Some who weren’t affected reveled in the fact. “What a mistake, hmm?” says Alexander Arias, a personal trainer in Bogata, Colombia. “Fortunately I'm using Windows 7 on my PC.”

“Ha!,” says Jacob Larger of Columbus, Ohio. “Hate Vista now?”

“Apple only in our house,” said Arnold Jason, a musician in Stratford, Conn.

Others used Twitter to spread the cure, recommending sites such as , and .

One affected end-user even coined a new term for the massive effects of the problem. “Mcaffocalypse here at the University of North Dakota,” says Bill Caraher, an assistant history professor at the school.