# Please help me unhack my father's computer

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-unhack-my-fathers-computer/959827>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 20, 2022, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-unhack-my-fathers-computer/959827 "2022-02-20T17:49:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 4

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**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2022, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-unhack-my-fathers-computer/959827/4 "2022-02-20T18:48:58Z")

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> [@DPRK](#):
>
> (BTW who writes entire books using Word?)

My dad, obviously! 😁 To be fair to him, the first was written in 1995, and Word is about as advanced as Dad ever got on computers. But I have two as-yet unpublished novels written by friends that AFAICT were composed in Word. What’s wrong with Word for a text-only manuscript?

But to get back on track,

> [@DPRK](#):
>
> Well, maybe run Windows Defender, Malwarebytes, Hitman Pro to see if they detect and remove it. If they do, that’s good, because if you were hacked by pros you won’t find anything!

I may try this, because this attack seems similar to a previous one [Dad experienced several years ago](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dad-fell-for-a-computer-scam-help-please/667337). IIRC, on that occasion, they hadn’t actually installed anything, but this one seems a little less inept and more insidious. Fortunately, I now live in Massachusetts, so flying to Maryland is not as much of a big deal as coming back from Nevada.

> [@DPRK](#):
>
> I like [Tron](https://old.reddit.com/r/TronScript/comments/qaw0wm/tron_v1201_20211018_minor_definition_updates/). It automates tons of stuff for you so you do not have to be an expert.

Thanks for this recommendation. It looks impressive, but it seems to need a live connection to the internet, and I’d be concerned that the hackers might detect that the machine is online and interfere with it, or just continue their hacking while it runs. Am I mistaken?

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