# Coun mining malware



## Reedone816

I have a windows 10 notebook.
It was infected with various malwares, i'd clean it using malware bytes and eset av.
But there is one remain, the coin mining malware that attached oneself to explorer.exe.
Eset able to stop its process but when after a while the process will try again.
I tried full scan but nothing found.
Tried multiple live scanner but no result.
Anyone has advice?

Sent from my BV8000Pro using Tapatalk


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## Dirty Dog

Backup data files only. Reformat. Clean install.
I don't want to start an OS war (though I might), but your best option would be to ditch windoze entirely. It's bloated, slow, unstable, incredibly easy to hack, and massively invasive of your privacy.
Personally, I'd recommend one of the various flavors of Linux. Linux is free, fast, stable, generally more secure, and because it's open source your privacy is assured. And unlike Windoze, it's a true multi-threaded multi-tasking OS. Not a shell running over the 1980's era MS-DOS that emulates multi-threading and multi-tasking (which is big part of it's instability). You will never see the BSOD or the interminable "Updating" screen with Linux.
Linux Mint is popular with people switching from MicroSloth, because it has a similar 'feel' but Ubuntu (which is what I primarily use) and Arch are also very popular. I also like Kali, but that's more oriented towards security testing and hacking so it's not for everyone.


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## Xue Sheng

Reedone816 said:


> I have a windows 10 notebook.
> It was infected with various malwares, i'd clean it using malware bytes and eset av.
> But there is one remain, the coin mining malware that attached oneself to explorer.exe.
> Eset able to stop its process but when after a while the process will try again.
> I tried full scan but nothing found.
> Tried multiple live scanner but no result.
> Anyone has advice?
> 
> Sent from my BV8000Pro using Tapatalk



Panda Cloud Cleaner 

HitMan Pro 

TrendMicro Housecall


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## Buka

I'm with Dirty Dog. Linux rocks.


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## Xue Sheng

Dirty Dog said:


> Backup data files only. Reformat. Clean install.
> I don't want to start an OS war (though I might), but your best option would be to ditch windoze entirely. It's bloated, slow, unstable, incredibly easy to hack, and massively invasive of your privacy.
> Personally, I'd recommend one of the various flavors of Linux. Linux is free, fast, stable, generally more secure, and because it's open source your privacy is assured. And unlike Windoze, it's a true multi-threaded multi-tasking OS. Not a shell running over the 1980's era MS-DOS that emulates multi-threading and multi-tasking (which is big part of it's instability). You will never see the BSOD or the interminable "Updating" screen with Linux.
> Linux Mint is popular with people switching from MicroSloth, because it has a similar 'feel' but Ubuntu (which is what I primarily use) and Arch are also very popular. I also like Kali, but that's more oriented towards security testing and hacking so it's not for everyone.





Buka said:


> I'm with Dirty Dog. Linux rocks.



I too like Linux, use to run a Linux box for AV and security. But it is not necessarily more secure, it is just not as popular in an enterprise setting, it still should be running Antivirus and security software. Also not all revs of Linux are created equal. For enterprise always go Redhat, it is not free and it is more secure. But the freeware version of that is CentOS. That is a rather good version of Linux


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## JowGaWolf

This particular pain the


Reedone816 said:


> I have a windows 10 notebook.
> It was infected with various malwares, i'd clean it using malware bytes and eset av.
> But there is one remain, the coin mining malware that attached oneself to explorer.exe.
> Eset able to stop its process but when after a while the process will try again.
> I tried full scan but nothing found.
> Tried multiple live scanner but no result.
> Anyone has advice?
> 
> Sent from my BV8000Pro using Tapatalk


Not sure if this will help you but it helped me.   In my case it was attached to Google Chrome Browser and would reinstall when the Google Chrome Browser was opened.  To solve it, (save any bookmarks you want to keep) and do the following
1. Uninstall Google Chrome.
2. Run your antivirus and your Malware Bytes Software.  Doing this will get rid of any left over registry information that was used for Google Chrome.
3. Reinstall the updated version of Google Chrome.

This should get rid of it.  If you research Coin Mining and google, you will come across discussions and articles about this issue.  The problem isn't a Windows 10 problem.  The problem is a Google Chrome problem.  As of January 2018, google chrome has fixed the problem, but that new fix is only going to work with New Installs which is why you have to uninstall and then reinstall it.

Just make sure you run your Malware Bytes software after you uninstall, because if the old registry stuff is still in the system, then you'll most likely won't get rid of the issue.


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## Martial D

Dirty Dog said:


> Backup data files only. Reformat. Clean install.
> I don't want to start an OS war (though I might), but your best option would be to ditch windoze entirely. It's bloated, slow, unstable, incredibly easy to hack, and massively invasive of your privacy.
> Personally, I'd recommend one of the various flavors of Linux. Linux is free, fast, stable, generally more secure, and because it's open source your privacy is assured. And unlike Windoze, it's a true multi-threaded multi-tasking OS. Not a shell running over the 1980's era MS-DOS that emulates multi-threading and multi-tasking (which is big part of it's instability). You will never see the BSOD or the interminable "Updating" screen with Linux.
> Linux Mint is popular with people switching from MicroSloth, because it has a similar 'feel' but Ubuntu (which is what I primarily use) and Arch are also very popular. I also like Kali, but that's more oriented towards security testing and hacking so it's not for everyone.


Man, I remember spending like 16 hours trying to set up redhat 2.0. When the X system finally booted(after many many failed compiles and recompiles) I felt like I had just summited Everest.

I didn't even care that my sound wasn't happening. 

That was of course many moons ago. These days Linux installs (at least most of them) are as easy as taking a piss.


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## Reedone816

Thank you all for the advice,
As for Linux, i'm in dual mode now, been using OracleOS for a while now.
The windows one is for working purpose.

As the scanners I'd used Hitman and panda, i'll try the trendmicro one.

And for the last one, I'm afraid it's much trickier than that since it's attaching to the explorer.exe process. Can't uninstall that.
But none the less i'll try to uninstall my chrome first.

Anyway, somehow after reading the replies, it reminds me of firewall, so in case I'm unable to clean it, at least I'll prevent it to leave my computer.

Sent from my BV8000Pro using Tapatalk


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## JowGaWolf

Reedone816 said:


> Thank you all for the advice,
> As for Linux, i'm in dual mode now, been using OracleOS for a while now.
> The windows one is for working purpose.
> 
> As the scanners I'd used Hitman and panda, i'll try the trendmicro one.
> 
> And for the last one, I'm afraid it's much trickier than that since it's attaching to the explorer.exe process. Can't uninstall that.
> But none the less i'll try to uninstall my chrome first.
> 
> Anyway, somehow after reading the replies, it reminds me of firewall, so in case I'm unable to clean it, at least I'll prevent it to leave my computer.
> 
> Sent from my BV8000Pro using Tapatalk


For some reason I want to say that from first looks it appears that the issue is with the explorer.exe process but in reality it's Google Chrome.  My wife was able to run Malwarebytes which would get it, but every she starts her computer it would come back.    So what I did, was to do 2 scans.  I cleaned the computer using Malwarebytes then restarted the computer, and then scanned the computer immediately after the restart (I didn't open any other application).  The scan came up clean so I knew that the issue wasn't with the explorer.exe.   Next I pretty much followed the next step of what my wife does which is to open a browser.   I opened up Google Chrome, and I did another scan, and Malwarebytes found the coin miner again.


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## Dirty Dog

Xue Sheng said:


> I too like Linux, use to run a Linux box for AV and security. But it is not necessarily more secure, it is just not as popular in an enterprise setting, it still should be running Antivirus and security software. Also not all revs of Linux are created equal. For enterprise always go Redhat, it is not free and it is more secure. But the freeware version of that is CentOS. That is a rather good version of Linux



This could be argued forever (and is...). I'll just say this. I am not a professional, but I've been using and coding in Unix since your only options were BSD and SunOS. And I've done more than a little testing of security on various versions. So I'll just say this. If I can social engineer physical access to your unlocked *nix box, it takes all of 12 seconds to have remote shell access on your account, without needing a password. I will get your password, too, of course, but I don't need it to have a shell. I can do the same thing to your Windoze box, but it doesn't even have to be unlocked, or even have anybody logged on. And I'll get not only your user account, I'll get your browser history, including online passwords. I can get a lot more info out of a Windoze box with a lot less time and effort. That's why I think it's less secure.
Sure, putting in a BEEF hook is the same on either, since they run ported versions of the same browsers. 
And it's super easy to get a Windoze user to sit there and do nothing for as long as you need, while you're installing and running tons of stuff behind it. The first part of your script just calls iexplore to send them HERE, and with the -k option it makes it full screen. Windows users are trained to sit there and let this run. So then your script grabs alllllll kinds of stuff to install in the background, while the user sits.


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## Reedone816

JowGaWolf said:


> For some reason I want to say that from first looks it appears that the issue is with the explorer.exe process but in reality it's Google Chrome.  My wife was able to run Malwarebytes which would get it, but every she starts her computer it would come back.    So what I did, was to do 2 scans.  I cleaned the computer using Malwarebytes then restarted the computer, and then scanned the computer immediately after the restart (I didn't open any other application).  The scan came up clean so I knew that the issue wasn't with the explorer.exe.   Next I pretty much followed the next step of what my wife does which is to open a browser.   I opened up Google Chrome, and I did another scan, and Malwarebytes found the coin miner again.


Yup it seems this works.
I uninstall my old chrome, the warning popup no longer popup for coin mining malware.
Thanks alot...

Sent from my BV8000Pro using Tapatalk


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## Xue Sheng

Dirty Dog said:


> This could be argued forever (and is...). I'll just say this. I am not a professional, but I've been using and coding in Unix since your only options were BSD and SunOS. And I've done more than a little testing of security on various versions. So I'll just say this. If I can social engineer physical access to your unlocked *nix box, it takes all of 12 seconds to have remote shell access on your account, without needing a password. I will get your password, too, of course, but I don't need it to have a shell. I can do the same thing to your Windoze box, but it doesn't even have to be unlocked, or even have anybody logged on. And I'll get not only your user account, I'll get your browser history, including online passwords. I can get a lot more info out of a Windoze box with a lot less time and effort. That's why I think it's less secure.
> Sure, putting in a BEEF hook is the same on either, since they run ported versions of the same browsers.
> And it's super easy to get a Windoze user to sit there and do nothing for as long as you need, while you're installing and running tons of stuff behind it. The first part of your script just calls iexplore to send them HERE, and with the -k option it makes it full screen. Windows users are trained to sit there and let this run. So then your script grabs alllllll kinds of stuff to install in the background, while the user sits.



And I have a Knoppix disk (and flash drive) that will own your PC, or any other, in seconds, don't care what OS you run...that is, unless you secure it properly and most don't, not even Linux users.

I am not going to argue anything, I know better than to argue security with those committed to linux or Mac.... but professionally speaking, I stand by my original post.


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## pdg

Xue Sheng said:


> And I have a Knoppix disk (and flash drive) that will own your PC, or any other, in seconds, don't care what OS you run...that is, unless you secure it properly and most don't, not even Linux users.
> 
> I am not going to argue anything, I know better than to argue security with those committed to linux or Mac.... but professionally speaking, I stand by my original post.



Not to argue... 

Can someone use that disc to 'own' my computer (running whatever OS) here in England while they're sat in their mum's basement in the US?


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## Dirty Dog

pdg said:


> Not to argue...
> 
> Can someone use that disc to 'own' my computer (running whatever OS) here in England while they're sat in their mum's basement in the US?



No, but there are other ways to do it remotely. It's just easier if you can get physical access for just a few seconds. That's not at all difficult, for most business computers. "I'm here for a meeting, but I forgot to print out some documents I need. Can you print the papers on this USB drive for me?" It takes a LOT longer to print those documents than it does for the script I've also put on the device to run.
Without physical access, you use things like MItM attacks, BEEF hooks, Captive Portals, Packet sniffers and such. You'll still get there, it just takes more time and effort.
And I'm on the second floor of my own home, not my mums basement.


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## pdg

Dirty Dog said:


> No, but there are other ways to do it remotely. It's just easier if you can get physical access for just a few seconds. That's not at all difficult, for most business computers. "I'm here for a meeting, but I forgot to print out some documents I need. Can you print the papers on this USB drive for me?" It takes a LOT longer to print those documents than it does for the script I've also put on the device to run.
> Without physical access, you use things like MItM attacks, BEEF hooks, Captive Portals, Packet sniffers and such. You'll still get there, it just takes more time and effort.
> And I'm on the second floor of my own home, not my mums basement.



My point really was that if you have access to insert a disc the security requirements are different.

Out of the box, with no extra effort to 'secure', *nix beats ios beats doze from a remote access standpoint.

And, securing a machine against a bootable disc (round or usb) is OS independent.

If you can socially engineer access (click here for nudes), that's a whole lot easier than brute force entry too...


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## JowGaWolf

Reedone816 said:


> Yup it seems this works.
> I uninstall my old chrome, the warning popup no longer popup for coin mining malware.
> Thanks alot...
> 
> Sent from my BV8000Pro using Tapatalk


Glad it solved your problem.  It's unfortunate that google caused this problem as the coin mining malware was part of their browser install.  Hopefully in the future they will focus more on security than being trendy.


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## Xue Sheng

pdg said:


> Not to argue...
> 
> Can someone use that disc to 'own' my computer (running whatever OS) here in England while they're sat in their mum's basement in the US?



Got an e-mail address..... do you look at your e-mail on your computer.....then yes...it's called Phishing
all you need to do is click the link in the e-mail that was socially engineered to get you to open it.

Do you peruse the web? Do you get surprise popups about viruses or free offers...do you click yes, or no or scroll across the popup with your cursor.....then yes


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## Xue Sheng

pdg said:


> And, securing a machine against a bootable disc (round or usb) is OS independent..



yes it is OS independent, it is done in the BIOS and it can also be a GPO

Knoppix is an OS on a disk that is Linux based. And you would need physical access to the box. Or remote access rights


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## Dirty Dog

Xue Sheng said:


> And I have a Knoppix disk (and flash drive) that will own your PC, or any other, in seconds, don't care what OS you run...that is, unless you secure it properly and most don't, not even Linux users.



Agreed. In my experience (which is certainly less extensive than yours), most peoples security is what is set out of the box. And 'out of the box', I think Linux (at least the distros I use) is more secure. Those who tweak things (on any OS) can make it harder, but nothing connected is unhackable, given enough time and commitment.
Even systems that are geared towards security. A buddy at work runs Parrot, which he thought was more secure. I plugged in. Owned. He was able to stop me eventually, but he was doing things that required foreknowledge of exactly how the script worked; i.e. he changed perms on a directory I was using to store a loot file to read only. So I changed to a different directory. Or I had the loot emailed to me at a throw-away gmail account.
Ultimately, he created a USB whitelist. That works, sure. And it's fine on a single user system. But as an enterprise solution, it's awfully cumbersome; nobody can throw work on a USB drive to take home, unless they come get a special one from you. Which they will inevitably lose anyway. Nor can they look at some PowerPoints from a seminar I went to.
The tighter your security, the more difficult it becomes to actually use the computer. It's a trade off.


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## pdg

Xue Sheng said:


> Got an e-mail address..... do you look at your e-mail on your computer.....then yes...it's called Phishing
> all you need to do is click the link in the e-mail that was socially engineered to get you to open it.
> 
> Do you peruse the web? Do you get surprise popups about viruses or free offers...do you click yes, or no or scroll across the popup with your cursor.....then yes



Those aren't really using your knoppix usb drive to 'own' my pc though 

Although, your message has made me think...

Is there a possibility that the Nigerian prince who sent me an email asking for help to move his money wasn't genuine?

What about the one I got that said "we am from you bank council of english in america, needed your password confirm with here clicking" - surely that was genuine?


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## Dirty Dog

pdg said:


> My point really was that if you have access to insert a disc the security requirements are different.
> Out of the box, with no extra effort to 'secure', *nix beats ios beats doze from a remote access standpoint.
> And, securing a machine against a bootable disc (round or usb) is OS independent.
> If you can socially engineer access (click here for nudes), that's a whole lot easier than brute force entry too...



Bootable disks take too long. 
It's not really brute force... Open a terminal window (or command prompt on Windows or MacOS) and type a one line command. Instant remote shell access. Without a password. At that point, there are hundreds of ways to make the shell persistent and escalate privileges. And it's easier to access other machines on that network than it is to access the first one remotely.


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## Xue Sheng

Dirty Dog said:


> Agreed. In my experience (which is certainly less extensive than yours), most peoples security is what is set out of the box. And 'out of the box', I think Linux (at least the distros I use) is more secure. Those who tweak things (on any OS) can make it harder, but nothing connected is unhackable, given enough time and commitment.
> Even systems that are geared towards security. A buddy at work runs Parrot, which he thought was more secure. I plugged in. Owned. He was able to stop me eventually, but he was doing things that required foreknowledge of exactly how the script worked; i.e. he changed perms on a directory I was using to store a loot file to read only. So I changed to a different directory. Or I had the loot emailed to me at a throw-away gmail account.
> Ultimately, he created a USB whitelist. That works, sure. And it's fine on a single user system. But as an enterprise solution, it's awfully cumbersome; nobody can throw work on a USB drive to take home, unless they come get a special one from you. Which they will inevitably lose anyway. Nor can they look at some PowerPoints from a seminar I went to.
> The tighter your security, the more difficult it becomes to actually use the computer. It's a trade off.



Linux us by design more secure than Windows, however it is not as prevalent which makes it less of a target. But, remember it is free so it is downloadable for anyone who whishes to try and break it.

As for rogue flash drives and disks, there are multiple ways to handle it, but most start with "Do not allow auto run"

I was once at a seminar where the speaker was an NSA IT guy and he said then that unless you pull your hard drive, shred it and burn it,,,,, he would find something on it. But the software he was using is the stuff of governments that can afford to pay big bucks for IT forensic equipment. All I came away with from that seminar that was unless I take my PC, unplug it and lock it in a closet, it is not safe. That seminar was 10 years ago and I have changed my view on PC safety. Now I believe that unless you unplug your PC, drop it in a 55 gallon drum of concrete. seal the drum and the lock it in a closet....it will be attacked.

I use to run a tracking software on my home PC and it started telling me that someone from Korea was trying to access my PC. And then it popped up with Central America. It went back and forth between Korea and South America for a few seconds and then my mouse started to move all by itself. So I went to my security suite to lock them out. It was then I realized I forgot to password protect my security suite, because I was now locked out of it. I have to admit it was cool to watch and since I had no important info on my PC I simply shut it down, took it off the internet, wiped it and started from scratch. But I secured my security system and ran “ipconfig /flushdns" before I put it back on the internet


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## JowGaWolf

Dirty Dog said:


> Agreed. In my experience (which is certainly less extensive than yours), most peoples security is what is set out of the box


Unfortunately this is true.  People usually don't lock down their computer access.  

If you really want your systems to be secure then it's going to take a multiple approach.  For the most part it's the human behavior that put weak points into security.  Most people don't listen to the security advice nor do they follow the security recommendations.  Mac users are a good example,  many of them are still running around without antivirus software or firewall software.  Because they feel their system is secure they engage in risky behavior.  No matter what you do, if you can't get the human to do his or her part, then your security efforts will be minimum at best.  

A simple email can F-up a world of secure measures.


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## Xue Sheng

pdg said:


> Those aren't really using your knoppix usb drive to 'own' my pc though
> 
> Although, your message has made me think...
> 
> Is there a possibility that the Nigerian prince who sent me an email asking for help to move his money wasn't genuine?
> 
> What about the one I got that said "we am from you bank council of english in america, needed your password confirm with here clicking" - surely that was genuine?



If I felt like typing more I would tell you all about the time I had a friend of mine contact me from Singapore and the 20 some odd e-mails we had back and forth. He apparently had to go there to help his sister who got sick and he got robbed and had no money...But I think I may have scared him, because he stopped responding. All I told him was the he was in luck, My nephew "Wang Bàolì èmó" who he had meant, was in Singapore on leave from the PRC Special forced unit and I would have his mother wire the money to him and he could meet him somewhere and give him the money...he never responded

1) my firend has no sister, was never in Singapore and his e-mail had been hacked
2) 王 暴力恶魔 ("Wang Bàolì èmó") translates to Wang Violent Demon


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## JowGaWolf

Xue Sheng said:


> That seminar was 10 years ago and I have changed my view on PC safety. Now I believe that unless you unplug your PC, drop it in a 55 gallon drum of concrete. seal the drum and the lock it in a closet....it will be attacked.


View your router log and you can see just how much a network is attacked. Unfortunately most people don't check out their router logs to see what's being blocked and what's getting in.  Consumer PCs are the worse and the Internet browsing that employees do is similar to the browsing habits they have at home.   It's unrealistic to think that any computer won't be attacked.   If it's out there then it's a at risk.  It's not different than humans walking on the street.  The more you walk on the streets and the riskier your walking behavior is (location, awareness, etc.) the more like you'll be attack.  Some attacks may be brute force (aka mugging) and other attacks are less harmful but annoying like SPAM (someone on the street coming to you asking for money).   

Regardless of the OS someone is going to be trying.


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## Dirty Dog

Xue Sheng said:


> Linux us by design more secure than Windows, however it is not as prevalent which makes it less of a target. But, remember it is free so it is downloadable for anyone who whishes to try and break it.



True. And not only is it freely downloadable, the source code is readily available too. You don't even have to reverse engineer it. That's both a strength and a weakness of *nix.



> As for rogue flash drives and disks, there are multiple ways to handle it, but most start with "Do not allow auto run"



That assumes it's actually a real USB drive. Not a rubber ducky. Or a bash bunny. Or any of the other things that just look like a USB drive but are not. "Hey, I've got a cable but I forgot my charger. Can you plug my phone into your computer so it can charge a bit?" Owned.
But it's a good start, yes. That puts us back to getting you to open that Really Cool and Informative PowerPoint file. 
I think social engineering may well be the single most important factor in computer security today.



> I was once at a seminar where the speaker was an NSA IT guy and he said then that unless you pull your hard drive, shred it and burn it,,,,, he would find something on it. But the software he was using is the stuff of governments that can afford to pay big bucks for IT forensic equipment. All I came away with from that seminar that was unless I take my PC, unplug it and lock it in a closet, it is not safe. That seminar was 10 years ago and I have changed my view on PC safety. Now I believe that unless you unplug your PC, drop it in a 55 gallon drum of concrete. seal the drum and the lock it in a closet....it will be attacked.



I agree with this completely. 



> I use to run a tracking software on my home PC and it started telling me that someone from Korea was trying to access my PC. And then it popped up with Central America. It went back and forth between Korea and South America for a few seconds and then my mouse started to move all by itself. So I went to my security suite to lock them out. It was then I realized I forgot to password protect my security suite, because I was now locked out of it. I have to admit it was cool to watch and since I had no important info on my PC I simply shut it down, took it off the internet, wiped it and started from scratch. But I secured my security system and ran “ipconfig /flushdns" before I put it back on the internet



Which goes to show that as systems become more powerful, they also become more vulnerable. Modern computers have too many ways to access them to secure them all.
Also shows the importance of backups and reset points.


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## Gerry Seymour

Dirty Dog said:


> Backup data files only. Reformat. Clean install.
> I don't want to start an OS war (though I might), but your best option would be to ditch windoze entirely. It's bloated, slow, unstable, incredibly easy to hack, and massively invasive of your privacy.
> Personally, I'd recommend one of the various flavors of Linux. Linux is free, fast, stable, generally more secure, and because it's open source your privacy is assured. And unlike Windoze, it's a true multi-threaded multi-tasking OS. Not a shell running over the 1980's era MS-DOS that emulates multi-threading and multi-tasking (which is big part of it's instability). You will never see the BSOD or the interminable "Updating" screen with Linux.
> Linux Mint is popular with people switching from MicroSloth, because it has a similar 'feel' but Ubuntu (which is what I primarily use) and Arch are also very popular. I also like Kali, but that's more oriented towards security testing and hacking so it's not for everyone.


I poked around Linux years ago. Unfortunately, it’s still not a viable option for those of us who need MS Office to be fully compliant with clients. And I’m so unfamiliar with software offerings on Linux that I couldn’t reasonably replace the rest of what I use, either.


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## Buka

Xue Sheng said:


> I too like Linux, use to run a Linux box for AV and security. But it is not necessarily more secure, it is just not as popular in an enterprise setting, it still should be running Antivirus and security software.



I'll take my chances.


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## Dirty Dog

gpseymour said:


> I poked around Linux years ago. Unfortunately, it’s still not a viable option for those of us who need MS Office to be fully compliant with clients. And I’m so unfamiliar with software offerings on Linux that I couldn’t reasonably replace the rest of what I use, either.



Libre Office is MS Office compatible, and a part of the default install on a number of Linux distros. And if it's not part of the distro, it's still a free download. Likewise, there are open source options for most things you'd want. And in the (fairly uncommon) case where there isn't, you can run something like Wine on Linux that allows you to run Windows programs, but in a more stable, actually multi-threaded multi-tasking environment. Win Win. 
And if you MUST keep Windows around, you can always set up a dual boot option. My desktop still has Windows 10 on it. I rarely use it, but it's there. Honestly, the most common reason I boot to Windows is to test a new vulnerability. And even then I'm more likely to run it as several virtual machines (one for each version I'm testing...) on one of my Linux boxes.


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## Gerry Seymour

Dirty Dog said:


> Libre Office is MS Office compatible, and a part of the default install on a number of Linux distros. And if it's not part of the distro, it's still a free download. Likewise, there are open source options for most things you'd want. And in the (fairly uncommon) case where there isn't, you can run something like Wine on Linux that allows you to run Windows programs, but in a more stable, actually multi-threaded multi-tasking environment. Win Win.
> And if you MUST keep Windows around, you can always set up a dual boot option. My desktop still has Windows 10 on it. I rarely use it, but it's there. Honestly, the most common reason I boot to Windows is to test a new vulnerability. And even then I'm more likely to run it as several virtual machines (one for each version I'm testing...) on one of my Linux boxes.


There’s no real analog for Access, nor the same programming flexibility (VBA is native to MS Office), and some difference of functionality, even when using the same file type. And if that portion of my work has to be on Windows (since my graphics software isn’t on Mac), there’s little reason to maintain a Linux install just for browsing when I’m not working.

EDIT: Wine is a consideration. I wasn’t aware there was a Linux variant (I know it from Mac).


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## Buka

Xue Sheng said:


> I was once at a seminar where the speaker was an NSA IT guy and he said then that unless you pull your hard drive, shred it and burn it,,,,, he would find something on it.





Which is why I take my old hard drives and do far worse than that to them. And I don't even have anything to hide.

Except for, you know, stuff we say here on MT.


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