If your antivirus claims that it has "quarantined" a virus you must immediately have someone format and reload your system.

The basis for this "lesson" is the massive amount of calls I have taken as an IT person where a user gets a file in their email or downloads a file from the internet that contains some malicious code. Their resident antivirus then scans said file, finds the malicious code, and then quarantines the it before the file can be executed.



Instead of saying "Whew! Thank goodness I had my antivirus installed and up to date, or else I would have been infected!", the user goes into red alert mode. Unable to process the word "Quarantine" in the pop up message, they focus on the word "virus" and come unglued.

Some users have called in tears, begging us to save their thesis or their pictures. When we inspect the computer we find no viral activity or rogue processes running. We find no root kits. And the customer pays for service for nothing but a reassurance that the message that they saw was a GOOD thing and if it happens again to read the message thoroughly.

I can't complain though. People like this keep small tech shops running.