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New computer for little sister... best way to keep it clean?

G

gopunk

Lifer
her current computer has been rendered unusable... can't open any folders, internet explorer, opera, event viewer, etc... i can't do jack sh!t

i suspect this all has something to do with the 20 or so spy/malware programs... and she gets pissed off when i tell her it's her fault :roll:

anyways... we're going to get her a new dell... probably dimension 2400 because she doesn't need that much power anyways. but i'm wondering, what would be the better way to handle this....

do i...

a.) severly limit her account so she can't install anything, replace IE with firebird, etc etc

or

b.) try to gently educate her about how the programs got on her current computer and how to be more vigilent in the future

i would like to do (b) since i won't always be around to help her with this stuff, but has anyone actually succeeded in doing something like that? i mean she still vigorously denies that she did anything wrong (so the malware just magically appeared), so i wonder if it's a lost cause. but i don't even know how to do (b)... i mean i just *know* which programs will come bundled with crapware or that a certain popup window needs to be closed in a certain way... but i'm not sure how i could teach my sister this, if i could formalize it in any way...

curious what you guys have to say
 
Antivirus with automatic updates of defintiions
Spywareblaster + enabled protections
Spybot + immunizations
Firefox

and most important, user education.
 
If you go with b, you'll end up in the same place. Course, if you go with a, you'll end up in the same place later.
 
Originally posted by: notfred
Get an iMac instead. I'm dead serious. This won't even be an issue.
Click to expand...

well the dell we were thinking of getting her will be ~$500 for a decent (p4 2.8, 512 ddr, 80 gigs, monitor, dvd+cdrw, etc) non-power user machine... are imacs that cheap?
 
Give her an account and lock it down, no install privileges, no downloads... better yet, teach her how to use firefox.

Boot into safemode and remove the pesty programs. There's a link stickied on top of the software forums that teaches you how to remove those damn things.
 
Install Opera, closer to internet explorer IMO
Install Norton Antivirus
Install adaware and spybot
intall all updates for windows and drivers

Ghost it, whenever it's messed up tell her to insert the cd and start over
 
ghost + let her learn the hard way. tell her to backup and not install junk without checking out for spyware. if she doesn't, she's gonna eventually suffer in some way or another.
 
For most people I generally just leave IE, but I install the Google Toolbar, spyware blaster and spy bot.

I also set spybot to immunize in order to kind of back up spyware blaster. It's worked well.
 
If all she uses her computer for is stuff like surfing, email, IM, typing papers, etc., then install Mandrake Linux.

Or, affirming what notfred said, get her a Mac. My PowerBook never gets any spyware.
 
Originally posted by: gopunk
Originally posted by: notfred
Get an iMac instead. I'm dead serious. This won't even be an issue.
Click to expand...

well the dell we were thinking of getting her will be ~$500 for a decent (p4 2.8, 512 ddr, 80 gigs, monitor, dvd+cdrw, etc) non-power user machine... are imacs that cheap?
Click to expand...

mac and cheap in the same sentence? :laugh:
 
First off, install Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. That way, you get an IE pop-up blocker, IE spyware blocker, and firewall installed right away. Then, remove the IE desktop icons, install Mozilla Firefox, rename the icon to "Internet" or something like that. Uninstall Outlook Express, or at least set it up to automatically delete all attachments that aren't a picture file type. Install an anti-virus program that automatically updates and scans itself, and then lockout the options that allow her to turn those options off.
 
Am I the only one missing the negative reinforcement:

She infests her computer with spyware...so you buy her a new one? Doesn't make sense to me.

Why not teach her to use the one she has, and then once she is somewhat literate, purchase a new one?

Seems like you're trying to fix the problem the wrong way.

My 2 cents.
 
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