Help a colleague of mine - Thanks

[maforduk]

"Help - kids have downloaded lots of rubbish on home computer - this has slowed it down to nearly stop and i seem to have lost lots of my icons, unable to open files etc. Have tried rebooting to safe date with norton ghost, however computer is saying i have none. They've also managed to lose my microsoft word."

This is what I have suggested to her:
Sounds like you may have a virus or two.
Reboot your PC in safemode and run your Anti-Virus programs.
After that, download "CCleaner" and run this.

Do you have a Firewall?

You may also want to look at specialist websites for help, they will give you more detailed information to look for if this fails.
I'll see if I can find some webistes later on for you.

[dudbomb]

Re: Help a colleague of mine - Thanks

Reinstall Windows, "Repair" windows doesnt work. if icons are missing its either they have edited the shortcuts or renamed the icon file itself, empty the Recycle bin.

[ConscriptVirus]

Re: Help a colleague of mine - Thanks

yeah this sounds like a bad case where reformatting windows would prob be the easiest way out.. how did u lose microsoftword?

but if he wants to go the hard way...he can try wat u suggested and boot in safe mode and scan.

also tell him to scan with Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D

[Sniper1432]

Re: Help a colleague of mine - Thanks

buy a new pc J/k but yeah reinstall or do a major clean up(cc cleaner,Spyware,defrag,viruses etc...)

[Jack.nd]

Re: Help a colleague of mine - Thanks

Also, get rid of norton. My comp ran slow since I installed it and it caused so many problems. So I deleted it and now my comp runs fine. Know a few people who found that norton slowed their machines down too.

[BPCrusher01]

Re: Help a colleague of mine - Thanks

I personally like Avast! and AVG in combination with Comodo Firewall. This is in addition to Microsoft Defender built in. Once you get rid of your bad stuff, tighten up your security. Make your kids their own acounts with very tight parental controls on them. Deny them the ability to keep downloading and installing things.