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McAfee offers cash for clunkers

Sorry we bricked your PC, here's some money

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Anti-virus firm McAfee is reimburse people who have spent money getting their computers fixed after they were damaged by last week's security update.

An update of active viruses issued by McAfee last week falsely labelled part of the Windows operating system as a virus. This sent computers into a continuous reboot cycle and cut off network access.

Customers are asked to call a local, toll-free number to talk to a technician. If they are unable to fix the problem then a software fix can be downloaded to another machine. If this is not possible McAfee will send a CD.

If you have already spent money on fixing your machine then McAfee said it was "committed to reimbursing reasonable expenses".

Details on getting your repair costs back will be posted here, in the next few days.

McAfee also promised a two-year extension to subscribers whose PCs were knackered by the update. ®

Agentless Backup is Not a Myth

Well...

Bill yourself for your time, write a nice looking receipt, argue with yourself a while, maybe haggle the overall price down, agree to absorb the VAT yourself, reach an agreement, stick said receipt to the fridge, delay paying it for a few days, call yourself up to see what happened about paying you, apologise and blame your bank and swear it'll be there in the next few days, put a cheque in the mail, but with instructions not to cash it till friday, receive the cheque in the mail on thursday and take straight to the bank, avoid the cashiers eye as she explains to you that you don't have the funds in your account to pay the funds in to your account that you're trying to so the payment has bounced, call yourself from outside the bank and have a shouting match about there not being enough money, complain you told yourself that already and now you'll get charged for the bank bouncing your cheque, explain you have to be paid today as you have a wife and kids to feed, call yourself a liar, ask how you know, say "I live in the same house as you", hang up, call police to report a suspected stalker / squatter, get arrested for wasting police time, pay your own bail and call it quits.

Then submit the receipt to McAfee with a note saying "You have no idea the trouble this has caused me...."

13
0

Just the ticket

The last thing people will want is two more years of McAfee after they have screwed you over!

7
0

AVG no better these days

I too would have recommended AVG in the past... in fact I have installed the free edition on dozens on systems for friends and family.

But the latest incarnation is nothing more than bloatware too... I upgraded from 8 to 9 and it was uninstalled within 48hrs. in excess of 12 background processes running constantly, not to mention the fact it disables parts of windows and supplants itself in it's place without permission.

So I no longer recommend AVG to anyone at all, but I do recommend Microsoft security essentials... and I can't believe I'm promoting an MS product... but as far as free AV software goes, this is tough to beat. I am now upgrading everyone I can as 99% of them are getting sick and tired of the nearly full screen ADs from AVG trying to get them to pay for an upgrade... another reason to ditch it.

4
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