damaged people dot com

My parents have ended up with so much crap on their computer that its time to clear the stuff off. I plan to update them on the MS crap, install a virus scanner they can schedule and update on a regular basis. Was planning on using AdAware and SpyBot S&D, to detect the stuff and eliminate it, but in thinking about it, I think I want to get something for them that will PREVENT the stuff from getting on there in the first place...

So what do you guys use?

Well nothing except enabling the google toolbar popup blocker (as I reckon half the crap installed comes from popup screens).

Short of tying their hands behind their backs to disable their ability to click the wrong buttons, you could probably up their security settings but that's about it

I'm using Avant Browser, it's a shell around IE that in the newest version has Popup and Ad Blocking. Not sure how well the ad blocking works, I still run Adware and Spybot just to make sure it's clean.

I can't vouch for Adware (never used it), but Spybot has the ability to integrate into the shell and automatically stop the install of a lot of spyware. Of course, like anything else, it only knows what it knows so you have to update often.

i use zonealarm as my firewall, and i have my hosts file configured to have about a billion sites going to the loopback address, so i don't have to see ads and things