Loads of Malware

Post Reply New Topic

I gave an older computer to a friend I lived with about 2 years ago. Now the annoying part is he likes to download explicit content and pirated music off Frostwire. Which I warned him against before. In the past year alone I had to rewrite his computer 5 times because off all the viruses and Malware affecting his machine. The Computer was running XP and with my latest attempt I put Linux Mint LXDE on it. Only to find out 2 days later that when he gets to the Login Screen it just boots him into the Terminal. I don't know what he did to mess it up.

This is my 5th attempt and I just put Windows XP back on. What Free Security solutions can I put on the computer other than Avast that will not let bad software get in.

He should really be paying me for my services since this is the 5th time.

It sounds like he had root access to something there otherwise he wouldn't have been able to mess with the configuration.
Get him back onto Linux because at least then you can ignore all the Windows-specific crap floating about - and make certain he is unable to use anything required for system maintenance.
The default user setup will probably allow system tweaking so you'll have to investigate ways of assigning more restrictive permissions.

I know your pain.

Set the pc up to boot straight into a vm.

Problem solved.

I usually take a computer and disable all the malware, install spybot and avast / set it to auto update the program and the definitions... And if needed I password lock avast so they can't break it. Then I tell them not to use internet explorer ... ever...

This usually keeps them stable for about a year or more until a new virus comes out that bypasses everything. It would make more sense for you to just dump him as a "customer" considering all the headache, if anyone continuously does things I tell them not to do I don't fix their computer anymore. And if they want a guarantee I tell them I can guarantee my work - but not what they do to the computer.

Linux would be ideal, if it boots into terminal then you just simply need to get your gui to start. Ubuntu with a KDE interface and restricting his abilities would probably help. Give him VLC for the explicit content and mp3's and he'll be a happy camper with a mock windows type interface.

the best solution is to tell him to stop downloading rubbish on his computer, I would tell him that you will charge him next time he does it again, give him a price that will scare him to reconsider his options.

The only thing about Ubuntu with KDE is the fact that the computer is a 1.2GHz Pentium III with 512MB of Ram. Linux Mint or Debian with LXDE runs much better.

Its old hardware but he got it for free. I still have an even older system running Debian with XFCE with no issues.

Linux Mint does come with VLC though.

Oh and this guy has never paid me for my services so hes not a customer.

Put Mac OS on it. No viruses.

I like Spybot.

I took the liberty of shortening your question. The answer is still "none" though. Human stupidity alone makes this difficult. The fact that it's a computer makes it impossible. Preventing him from ruining the software is like preventing someone from hitting himself in the head with a spoon, without tying his hands or going a bit overboard with the violence.

An interesting suggestion came from an unexpected source. Set up a guest account on your friends computer. Keep admin privileges to yourself and hide the password. If he messes up the guest account, delete it and start another one.

The problem here is not KDE at all. With Debian, a bare KDE desktop will consume about 200 MB, which is about the same a bare GNOME 2 Desktop will consume.

The problem lies with the compositing features as well as Compiz or Mutter, which Ubuntu, (and also from I've noticed LinuxMint as well, as it is essentially a customised version of Ubuntu) relies on for almost all the 'major' desktop environments.