How often do you folks do a Windows 10 reload? I had Win 10 Pro on my Thinkpad for 1-2 years, backed up my stuff, and did a reload.
I tend to run Windows inside a VM, so I just restore a snapshot when things get funky.
On my kids’ computers, though, I don’t think I’ve ever had to just format from scratch.
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Cool idea! I own one Windows 10 Pro license which I install on one laptop as my 16 year old dislikes Slackware. My units run Linux/BSD. I probably could have waited another year or two to do the reload. I enjoy doing things like this. 
If things are wonky on other people’s Windows computers, I run the Tron Script on them.
Reload? What for?
What the hell do you ppl DO to your computers?
Your computer is slow. Download this speed booster to help find out why. Install now. Are you sure? Yes, install now.
Once upon a time, googling “VLC” to download VLC, and the first link was to VLC alright, but with a malware wrapper. A “speed downloader.”
So… just did a test to see what happens when you type in “download VLC” into Google.
The very first link is an ad …
and it seems to be targeted at those who haven’t done this search before. Because if you search again, you might not see the same link. Unless you do incognito mode, or use some other method.
Anyway, my home network blocks this link. I use PI-Hole at home, so this crap doesn’t work anyway.
For Science™, I decided to try this inside a Windows VM. But it also failed, because of my network. So I had to use a VPN to connect to the outside world, and bypass PI-Hole.
Here’s the result:
- installed a chrome add-on
- changed my home page
- downloaded a “speed loader”
- install Avast?
Now you can say that someone who does this is stupid. But they literally went to Google and said “download VLC” and clicked the top link. And now the computer is messed up. You can see from the video that it was even hard to get the settings app to run. This is a fresh install of Windows 10, and it’s already messed up.
This is how easy it is to have your computer be infected. Windows has trained millions of people to just press “next” “ok” “yeah whatever” when they install stuff.
Why doesn’t Google stop this? This is their browser, connecting to their search engine, connecting to their Chrome store. Because Google is an advertising company. I wonder how much they made off my click? A lot less than the culprit did… they force-fed me two pieces of malware and changed my homepage (and, ironically, an anti-virus). They were paid 3 times
Cool video and tips. Thanks. I agree, it is dead easy to get infected running M$. One of the many reasons why I prefer Linux. My Win 10 installation wasn’t infected or borked. I like doing a reload every year or two.
So do I cuz by then I’ve usually upgraded the hard drive or got a new computer.
I get to install it often enough, run into butt stubborn asses still running Win7 and 8 twice a week at least.
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