How to give my parent's computer a checkup?

Question

Hey, I am bored, so I just thought that I would check my parent's desktop for viruses, spy ware, defrag the hard drive, uninstall some of the trail software, etc. Do you have any free spy ware, virus checker, etc. software. Also do you have any tips to make it faster (i.e. deleting cookies). Their computer runs Windows XP.

Answer 1

free antivirus - http://free.grisoft.com

remove adware = http://lavasoftusa.com

remove spyware - http://www.safer-networking.org

Be sure to update them before running

Answer 2

Since your computer probably has a ton of infections you don't know about, here is my standard cleaning procedure:

NOTE: on badly infected computers, you may have to install and run the scans from safe mode. Some programs will be actively disabled or damaged by the infections. When this happens, just pick another cleaning program until you find one which isn't knocked out. Then reboot and try some of the others. Lather, rinse and repeat until you have a clean system.

How to start in safe mode:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorial...

Visit http://www.majorgeeks.com

Download, install and run the following:

(drive cleaner)

http://majorgeeks.com/CCleaner_Slim_No_T...

ccleaner slim (removes junk and temp files so that the scans have fewer files to look through)

(anti-virus) Pick one, some infections disable cleaning programs, so try another until you can start removing the infections.

Dr Web Cure it

AVG

AntiVIr

Avast

If your wallpaper has been changed (and you can't change it back).

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Wallpaper_Hija...

If you have an infection that says something like “your computer is infected with 258 malware infections. Click here to download a cleaning tool”. DON'T download it! Use the Smitfraudfix tool instead:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/files/sm...



(anti-spyware) (This first group will detect and remove the worst infections. The 2nd group will clean up the stragglers).

Superantispyware

Malwarebytes Rouge Remover

Malwarebytes anti-malware

Threatfire

spyware doctor starter edition

ad-aware 2008

spybot search and destroy

Counterspy

AVG anti-spyware

Download and run combofix

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofix...

Once you get the infections cleaned off, you have to repair the damage.

Download, install and run

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4899.h...

Dial-a-fix

Go through everything. This will fix a bunch of things that infections love to break. If you still have problems, (parts of windows is broken) you may need to do an Windows repair install or get some other tools to correct the changed settings. Tweak UI can be helpful (or dangerous in the wrong hands).

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/twea...

Good luck

LKB