Fixing Mom's PC

[Glen Miyashiro]

Along with the Christmas tree and the presents and the huge meals, there's a new holiday tradition to look forward to: fixing Mom's PC!

Back at the old house, your old bedroom has been converted into a study or a craft room, and sitting there is the PC that your folks bought years ago.

"Can you take a look at it? It's been acting kind of funny."

Uh oh.

What's in your toolkit for fixing Mom's PC, and how do you use it?

I usually carry a USB flash drive with downloads of my favorite freeware apps on it, including AVG for anti-virus and anti-spyware. (Also, productivity and entertainment apps, too -- OpenOffice, Firefox, iTunes, VLC, Google Earth, GIMP, Winamp, miscellaneous video codecs, etc.) I haven't yet set up a bootable USB flash drive -- not sure if it's worth the effort for this purpose.

But if Mom's PC is already messed up, then it may not be possible to install anything on it until it's been cleaned. Some viruses actually block attempts to install anti-virus software... so it's kind of a chicken-and-egg problem. You can't install the software till it's clean, but you can't clean it till you install the software.

This is something I have wondered about -- how do you clean a PC that's so badly infested that it won't boot properly? Sure, you could boot the PC with a Linux boot disk -- but is it possible to clean out Windows malware from a PC when it's running Linux?

[Zovo]

Re: Fixing Mom's PC

/format C:

[Kittrick]

Re: Fixing Mom's PC

After you format the drive, if you want to make sure whatever is there is really dead, you could use Eraser:

http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/

It's a pretty good program we use here at work. It even wipes up to Department of Defense standards and beyond.

are you running a dual boot system?

[cynsaligia]

Re: Fixing Mom's PC

while i cannot answer glenn's question (eric is the resident computer geek, not i), the title of this thread gave me a good laugh. poor eric is help desk for both his mom (for whom he bought a mac) and my mom (who lives on the mainland). unfortunately, part of the problem is that both moms are easily frustrated and intimidated by the computer and are prone to hysterics when something doesn't work right.

[i-hungry]

Re: Fixing Mom's PC

Bring an extra hard disk. Install a new copy of Windows on it. Install all the other applications that she wants. Of course, take a lot of notes before you even start this.

Set up an account for her to use and make sure it doesn't have administrator access.

Connect the old hard disk as the secondary drive and scan it for viruses and spyware.

[alohatim]

Re: Fixing Mom's PC

Install a fresh copy of windows for her. Install her programs and files. When all the settings are the way she likes them, I would make a disk image with something like acronis and put that image on a portable drive. That way, when I next visit, I will easily be able to restore the computer to how it was.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Fixing Mom's PC

Great ideas! I especially like the disk image approach.

But what about if you can't do those things due to lack of cash (for Windows and a new HD) or a lack of prep time? What I am really looking for is, how do you deal with a completely unknown PC that is potentially infected with who-knows-what?

[GeckoGeek]

Re: Fixing Mom's PC

I haven't done desktop support for while and your question made me realize how out of shape I'd gotten.

I'd recommend some kind of boot drive/virus scan combination. That will allow you to address any low-level infections.

Does your mom have broadband? If so, you can just download rather then take it over there.

Make sure you have SP2 unless you know mom already has it. Make sure you've got some kind of firewall between the machine and the Internet.

For clean up, I like Spybot - Search and Destroy, CCleaner, Hijack this (not really a cleaner, but lets you look at things.) Let's not forget Google. Just Google anything questionable and you'll find out if it's a problem.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Fixing Mom's PC

I'd recommend some kind of boot drive/virus scan combination. That will allow you to address any low-level infections.

OK, this is the part where my knowledge starts petering out. How do you boot to a fresh OS in this case - do you need a separate copy of Windows? If so, how do you put Windows on a bootable flash drive?

Or would it be useful to boot the PC into Linux from a flash drive? (Can you remove Windows viruses from a Windows hard disk when running Linux? Is that even possible? Or do you need a Windows application to fix Windows problems?)

Does your mom have broadband? If so, you can just download rather then take it over there. Make sure you have SP2 unless you know mom already has it. Make sure you've got some kind of firewall between the machine and the Internet.

Good tips. I previously installed a router doing NAT between Mom's PC and the cable modem, for just that kind of concern.

Is SP2 available as a standalone file? I've only seen it installed by downloading and running a stub that then goes back to Microsoft to download the rest of the package.

Let's not forget Google. Just Google anything questionable and you'll find out if it's a problem.

Yup. I've found that to be a great resource -- google the filename and you can ID that questionable DLL or EXE in a flash.

[GeckoGeek]

Re: Fixing Mom's PC

How do you boot to a fresh OS in this case - do you need a separate copy of Windows? If so, how do you put Windows on a bootable flash drive?

You would ask .... It's been too long for me too. Nowadays I typically take the questionable hard drive to a trusted machine and do it that way.

Or would it be useful to boot the PC into Linux from a flash drive? (Can you remove Windows viruses from a Windows hard disk when running Linux? Is that even possible? Or do you need a Windows application to fix Windows problems?)

I think it would be worth having in the tool kit, just in case you need to do something low-level. Make sure it's a Linux that understands Windows partitions so you can access the files. As for scanning for Windows viruses, that would depend on the anti-virus you use. Check and see what it can do. (This is one of those situations when having a few captured viruses comes in handy for testing.)

A stand along diagnostic or one that can run under your Linux would be a good idea too. It would help you separate hardware from software issues.

Is SP2 available as a standalone file? I've only seen it installed by downloading and running a stub that then goes back to Microsoft to download the rest of the package.

It used to be. But if you've got broadband and a NAT between you and the Internet, then I wouldn't worry about getting it ahead of time. If you didn't have a router, then you'd need a software firewall (that SP2 provides) to protect the machine while you download the other patches.


Oh, and last but not least .... Find out how much memory mom has. My mom's machine came with XP and a minimal amount of RAM. (128?). I gave her a GB for Christmas and the machine behaved like I thought it should.

[DaFerret]

Re: Fixing Mom's PC

Back in the day, I used to use a DOS boot floppy and fdisk the HD. Then they made bootable CD's and I'd just go through the install and have it format the partition.

Recently though, I haven't had a need to wipe out an OS and reinstall. I'm assuming to install windows on a flash drive, you just boot via CD with the flash drive plugged in and go through the install process, choosing the flash drive's mounted drive number instead of C:. But umm... maybe you can easily do that when you boot up normally, plug in the flash drive, then load up the CD and install?

If the computer is a name brand, shouldn't there be a restore disc, though I'm not certain returning the computer to factory default will get rid of the hard-headed junk.

Man, I need to get back into this stuff.