the Dalaverse

Well, I did it - I restored the laptop to its original factory settings. Ironically enough, it was my computer illiterate father who found the instructions on the Dell page - he's really bookin' since I taught him how to google. As far as I can tell, it seems to be running fine. Wah, I miss my settings and my Jim Halpert wallpaper and there are supercilious icons on the desktop!

First things first, I'm going to download the anti-virus program that the uni offers. Will start to work restoring files and programs in the morning. Man, this is weird. I don't like change. Must get it back to the way it was as soon as possible, minus of course the problems. It is kind of nice to start fresh, but I'm still all twitchy. Most irritating loss is that of Office - I'll have to work on WordPerfect for a bit, bleah. My previous version was a 97 disk Dad had borrowed from a coworker. He says he'll try to burn it and send it to me (or rather, have someone burn it for him as I begged). I'm not about to buy it - I'm freaking broke, y'all. PhD students can download it for free ::grumbles::

I did change the computer's name - from Sir Christopher Wren, the name I gave it when it arrived in Oxford, to the Mary Rose. Because it sank, y'see, but I raised it from the depths like a proper maritime archaeologist.

...I hope?

Whoa, my right eyeball is really scary looking.

ETA: Augh, Spider makes noises again! Fixfixfix.

ETA2: Okay, this Sophos thing does not want to install, plus I dunno if I trust it. Are Avast and AVG still the best free anti-virus out there? Or is there something newer and shinier?