Arsenal of programs to help fix others' PC problems

[IS300]

Even though I know little compared to most on these forums, lately more and more people have been asking me to come over and help "fix their PCs."

Typically, these problems are:

- Have virus/malware issues (almost always)
- Cannot connect to internet
- Computer seems really slow.

I'd like to have a arsenal of tools that I can carry around on my flash drive (sometimes their computer is unable to connect to internet), so that I can help solve their problems with minimal waste of time.

From several helpful posts in theses forums, I've found a couple programs and/or helpful instructions:

In particular, this link seems to be very helpful (thanks law9933).

Also, MechBGon's page on How to secure your PC is helpful.


Here's a list of programs I've come up with so far:

A copy of Windows XP (just in case all else fails, assuming they have their code)
Hijack This (although this will probably entail ALOT of time spent uploading logs, etc.)
Avira Anti-Vir Free
Ad-Aware SE
Spybot S&D
SpywareBlaster
Belarc Advisor

 

[law9933]

Thanks for the acknowledgement, I thought 1972vet was to the point but there are similar postings.
What you have is all good, Blaster is a protective blocker after the PC is fixed.

What one might miss another could find, these are also free.
AVG Antispyware
SUPERAntispyware
a-squared
ATF cleaner or CCleaner (Issues is a safe registry cleaner) I don't remove prefetch or cookies with passwords.
SysSpec
What's Running
Startup Inspector
Silent Runners
autoruns
WinPatrol
BootSafe is handy if XP runs
A disk like Linux Ubuntu live CD is handy to determine if it is a XP crash or hard drive problem.

I am only a amuture also, all I know is from studying the pros on the forums.
Nothing is better than a HJT advisor's knowledge.
There are online HJT analyzers I use for a quick check, but they are not to be trusted.

 

[law9933]

Also online scanner Housecall is often recommended.

 

[Schadenfroh]

An Automatic (unattended) Virus / Spyware Removal Script can be handy🙂

 

[lxskllr]

UBCD for Windows is a tool I use quite frequently. Between that and Gparted, I have 90% of my repair tasks taken care of.

 

[Mojoed]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
An Automatic (unattended) Virus / Spyware Removal Script can be handy🙂

EXTREMELY handy. And for the life of me, I can't understand why that thread doesn't get more attention. The amount of information Mech, Schad and John offer up in the security forum is unreal.

I wish more AT'ers would branch out and check out the above linked thread and others in the security forum. It's too dead there. 🙁

 

[IS300]

Thank you, everyone. These seem very helpful.

 

[ch33zw1z]

make sure you include a big rubber mallet in that tool kit, you may need it when the custy's get ugly 😛