Jane_Doe - 6:05 pm on Aug 31, 2007 (gmt 0)

The real solution has to be stopping them from getting infected to start with - which really only takes a decent firewall and an understanding of what not to click on. However the latter is not going to happen anytime soon.

Our neighbors do have a firewall. I installed one for them after the last time I had to clean up their PC. :)

If you look at the tech forums, there are some pretty knowledgeable people who end with malware on their computers, so I don't agree that a blame the victim approach is the fundamental flaw in the whole dysfunctional process. I personally think PCs are just too easy to hack into.

In fairness to Microsoft (whose products I am no fan of) the malware you mentioned would probably not have got anywhere if your neighbour had ever run Windows Update, which I believe patched that particular exploit a long time ago, and which these days seems to nag users constantly.

That is a good point. We did not run a Windows update this time after we cleaned the computer, so I need to check for that.

Seems like a lot of people end up spending visits home and holidays cleaning off malware from relatives' computers. I have heard of people buying new computers though.

Nice to see you posting again Googleguy. :)

I suspect if people do buy new computers after malware attacks then there is little business incentive for Microsoft to make their PCs more bullet-proof. I think my neighbor's long term solution is going to be to buy a Mac.