# Ack! Help! My little sister trashed my computer.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 14, 2003, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785 "2003-06-14T12:30:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 19\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![belladonna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@belladonna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/belladonna)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785/1 "2003-06-14T12:30:11Z")

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Okay, my little sister babysat for me last night and apparently spent the entire evening downloading whatever random crap the computer prompted her to. I’ve now got AOL instant messenger (which I suspect was the root of all this evil), some crap called virtual bouncer, a “date manager” that I’m afraid is connected to \>spit!\< Gator, some bizarre bottom of the screen toolbar whenever I log online, my google toolbar is being automatically covered up by some other “noeafstqugr” piece of crap, she somehow disabled my pop-up stopper (it was just a free version, so I can download a new one but still), I’m getting pop-ups when I don’t even have a browser open, and in short, my computer’s a frickin’ mess.

Other than killing my sister, what do I need to do? I’ve spent the last hour going through add/remove programs but that hasn’t come close to putting things right. I know this adware crap hides in your computer and I’m not savvy enough to know how to root it out. I’ve always just depended on the fact that I’M NOT STUPID ENOUGH TO LET IT IN IN THE FIRST PLACE. I have anti-virus, so I’m not too worried about that, but I want my computer back how it was. Wahhhh! ☹  
Okay, now random teenyboppers are IMing me. Please, someone help me make it stop!

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**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785/2 "2003-06-14T12:37:05Z")

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[Adaware](http://www.lavasoft.de) or [Spybot,](http://beam.to/spybotsd) for starters.

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**Author:** ![belladonna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@belladonna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/belladonna)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785/3 "2003-06-14T13:18:59Z")

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I downloaded Adaware, and ran the scan. \*\* 293\*\* items were quarantined! Woohoo.  
But–I’m still getting the lame toolbar at log on, some thing called “free scratch tickets”, which in order to uninstall must first be exited but that makes you lose the uninstall page 😕, and I’m still getting stupid pop-ups to Search America or something like that. Plus, every time I reboot, my homepage is changing.

I’m probably just missing something in the adaware that will help me with this? Hopefully, anyway.

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**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785/4 "2003-06-14T13:30:04Z")

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Spybot tends to find things Ad-Aware does not. Get it.

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**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785/5 "2003-06-14T13:43:50Z")

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Is your little sister cute? 😃

Anyway, the best thing to do may be to reformat and reinstall Windows.

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**Author:** ![Anonymous\_Coward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/94ad74/32.png) [@Anonymous\_Coward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anonymous_Coward)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785/6 "2003-06-14T13:58:36Z")

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What Windows version are you running? This will help me give a more detailed answer. Most programs can be manually removed, or you can tell windows not to load them at startup.

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**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785/7 "2003-06-14T14:01:19Z")

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Does your computer have a system restore function? I believe that Win XP has one included or if you have another OS the manufacturer may have included their own version.

If you do have system restore, just select the date to restore to that is prior to your evil sister’s shenanigans.

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**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785/8 "2003-06-14T14:38:38Z")

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Might be nice to know what computer & operating system you are using belladonna…

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**Author:** ![belladonna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@belladonna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/belladonna)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785/9 "2003-06-14T14:41:52Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Spybot tends to find things Ad-Aware does not. Get it.

Did this, I’m still tinkering to see if it helps. I’ll report back.

> [@](#):
>
> Is your little sister cute? 😃

Not nearly cute enough to make this amusing.

> [@](#):
>
> Anyway, the best thing to do may be to reformat and reinstall Windows.

For many reasons, not the least of which is my own tenuous grasp on computer workings, that’s _really_ not something I want to have to do. An ex is the one who originally set up the system, and I don’t have hardly any of the actual disks and whatnot to redo stuff. Unfortunately, it was a messy break-up or I would have called his ass over here to do all this for me. 😃

> [@](#):
>
> What Windows version are you running?

I’m on Windows 2000 Professional

> [@](#):
>
> Does your computer have a system restore function?

I’m not sure, how can you tell?

Ugh. I feel like such a doofus. I never realized how little I knew about my system. Little sis is going _down_!

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**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785/10 "2003-06-14T14:48:06Z")

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To see if you have Restore (click on the following):

START  
PROGRAMS  
ACCESSORIES  
SYSTEM TOOLS

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**Author:** ![belladonna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@belladonna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/belladonna)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785/11 "2003-06-14T15:09:51Z")

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No restore function, alas. But thankfully, Spybot seems to have made a huge difference. I’m still getting pop-ups even with the stopper reinstalled, but I can work with that. Thanks to everyone!

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**Author:** ![Daizy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@Daizy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daizy)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785/12 "2003-06-14T15:31:05Z")

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Hi belladonna  
Along with some of the excellent advice already given, you might want to take a quick look through add/remove in your control panel, to uninstall any new apps that you didn’t want added.  
As well, if you need to see what’s loading at start up, and be able to disable it, [this small app](http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml) will do the trick for you.  
Lastly, you might want to do a free on-line virus scan at [housecall](http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp), just to make sure your system is clean.

Daizy

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785/13 "2003-06-14T16:09:03Z")

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With Ad-aware you often need to run it 2-3 times in a row to clean out all the spyware/crapware/annoyware applets as (IIRC) some spybots are somehow installed diabolically enough so that Ad Aware has to clean them off during re-boot vs un-installing them in windows.

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**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785/14 "2003-06-14T16:23:58Z")

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What about disabling some startup programs?  
Follow this tree…(I`m doing this with 98)

Start  
programs  
accessories  
system tools  
system information (click on this tab)  
click the “tools” tab  
click on “system configuration utility”

and then finally the “startup” tab.

Uncheck anything that doesn`t look right. I usually just keep the things that start with "C:\windows" running and anything else I recognize that I know what they do. You`ll need to re-start to make it take. You should notice a much faster re-start after you uncheck a few things.

By the way, don`t be afraid to uncheck programs you want on your computer. They won`t be deleted, they just won`t startup when you turn the computer on. You can still run them normally by clicking on their shortcut icons or by opening the start/programs menu. Examples of things you don`t need to start up with your computer would be;

auto weather programs(open it later if you want)  
Kazaa  
quick time  
music match  
MS office stuff  
any garbage your sister put on their  
etc.

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**Author:** ![Daizy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@Daizy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daizy)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785/15 "2003-06-14T16:32:41Z")

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Whuckfistle? Does Windows 2000 Professional have msconfig?  
I posted a link to a Start Up Control Panel that would accomplish the same thing, but I’d feel a fool if I’ve been under the wrong impression all this time?

Daizy

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**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785/16 "2003-06-14T16:59:50Z")

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You are correct, **Daizy**. Win2k does not come with msconfig.

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**Author:** ![Daizy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@Daizy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daizy)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785/17 "2003-06-14T22:10:48Z")

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Thanks so much for checking for me **Fear Itself**. I didn’t have Windows 2000 on any of my computers, to make absolutely certain.

How goes the battle belladonna?

Daizy

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**Author:** ![stoyel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/54ee81/32.png) [@stoyel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stoyel)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785/18 "2003-06-14T22:23:52Z")

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Make sure you’ve told Ad-Aware to ‘check for updates.’ I downloaded a fresh copy a few days ago, assuming that it would be updated with the most recent files – not so. I finally noticed the update button after three days trying to remove VirtualBouncer manually (incidentally, this insidious little program is advertised as a spyware _blocker_, which it obviously is not). Made all the difference!

Yes, I’m a little slow at times.

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**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ack-help-my-little-sister-trashed-my-computer/181785/19 "2003-06-15T00:08:04Z")

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Right, **Stoyel,** Adaware, like many programs, comes with the database that was current at the time the program was last built, which may be weeks-to-months ago. The first time you run it, get the latest data file first or else you will be overlooking the newest stuff.