One really handy little (tiny overhead actually) application I run on my Win7 Dell Latitude is "Startup Monitor" from Mike Linn.  Runs in background and detects all those pesky downloads that try to put themselves in your startup area.  Like they are Gods Gift so why wouldn't want to run them EVERY time you start!  Those of course build up and are a key factor in desperately slow startup performance if left to stay.  The monitor allows you to say "No" 99.9% of occasions an attempt is made to clog your startup.

 

Empathise with the OP and thanks for posting some good ideas in this thread.  Although in my case its reversed.  I'm the parent, approaching 60, and have to spend a deal of my time sorting out and cleaning the cr4p my kids have loaded into their laptops, usually from faceblog.  Teaching them to use CCleaner regularly has helped.......

One of my co-worker let her 13 y/o daughter loose on face blog....

 

A week later I was called in to clear the 4,550 viri they had managed to accumulate from downloading "a great game that was recommended"

To have that many either they had no AV protection, or used a free one like AVG.

I offered to look at the parent's in law's laptop - it has been suffering with a few issues namely because they really don't know what they are doing on the internet and seem to be widely clicking anything that appears without actually reading it or knowing what harm it will do.

 

Consequently they have NO virus protection despite me wiping Norton and installing Avast for them 12 months ago  , furthermore they seem to have 4 different browers installed (IE, Firefox, Chrome and Torch)

 

They had decided to let someone from Virgin Media "dial in" to their laptop but after messing about with it for an hour and deciding he couldn't properly install "F-Secure", he left it alone

 

 

I started this last night and the first thing I did was put Malwarebytes on it - good move I think as it found c1,200 infections on the first pass and after a reboot another c600 infections. I then attempted to put Microsoft Security Essentials on but struggled to get Windows Firewall & Defender to work - it turned out that these had been disabled within services.msc, possibly by some virus/infection.

 

About 10pm last night I eventually got it working better with MSE protecting it. Malwarebytes is also sitting protecting too. However the one thing I am now struggling to sort is Windows Update. Like Firewall and Defender this was also disabled but regardless of what I do, I can't get it to work, I simply get the error 800070424 and it won't update. Windows Update is enabled within services.msc.

 

I am going to try an aggressive rebuild of the Windows Update from here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058

 

But if that doesn't work it's looks I'll need to do a clean install, which to be honest isn't a bad thing I suppose.

 

BTW machine is a Dell Inspiron running Vista with SP2.

 

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

I have a genuine copy of Windows 7 Home Premium I don't use anymore if you fancy taking it off my hands for a few squid??

 

It's not a copy or a hack, but the real McCoy and I used to use it on the Mac but have long since removed it as it never got used.

Fixing windows update is surprisingly easy once you know how, the usual causes are the logs or database getting corrupted.

 

You could try

 

Stop automatic updates service

in explorer rename "C:\windows\software distribution" folder to something else

Start automatic updates service

 

Windows will create a new folder, new logs etc. The first time you run through Windows update, it will take a long time as the computer will rebuild the database and logs.

 

A good file to look at to see whats happening is C:\windows\windowsupdate.log 

To have that many either they had no AV protection, or used a free one like AVG.

 

They were using Norton Internet Security - and it was fully up to date.

 

What people dont understand is that it only takes ONE virus to get past the AV and you will quickly be inundated. In this case, the "game" included a script to disable the active AV, it then downloaded more "modules" to take control of the AV, harvest personal info, and spread the original virus to everyone on the email and social networks lists it found.

 

And obviously, once the AV is disabled, the PC is open to every nasty out there, which all like to download and install THEIR "modules" to steal data, log key strokes, send spam etc.

 

I wiped Norton as it was close to the end of the subscription and installed AVAST!! ZoneAlarm, Malwarebytes and Spybot, and some browser addons for FF. I then sat down and went through how to keep the system free of bugs, and what to do if they were worried something had got through.

 

(I know ZoneAlarm can be a PITA, but it is easy to use for non techy people).

 

I think the largest number of "hits" I have had when asked for help clearing an infection was about 15,000; THAT was a bugger to clear, and took about 10-12 hours of my time over two days; initially I couldnt even get into "Safe Mode", as the option had been disabled by the infections.

For the vast majority of non-technically minded people a dumb terminal with a server providing processing and software would be the best answer for trouble-free internet access.

 

Cloud computing is taking us in that direction. I say roll-on.

 

Then what will the malware bods and hackers do for entertainment ?

 

 

Nick

For the vast majority of non-technically minded people a dumb terminal with a server providing processing and software would be the best answer for trouble-free internet access.

 

Cloud computing is taking us in that direction. I say roll-on.

 

Then what will the malware bods and hackers do for entertainment ?

 

 

Nick

 

The theory is good but they have a prerequisite for a good stable connection. Outside of major metropolitan areas that can be a problem.

 

I think some of the newer Chromebooks have some sort of offline capability.

 

You're also putting a lot of trust into the Cloud provider and that is not a good place to be right now although it's likely to improve.

 

The malware nasty peeps will think of something, They'er very talented and not to be underestimated. I'd expect they will clone the cloud service and attack the DNS to make your thin client sync with the bad cloud.