Re:New to computing? Go straing for The Right Thin (Score 1)

An admirable circumstance, plus an excellent solution to boot.

Sadly, I had no such good fortune when being tasked with rescuing my father-in-law's machine yesterday. First thing to do was uninstall his anti-virus software (what with it being five years out of date), and then install AVG 6.0 plus Spybot 1.2 and run those...

2,500 infected files, 90+ spyware items, and at least a dozen infected email attachments later, it was time to update his drivers and then spend a couple of hours in the company of Windows Update.

Now that the machine is back on its own two feet again, I've setup AVG to run at every boot and Windows startup. I've also set Spybot to run every Windows startup too. It's certainly not ideal*, but it should help save him from the more malicious kind of crap out there (or is it 'here'?).

* I acknowledge that my father-in-law's system could have had even better protection, should I have chosen to install something like Kerio Personal Firewall. But this was a favour - a helping hand - not an exercise in trying to completely confuse an infrequent user with an encyclopaedia's-worth of jargon. He just wanted to get back to browsing as quickly and painlessly as possible, and, given the quick turnaround, he's pleased with the results; everything is as it was, he's not lost any data, and his computer now has a good deal more protection than it did. It's non-intrusive too, which is even more of a benefit to a casual user. I guess the only real trade-off is that Windows takes a few moments longer to start up.