My friend has some programs installed that came with a lot of spyware and adware. I installed Norton Antivirus and its email protection picked up that his computer is sending out mass emails. How do I get rid of this? Will spybot or adware get rid of em?

9/4/2006 3:16:46 PM

No, but a format will

9/4/2006 3:21:48 PM

^^
Possibly, but a comlete wipe is the safest way to ensure everything is gone. You can send several hours trying to get rid of whatever is on there, or 1-2 hours from scratch.

9/4/2006 3:49:27 PM

+ 10 hours trying to reinstall software


grrrrr i hate reformatting

9/4/2006 4:08:34 PM

Yeah, that's why the last time I had to reformat a friend's computer I used the ThinkVantage software to create a backup post updates, and post software install.

You can set a restore point the same way, but manual or non-windows created backups are less likely to become infected themselves. Also, the ThinkVantage backups can install themselves even if windows is entirely hosed. If you're really smart and you create the restore image on a usb or secondary harddrive, it's even better.

[Edited on September 4, 2006 at 4:12 PM. Reason : ]

9/4/2006 4:10:58 PM

Quote :

"How do I get rid of this?"

Take it out into the back yard and beat it with a 15lb sledge. Your friend doesn't need a computer.

9/4/2006 9:56:01 PM

His computer was/is really bad. Adware found over 400 things, and the stuff Spybot found was even worse. I got his computer to work better, but he doesn't want to reformat it. So oh well.

9/5/2006 9:43:01 AM

Tell him to reformat, he won't lose a single piece of important data if we backs up his files on CD/DVD first.

9/5/2006 10:52:05 AM

9/5/2006 10:52:55 AM

Since I have an image of my hard drive at all times, takes me 15 minutes

differential backups ftw

9/5/2006 11:07:49 AM

what program do you use to make the image? i think i've got my PC at a near-perfect state right now (once i uninstall norton and install kaspersky) - the main partition is only like 16 or 17 gb too so I could sneak that onto another partition safely

9/5/2006 12:16:49 PM