, because it too is infected?

I fell victim to all this late Saturday night. Wonderful.

Sunday morning, as I waited until the Geek Squad opened at Best Buy, I did a little reading about such irritating computer infections, and found that if I did a complete system restore I would most certainly get rid of the virus. The cost? Losing all my files. I considered this a long time, before deciding that the Geeks may be able to kill the parasite without flushing my files, but that would probably be quite expensive. And, I did back up my files about a month ago (I know, I know... I should do it more often), so really, I'm only going to lose the files I did recently (which were quite a few, in all honesty).

The scary "System Recovery" CD goes in, and 2 minutes later, my files are just a memory.

I thought that was the worst of it. No one warned me that certain drivers I need to access my hardware weren't contained on the magical CD. I knew I could get the drivers online, but ironically enough, the Ethernet driver was one of the ones missing. Perfect.

I tooled around for a while, found that I could connect to my modem through an USB port (thank goodness) and got most of my drivers off the company's website. I've spent the rest of the day (and night) reloading software. You really don't realize all you've lost until it's gone. All my swatches I had saved in Illustrator is probably the biggest blow. Oh well. Live and learn.

The day wasn't without it's share of laughs, however.

While trying to find a phone number to call my Internet provided, I read the following in their User Guide:

"If you need any assistance in setting up your Internet service, please visit our website and click on Customer Service."

Do you see the problem with this?? If I could get online to your website, I probably wouldn't need assistance with my Internet service. Wow.

The computer company's website was even less helpful. All the drivers I needed were there, except two. The two I needed the most. So, there was a nice little "chat online" customer service thing so I clicked it. The dude I was chatting with told me that I wasn't under warranty (hello? my computer is 5 years old) and that typically he couldn't help me. But since I was such a valued customer (I am??) he would do his best to assist me this one time.

Wow. He's going to help me get drivers for my computer that should have been on the computer's website? How sweet.

Even sweeter when he sent me links to drivers that weren't compatible with my computer model.

Ugh. Whatever. A good Google search lead me to what I needed. Apparently I wasn't the only one that had trouble finding stuff on their website.

It's been a long day. My computer is fixed, and my checking account still has every penny it did this morning. The Geeks didn't get my money. Times like this I realize just how resourceful I am! :)

Here's hoping Monday will be better...