well that was hell

[darkhavens]

Three powercuts in swift succession made Opera inaccessible and slowed my computer to a crawl. I had to burn off a load of stuff and then delete it just to create the 15% free spaces required to defrag. Defragged. Opera still wouldn't appear.

Now, let me explain this because it has totally and completely boggled me and I'm hoping someone can tell me wtf has happened to my browser:

I click on my Opera icon in the quickstart menu and there's a pause, the little eggtimer goes around and around and then stops, but no browser pops up. But when I ctrl>alt>del to view the Task Manager, there it is, running, under my name (supposedly the only identity on the computer - and WTF is ASP.NET anyway and why do they have a user account on my machine?!). But while it's there in Processes, isn't not there under Applications and it's not visible on my desktop at all.

I dialed the system back to a system restore point in August to try and undo whatever damage had been done by the freaky-ass power fluctuations, but after the restart - click - eggtimer - processes but not apps, yadda yadda yadda.

I finally had to install a new copy in a different directory and copy over what settings etc I could. (Thankfully that includes bookmarks and other precious data), but my Opera session was lost, so those 6 or 7 tabs I had open earlier? Yeah, not a freakin' clue what half of them were.

ETA: I also updated and ran Spybot and Ad-Aware and got rid of several evil cookies and registry entries (gods, I loathe Internet Exploder) and got a clean bill of health spy wise.


In conclusion: *CLINGS*

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

*hugs* Duuuude! Welcome back! This sucks out loud! I'm so sorry you had issues.

Do you have anti-spyware installed? (Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware are both good - I run them both) If no, get thee to Spybot and Ad-aware's sites! Yes, both are freeware (you have to hunt for Ad-aware's freeware version) and you should be able to find both through CNET. They are both updated with new definitions on average of once a week.

If you do have anti-spyware programs installed, make sure they're up to date and run 'em. I don't recognize asp.net. Someone else might though.

[katbcoll.livejournal.com]

and that was me! *points up*

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

LOL! Thanks! I forgot to mention that - yes I did run both Ad-Aware and Spybot, both specially updated for the occasion. Just because you're paranoid... *g*

The ASP.NET thing freaked me out, but it has a limited account, not administrative, and I changed the password on it anyway, just in case, but dood, way to seriously freak me out!

I'd never messed with the UserProfiles thingy before and was expecting to see mine and only mine. The second one - guest - was simple to figure out, and also not active, but the third one. First thing I did before anything else was hit the off-button on my router so if some b*st*rd was playing about in my machine, I had just cut him of at the balls knees. *g*

[katbcoll.livejournal.com]

Yaaaay for paranoia!
Sometimes I wish it realy worked like that! The whole, turning off the router and really cutting them off at the... knees thing *snerks*

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

we can dream. ;)

I hate when stuff like this happens. I get the shakes and nausea and worst case scenarios whizzing through my head at warp speed, and dammit, I only have one measly little chocolate bar! That's nowhere near enough to cope with this level of stress. But I have marshmallows and some hot chocolate (powdered but meh, it's an emergency!), so I should be able to survive until I can hit the store tomorrow. *g*

[katbcoll.livejournal.com]

Oh gods, no chocolate?! *shudders* I am soooo grateful for all night grocery stores!

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

It's what comes of living out in the boonies - beautiful scenery and no popping out to buy chocolate at 3am. :/

[batmanvinnie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I once ended up with like, 3 viruses and a couple worms. I took it to the nerd help desk at my university and the guy downloaded some software for me, and then recommended mozilla foxfire. It prevents all sites from downloading scripts automatically and asks you first. Its helped a lot. sorry about the problems. *runs and hugs*
*whispers*
Caught SGA last night, and I couldn't help smirking everytime Rodney and John were onscreen.

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Opera is very good about that kind of thing too. I've been using it for almost 6 years now and the only evil stuff that's ever managed to sneak onto my computer has done so on the rare occasions when I've had to use Exploder.

Ooh! Which episode? Not that it matters - it's the john and Rpdney know most of the time, so it's all good. ;)

[batmanvinnie.livejournal.com]

It was early first season, before Ronon was even on the show. Its the one where we find out about Teyla's freaky wraith dreams and why she has them. I heart Ronon. He's the perfect straight guy to just toss in a situation and watch him go "WTF?"

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Ah, that was 'The Gift', IIRC. The 'Teyla, you're a Wraith' ep. *g*

The problem with Ronon is they're starting to overuse the threatening loom factor. Yes, we know he's big and scary, we get it already, so stop forcefeeding us the Ronon loom every time there's a situation! He has a dry sense of humour and a very nice voice - they should make him use both more often.

[vinniebatman.livejournal.com]

I do agree on that point. Its like making him a set piece, like a giant gun or something. The need an episode about him being scary, with some person who is scared of Ronon, and everytime Ronon gets within 5 feet of the guy, he squeaks. And Ronon decides to tease the guy. Its really funny in my brain.
*Ronon steps closer*
Squeak!
*ronon steps away, then closer again*
Squeak!
And I feel bad for him because of all the crap he went through. Ronan deserve some nookie. Which would go along with my "haunted atlantis" story idea, but thats a ramble for another day. *smacks own mouth*

[literati.livejournal.com]

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

*smish*

It was skeery!

[tabaqui]

*clings*
Poor you!
IE bites.
*pet pet pet pet pet pet*

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

*clings and snuggles up to the Mink Mitten of Lurve*

It was hell! I'm still shaky, and the thought of closing Opera when I go to bed is terrifying! *g*

[gossymer.livejournal.com]

*hugs you and Opera* Now if we were using any program other than Opera, losing several open tabs wouldn't be out of the ordinary but with Opera *shudder* that's never supposed to happen

*kicks IE*

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Exactly! I'm used to Opera holding on to all those open tabs and giving them back when I re-open, but this time... nothing! It was a huge shock to the system.

*roasts IE over an open fire*

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

Meep. That sounds like it was very upsetting!

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

It was! I tried everything I could think of to get that version of Opera to work. I even uninstalled and reinstalled, and it still wouldn't show up on my desktop!

I lost my RSS feeds in the transfer along with all my open tabs, but that appears to be it, thank god. I know where my bookmarks are saved so I can rescue them, whatever happens, but it's still nervewracking.

*clings*

[suki-blue.livejournal.com]

Eeek!! How awful!! It's like part of your house is falling away!

But everything is okay now?