Quote - Not sure which topic this best belongs in, so thought I'd start here.

Has anyone had experience with virus attacks and cleaning, and their impact on 3D software applications?

At home? Not since I went Linux and Mac full-time (since 2003 or so, save for one recently-bought 2nd-hand laptop w/ XP on it, but it isn't allowed to go online). I don't use A/V at all on OSX and Linux (IMPO, it's a waste of cash for home use on those OSes). At work? Lots, with other users (I use Fedora Core 7). The intel.com domain is a pretty popular target, so we usually see active attempts on a much greater basis. In my experience, any single A/V solution isn't going to cut the mustard. This is because anti-virus is a reactive solution, and isn't able to anticipate anything until it's already attacked someone. You would be amazed at how much doesn't get caught. Your best bet nowadays is to use an A/V that's light and fast (i.e. NOT Norton), and couple it with a periodic sweep from the website http://housecall.antivirus.com (Trend Micro runs the site, and it is trusted, even among the crusty old sysadmin set :) ). Also, if you use Internet Explorer and Outlook/Outlook Express... STOP! Go get Firefox (Web) and Thunderbird (email). These two aren't all tightly integrated into Windows like the built-in MSFT-built stuff, run just as fast (faster in many cases), and are far more immune to the crap out there than the Microsoft stuff. Doing just this will eliminate 98% of the malware. Use IE only for Windows Update and the Trend Micro thingy (both of which use ActiveX controls, so they need IE to work). For Poser, you can ease the pain of having to re-install Windows after an attack by keeping a copy of your Runtime directory (the whole thing) backed-up onto an external hard drive. They're fairly cheap, and it's easy to plug it in and copy the directory onto it once every couple of weeks or so. Same with your purchases, images, and other files that you want to keep. HTH a little, /P