Way OT: Extreme PC software repair
A friend of mine has a Thinkpad that originally ran Windows 98 and has been upgraded to Windows 2000. He uses a dial-up Internet connection for e-mail and web surfing, and he also does word processing on it. He might also be using some legal software (he's a lawyer). As far as I can tell, this is all he uses his computer for, in other words he's as basic a computer user as you might imagine.
Here's the kicker ... he has never run any antivirus software on it other than what came with his machine in 1998, which I suspect was a trial version, and thus wouldn't have been run since maybe early 1999. As you might imagine, his machine has become virtually unusable. In recent months, he has referred to it as "possessed".
On the phone, I told him that was probably not far wrong, that his machine was almost certainly a "zombie" for various PC viruses, loaded with spyware, and generally a Piece of Crap, and that it's no wonder he has become unable to connect to the Internet. Naturally, this was in the context of his wanting me to fix it for him. Silly me, I agreed to try. He's coming over this afternoon.
So, while I've been working on PCs for 20 years, and maintaining my own for much of that time, including being a safe Internet user, with current antivirus programs the whole time (to my knowledge, I have never been infected by either Mac or PC malware, on the PC side because of extreme care, and on the Mac side because, well ... there are no frickin' Mac viruses) I have no experience in wiping an infected PC, much less what I expect is such a massively infected one. I have already laid the groundwork for him to expect a total Windows re-installation, once I back up his documents (to my Mac network, of course).
My question is, what suggestions might any of you have for my PC cleanup project, short of that massive reinstall? I suspect I'm going to have to get him to buy a current PC antivirus program as part of this process, and am most familiar with Symantec's, but if there's another more suitable for home use, I'm all ears. Does anyone have suggestions for any other programs I might want to try, too? A spyware-wiping program, for example, that might do things above and beyond the scope of the function of an antivirus program?
I've already offered my friend the temporary use of one of the old Mac laptops (c. 1995) I've refurbed, which I'm sure he could use for exactly the kinds of things he says he's doing with his PC now, but this would be a lot slower than his cleaned-up PC (being 3 years more ancient still), but probably better than what he has now. Heck, I've even offered to sell him one for $50, but he's already a little anxious about leaving the "comfort zone" of his PC, so he may not want to go there. Imagine!
Any suggestions, y'all?
