Bite the Bullet…

Pathways of Light has been silent for a while.

Believe it or not, that's because we lost the light; in more technical terms, we got a Trojan horse virus on the laptop.
Scrooge really had it right; "Bah, humbug..." in Texas corral dust, that would be some serious expletives I simply can't put in this blog.

I'm extremely fortunate; one of my long-time friends is challenged by such complex issues and loves to solve them. So, I went to Larry Stroup. In spite of a time compressed heavy schedule, Larry would put down what he was doing whenever I could ask a cogent question, come over, take control of the laptop, and 'Wave His Magic Wand...'

Long Story Short...
Although I was behind a router (stops hacker attacks) and had up-to-date virus software, the laptop still required a Trojan horse one morning. Talk about getting quickly sick...
After futzing around, we reach the dreaded decision: "Time to Reformat and Reinstall..."
Well, the virus occurred Sunday the 12th, work began Thursday the 17th, and yesterday, Tuesday the 22nd, we had the preliminary restoration done.

Magic Mind
Larry dearly loves a challenge. I know there are things more challenging than trying to repair a laptop; but for me, it was going to turn out to be quite a new learning experience. I had never tried to recover a Windows computer from a virus. Larry never had a virus.
So we began...
One slow, at times agonizingly-painful step at a time, we began the solemn process of reinstalling Windows, AVG, Office, Dragon Naturally Speaking, and all the other software which leads to creating a successful blog and maintaining Fine Art Landscape Photography.
With me as grunt (going as far as I could as an untrained Microsoft system engineer before I get stuck) and Larry as Magic Mind (gracefully digging me out of each debacle [BTW, Larry does this stuff by instinct]), after a few days diligent work my laptop was back in service.

Blood and Guts...
You can review the gory details here.
It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings... we still have a wireless which does not work and are not sure we have that Trojan totally eliminated.

Unfortunately, there has seemed to be a lingering virus. I'm in final stages of repeatedly cleaning the machine to eliminate that threat...

So check back as we finally get this job done...

My Hat’s off to Larry!
Thanks, Larry...

Update July 23

Several virus checks by AVG indicate no virus on the laptop.
Perhaps this phase is done for now...