OK.
So.
Computer comes back from Acer. They reinstalled the OS.
OK. So. I figure they must have had a reason. What I didn't figure was, they reinstalled Internet Explorer. Active.
Now, I've long known that working in Explorer is the equivalent of a blonde D-cup sorority pledge getting drunk at her first fraternity kegger. No good can come of it. Before this, I've deleted it from every PC I own. I haven't been able to delete it from Windows 7 (suggestions as to how gratefully accepted) but I at least switched it off.
It came back switched on. I found this out Thursday night. I was busily typing away when suddenly these Explorer windows start popping open, advertising porn sites and a bogus virus-protection offer. I can't shut them down. I try to open my malware and antivirus programs but it won't let me. I finally wound up going back to a previous restore point and turning back time on the whole machine to get rid of them. So far it's worked.
Luckily, I didn't lose much data but really. I'm THIS CLOSE to sticking an iBook skin on this thing and passing it off on a Mac user...
