Ensuring my Refurbed.ie Desktop is clean and secure

poteen

Hi,

I'm about to receive a refurbed desktop from Refurbed.ie

It's shipping from France. Are there any security checks I can do to ensure it's safe from malware and any other unwanted items before i start using it ? I believe it will have windows pre installed. Thanks.

10-10-20

Install Linux onto it and be done with the worry.

https://www.linuxmint.com/

I moved my 80 year old father over to Mint and he's flying it as all he needed was the browser and access to his photos and documents anyway.

28064212

Do a fresh Windows install from scratch. I do that with every computer I receive, regardless of source (excluding work-provided ones of course).

Short of building your own (and I mean from raw materials, not putting together components), there's no way to ensure that a computer that someone else has had physical access to is 100% safe. They could have inserted something at the firmware or BIOS level. Or even a piece of literal hardware e.g. a USB port that, as well as allowing you to plug in a keyboard, also records every byte going through it. This applies to new computers just as much as second-hand.

In reality, unless you believe a state-level actor is targetting you, doing a clean operating system install is a much as is practical

the_amazing_raisin

Reinstall the OS as others have said

You could also reflash the BIOS and device firmware for the hardware if you want to be extra careful

Linux is free and a lot easier to use nowadays than many people make it out to be.

I've switched over to Fedora Linux after the headache of Windows 11 and found it very easy

Mint is an excellent option for a Windows like experience, and of course Ubuntu is the most popular option and has a lot of support

poteen

thanks everyone. When the unit arrives and I switch it on, of it prompted me to start the windows install then I can just follow that and be done... I don't need to do that twice ?

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123497243#Comment_123497243

So you can modify a windows image before installation, a lot of companies do this to basically preload their employees computers with the software they need and perform basic setup

In theory the seller could have done something similar to your computer to preload some malware or a keylogger

In other words, you probably want to reinstall the OS from a known safe image (downloaded from Microsoft) to be sure

It's also worth remembering that if you're concerned about security then you need to consider more than the OS. Plenty of dodgy apps out there that install malware in secret, not to mention the obscene amount of tracking built into modern Windows systems