Ubuntu and safe web surfing?

[srehrlich-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org (Scott Ehrlich)]

On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 9:45 AM, Scott Ehrlich <srehrlich-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 3:12 PM, Bill Horne <ehorne-zY4eFNvK5D9If6P1QZMOBw at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>> On 4/18/2010 2:48 PM, Scott Ehrlich wrote:
>>> My sister's PC was gifted to her with pre-installed Windows XP. ? ?She
>>> thinks it has become infected, and she has very limited funding, so I
>>> said either buy a copy of Windows XP or Win 7, though I'm not
>>> convinced the system can take Win 7 and Win XP is being phased out.
>>>
>>
>> The PC might be equipped with a recovery partition which can be used to
>> roll-back the machine to its delivery date.
>>
>
> Hi Bill:
>
> Not a bad idea, but unless I'm proven otherwise, I just don't trust
> _any_ Windows system, from the first sector to the last, once it has
> been infected. ? I'd want it to be reformatted no matter what.
>

That is, unless it is a VM, in which case I'd simply trash the
infected VM and spawn a new one.