i just finished a fresh install of XPpro,
put AVG, spybot S&D, SG, and ZoneAlarm on it.

i bet she has a trojen within a week

she's almost 70 and loves her poker sites.

Goood start, I'm running most the same. AVG, AdAware, WinPatrol. Trojan Remover.
Don't trust enought 1 thing to do everything !
I haven't been any place 'odd' though, part of it it is keeping your shoes cleean ?
<1 A year anything pops up for me.

------------------
Ol' Paint, 88 Base coupe auto.
Turning white on top, like owner.
Leaks a little, like owner.
Doesn't smoke, unlike owner

If she's anything like my mother, less than 48 hours. When I'm home she always uses my computer because 'it's so much faster!'

She already has one and doesn't know it yet. You just cant protect people from themselves.

Take administrator rights away and make sure that the pop up blocker is turned on.

[This message has been edited by Jake_Dragon (edited 10-13-2007).]

WinXP has a built-in firewall. So there's no need to install ZoneAlarm. IMO, ZoneAlarm isn't that great anyway. However, I would suggest installing the Firefox web browser. It's more secure than IE.

I would also suggest making a standard user account for her to use, and put a good password on the administrator account. You might even want to have the computer automatically log in her user account on boot-up, so she isn't tempted to log on as admin.

[This message has been edited by Blacktree (edited 10-13-2007).]

I keep my computer at the Parent's place, where they and three kids who share the computer...I installed Firefox, and Spybot, and AVG, and set up an Admin password...never seen a popup I reformat about twice a year just in case, but never had a problem...

i run avast on my moms pc with good results.

If she wants one quick, go to a NASCAR race... (sorry)

lmao... you couldn't help it could you?

quote Originally posted by Blacktree: WinXP has a built-in firewall. So there's no need to install ZoneAlarm.

I don't really care for ZoneAlarm personally, but it does block outgoing connections in addition to incoming, while the built in firewall only blocks incoming.

quote With the exception of some Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) messages, Windows Firewall does not drop outgoing traffic.

http://technet.microsoft.co...ibrary/bb490861.aspx

The importance of this is you can see if there's any rogue apps on your machine trying to contact some server for whatever reason (sending personal info, spamming, joining a botnet, etc), whereas you don't have that option with the built-in one.

Im using the same security he originally stated and ive been virus free for a little over a year. It just takes a little bit of knowledge to avoid them in my opinion.

I used to just use AVG and Spybot Search and Destroy, but Trend Micro Antivirus would usually catch a FEW things AVG missed. Since then I just Trend Micro and SSaD.

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

The antivirus is always on, and I run SSaD weekly

quote Originally posted by JZeFF: Im using the same security he originally stated and ive been virus free for a little over a year. It just takes a little bit of knowledge to avoid them in my opinion.

there's the rub.
mu mother will not stay away from those dang poker websites.
it's worse than looking a free p0rn, as far as getting junk.

Well then you are fighting a losing battle. Things like antivirus and antispyware are mostly reactive utilities, keeping a database of known bad stuff to eliminate, and relying on heuristics to detect anything new. The malware that is out there today is more sophisticated than ever, and most of the new stuff gets around any prediction attempts by software. No single piece of software is a "silver bullet", as some have found (one program would find stuff others didn't, which is also the case vice versa for other malware). Some malware now will even disable your utilities once it is on your computer, then download more bad software on its own to keep the infection going. Without education and effort on the part of the user, they are doomed to never having a healthy pc for any tolerable length of time.