I finally had a client admit they deleted system32 thinking it was a virus

I had this one older guy come into my shop last Tuesday with his laptop running Windows 7 still. He said it was acting weird so he googled how to fix it and someone online told him to delete system32 because it was a virus. I mean I've heard stories about that happening but never actually seen it in person. He was dead serious too, said he followed a step by step guide from a forum. I had to explain that system32 is basically the heart of Windows and now he needs a whole new install. Has anyone else had a client who actually did something like this or am I just lucky?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavinperez1mo ago

Used to think people who deleted system32 were just memes or fake stories. Then last month my neighbor's kid proudly told me he deleted it from his dad's old XP machine to make it run faster. Dad was not happy. Changed my whole view on how clueless some people really are with computers. Some folks will just blindly follow anything they read online without a second thought. Guess that's just how it goes with tech support.

river_bailey21mo ago

Had this happen a few months back with a buddy's kid who thought he was being smart by following a "speed boost" tutorial from some random YouTuber. Best way to handle it is just lock down admin access on any shared computer, saves everyone the headache.

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