# Using one computer to clean the 2nd of spyware - good idea or not?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-one-computer-to-clean-the-2nd-of-spyware-good-idea-or-not/313176
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [July 19, 2005, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-one-computer-to-clean-the-2nd-of-spyware-good-idea-or-not/313176 "2005-07-19T18:19:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2005, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-one-computer-to-clean-the-2nd-of-spyware-good-idea-or-not/313176/1 "2005-07-19T18:19:53Z")
To clean a computer of all the nasties that seem to come back after you remove them, I was thinking of either having a 2nd computer run scans over a network, or even removing the harddrive and putting in it the 2nd computer, then scanning the drive with ant-spyware and anti virus programs.
Is this a good idea, would it work, would it infect the 2nd computer in the process?
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### Author:  [@fubbleskag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fubbleskag)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2005, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-one-computer-to-clean-the-2nd-of-spyware-good-idea-or-not/313176/2 "2005-07-19T18:27:27Z")
this sounds like a lot more work than just installing the scanning software on the 2nd computer itself.
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### Author:  [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-one-computer-to-clean-the-2nd-of-spyware-good-idea-or-not/313176/3 "2005-07-19T18:32:44Z")
Many of the “nasties” that you get make changes in the registry, which the programs such as Ad-Aware, Spybot, etc. are configured to look for.
If you run the programs on a different computer, it will be able to look for files on the hard drive if you set it up properly, but it will scan the registry of the computer you are running it on, not the target computer.
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### Author:  [@kimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kimera)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2005, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-one-computer-to-clean-the-2nd-of-spyware-good-idea-or-not/313176/4 "2005-07-19T23:22:32Z")
Sometimes it can work to slave your C drive to another computer, but as **FatBaldGuy** noted, it doesn’t always work. In my case, I didn’t have the virus or whatever the hell it was infect the other computer. I ended up having to reformat after all, but I was able to save all my important information that way.