[elithrar]

I can see this NOT being an option for a lot of users—"Mom and Dad" types, people who travel, etc. Many would prefer nothing is done if it's an option between "full reinstall" and "live with the cert".

In this case Windows Defender and Lenovo's own tool remove the app + certificate. I think that's certainly "enough" as we're not dealing with malware which has trashed the system in other ways. Heck, they have to pay for a fresh copy of Windows first too.

TL;DR: "Clean install from a standard image" sounds like great advice on paper but it's not practicable for normal users.

[DanBC]

> TL;DR: "Clean install from a standard image" sounds like great advice on paper but it's not practicable for normal users.

Ignoring sailfish for the moment: mom and dad types take their infected machines to other people.

Those people should know enough to know that malware removal is a con and that the quickest, most effective, way of cleaning the machine is a clean install of the OS.

This has been true for a very long time. It's weird to see malware tools recommended so often on HN.

[toothbrush]

> In this case Windows Defender and Lenovo's own tool remove the app + certificate. I think that's certainly "enough" as we're not dealing with malware which has trashed the system in other ways.

You don't know that for sure. Hence, reinstall. Also, why not use a Libre operating system? I've never had my GNU activation fail.

[smkelly]

I guess you never mistyped a Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation number before then.

[derekp7]

You mean that monstrosity from RHEL 5? I'm so glad they got rid of that in RHEL 6.

[selectodude]

Because that's completely unreasonable and you know that.