A friend asked me to give him a hand with his computer. The printer stopped working. Simple I thought, delete and reinstall then wine and a visit. Ha.

As he's got a wireless network, I figured I'd make sure that wasn't the problem so I opened his browser. It took 2 minutes to open a page. Linked to another site, still a minute or so. Time to check his programs file.

No spy ware blocking, no virus protection, no firewall. However his daughter had installed (3 users all with admin privilege) Kazaa. I downloaded a virus/firewall suite, MS Antispyware, Spyware blaster, Spybot and new drivers for his printer. 3 hours later, all was installed. We removed over 200 bits of spyware. I didn't have time to wait for the virus scan but left him directions.

Oh yeah, I removed Kazaa and made all users limited except Max and his account is password protected so his daughter can't go there again. Upside - I'm reminded just why I'm so anal about clearing my machine regularly. I still need to go back to install CCleaner to sweep his registry, defrag and like that. Never actually did get to his printer.

Comments
on May 01, 2005
You, if you have time, shoulc make a list of links of things you used and did to fix the computer. All the proggies and tweaks you made. If you do it, I'll post it on as many sites that I can!!

I think I might give it a try... making the list that is, of trusted programs to fix the computer and keep it fixed.

... and why haven't you joined KnowledgeNet!!!

on May 01, 2005
I can't believe with all the advertizing and threads like these about protecting our computers, there are still people out there surfing without it.It's not like they can't afford it. There are so many good, free progs out there like MS anti spyware, AdAware, Spybot, Zone Alarm, and the list goes on.