Cleaning teen-infected computer

luckat

Someone with great faith in my computing abilities, poor man, has asked me to clear out some of the stuff installed by his teenage son, who has clogged up the whole system with junk so he can't add anything else.

Any idea what this junk might be? I thought pictures and soundfiles, but being a pure sort myself don't know where to look for these. Where would they be? What am I looking for?

Stark

Try using Spybot or Ad-aware to get rid of junk.

Stephen

porn diallers to the max

aphex™

go to windows search, and look for

*.mp3 - find out where the tunes are at
*.AVI - the pirate movies
*.mpg or *.wmv -usually porn.

then look for anything containing numbers 4921*

The Real B-man

Originally posted by Stephen
porn diallers to the max

lol:D

Champ

I would start with Add / Remove then Disk Cleanup. Probably scandisk as well for good measure to make sure the kid didn't damage any files ... with who knows what:)

Raskolnikov

Originally posted by aphex™

*.mpg or *.wmv -usually porn.

My computer must be chocker block with porn so!

Cake Fiend

Tell your "friend" to start with Stark's suggestion of spybot and ad-aware, then proceed to uninstall anything that looks like it shouldn't be there from the 'add/remove programs' applet in the Control Panel. Especially peer-to-peer programs such as Kazaa or Emule. Then run a full virus-scan on the machine. You could also take a look at msconfig (run 'msconfig' from the run box on the start menu) for any unwanted programs starting up when the computer boots. Then tell him to keep a closer eye on what his "son" is doing on the internet.

spongebob

I always blame the parents. How big was the porn dialler phone bill to Diego Garcia that 'alerted 'them in the end?

M

irishgeo

try this Stinger removes some of the more recent virus infections.

It is NOT anti virus software.

http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

Victor

Originally posted by luckat
who has clogged up the whole system with junk so he can't add anything else.

Check the contents of the recycle bin and empty it. Clearing "temporary internet files" in your browser might also be handy for freeing up space. Isn't there also a "disk clean-up" function somewhere?

TacT

start> programs> accesories> system tools under 98se and 2k

cormie

It may not be any of the above.

He could have got loads of demo CD's and installed loads of Demo games and other junk that he has used once. It's such a mess when PC's get all this sh*t on them. Best thing to do is backup all important files and start again! Takes ages though, if you wanna just do a quicky, go through whats not needed and shift and delete (go to remove programme command in control panel first)

luckat

Thanks very much, this is great - especially the list of file types, aphex. I haven't seen the computer yet, the guy's bringing it into work today.

I had assumed that it would be mostly temporary internet files, but the way he's talking it sounds as if the kid's installed all kinds of weird and wonderful programs.

One of the other things I've often found on neighbours' computers is those annoying cursors that look like dragons and bugs and things - how do I find and kill them, if he has them?

And what about screensavers? I assume that any teenager will probably have put on lots of stupid screensavers - but then, maybe they don't clog up the computer much?

Champ

Well to handle cursors i would go to Control Panel -> Mouse.

With regards to screen savers; i'd be more worried about viruses then disk space. Do a wildcard search for *.scr files to find screen savers; though keep in mind there's a number of default ones in your Windows directory

Stephen

maybe you should hide internet explorer away and install firefox/opera instead for their own protection. I've done that for someone else, just renamed the firefox shortcut to "internet explorer" and imported all their favourites. They haven't noticed a difference yet

daveg

Backup any docs he needs.
Format c: drive.
Create a Partition if he does not already have one with Fdisk.
Re=install operating system and drivers.
Ghost image the C: drive onto drive and hide that drive.

Whenever he needs to get a fesh install just put back the ghost image.

This has been my solution for many simular situations as your own.

daveg

Originally posted by luckat
what about screensavers?

Search for *.scr. This should list all screensavers. Also check the add/remove in control panel.

luckat

Curioser and curioser. My friend [/colleague] forgot the computer today, but will bring it in next week.

It turns out that this is a Gateway laptop using Windows ME; he's not sure of the chip speed or hard disk size, but thinks he has 256MB of RAM.

But apparently the thing is freezing on startup - it gets as far as the Gateway logo, then zilch.

He thinks this is because of all the millions of games and things the kid has put on it; but apparently the teen normally switches it off by using the power button, not Start/Shut Down.

Any thoughts?

Stephen

even Windows ME should perform a normal ACPI power down when the power button is pressed, unless the kid is just holding the button down for 5 seconds to force it to power off.

Champ

Well shutting down with just the power button can't be healthy:) If there's no joy coxing it to start up on its own; it's time to get out a boot disk. Use it to boot up and run scandisk to check the disk integrity and perhaps fix some problems.

Wild guess is that maybe some virus either mucked up the master boot record or something else important on the hard disk.

It doesn't even get to any Windows procedures..... messages... startup logo?

quozl

windows ME was probably the flakiest windows release. Can you not just copy the guys important data over the network to some other machine and reinstall the laptop? If the install is that messed up you'll spend as long cleaning it to the best of your abilities, and it still won't run as stable as a clean install.

Or if he or you have a spare license for it and the laptop really does have 256mb ram, he might be much happier with windows 2000. He can just give his kid normal user access and not let him install crap again. And even if he does install crap it's much less likely to affect other users and the whole systems stability.

ME is a disaster.

Greg

Champ

windows ME was probably the flakiest windows release. Can you not just copy the guys important data over the network to some other machine and reinstall the laptop? If the install is that messed up you'll spend as long cleaning it to the best of your abilities, and it still won't run as stable as a clean install.

I definetly agree with that line of thought. If ME is as busted up as it looks; i would go with a clean wipe; and possible change of OS. If it's only wanted for work Linux should be considered; wonder if the kid would play around with it so much then:D

luckat

He's actually passing this computer on to the kid, so a wipe and reinstall would be sensible; I have Win2K Pro, unused. But remind me: how do I format a disk again? I don't do this often.

daveg

Originally posted by luckat
He's actually passing this computer on to the kid, so a wipe and reinstall would be sensible; I have Win2K Pro, unused. But remind me: how do I format a disk again? I don't do this often.

Boot to dos

type - Format C:

Champ

But remind me: how do I format a disk again?

I would do this with fdisk; though if you have partition magic boot disks; that's safer for the more inexperienced user.

I'm not sure but when you boot up with the W2k Boot Disks; don't they give you the option of formatting the drive when installing Windows?

If you want to set up seperate partitions either use fdisk when you've wiped everything; or partition magic later.

Raskolnikov

Originally posted by luckat
He's actually passing this computer on to the kid, so a wipe and reinstall would be sensible; I have Win2K Pro, unused. But remind me: how do I format a disk again? I don't do this often.

You won't even need to fdisk it if you've got Win2k Pro, you can just go to the BIOS, select the option to boot from the CD drive before the hard disk. Then reboot the machine and you should get a screen offering you to reinstall the OS and then asking if you want to reformat or not. I'm not sure of the order it goes in, but it should be fairly obvious.

luckat

Brilliant, thanks, that's what I'll do, use the Win2k CD.