Computer illiterate brother keeps screwing up the computer

Ya know i love my brother but i tell ya he's the biggest air head when it comes to computer use. My parents went out and bought a brand new computer. Within a month my brother had it riddled with so many virus's that it simply wouldn't work and i spent three hours formatting it and reinstalling everything.

Now its happened again and the little bugger insists that it is MY fault even though i haven't used it at all!!!!!!!! I have my own computer and it doesn't have a virus on it!

I have WATCHED him click on pop up windows and he's opening emails that he doesn't know who its from! He says he knows what he's doing and that he can fix anything, only it always results in him deleting a file that the computer needs to run! I'm so sick of this! He's using MY internet access so i could just change the password, but he NEEDS it to do schoolwork online and my parents insist that he have access.

He's the type of person who always blames everyone else for everything and my parents treat him like their miracle child. He has quit quite a few jobs and they don't bug him about finding a new one but when i left my job cause i was stressed beyond belief and getting migraines so bad i wanted to die they are on me like a hawk everyday now to either get another job or go on employment insurance.

Everything that goes wrong is MY fault according to my brother.

Now i'm going to have to spend the night formatting the computer just so he can screw it up again and we'll go through this all over again.

I just want to SCREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Real simple solution...

Buy an anti-virus program. No one should be on the net with out one. And leave it running all the time.

Does he have internet access at school? He can check his email there and the techs at school can deal with it. And if your parents don't agree with that, well then they can buy a firewall and a cyber nanny program to keep his bad surfing habits from screwing up the computer.

I know my brothers screwed up the home computer ALL the time when I still lived at home (they were looking at porn and did a poor job covering their tracks online), so I ended up going thru the registry and cookies at least three times a week to get rid of spy ware, and does anyone remember that program that would kick you offline after you'd be on for like 15 minutes? I can't tell you how many times we got infected with that, GRRRRRRR. Lianne, I feel for ya hon.

Hi Dennis, I have Norton Antivirus installed but it can only detect the virus not quarentine or delete it. It usually says delete failed. Most of the stuff is spyware with a trojion horse or two. I set Norton up to do an update everytime its logged on to the internet and to run scans all the time but it still doesn't do anything about them.......i'm losing faith in the program lol

They make my home page some really disgusting porn site and will shut down any other windows i open if it isn't related. It has even set up new internet connections and the last time this happened we couldn't run any program cause the virus's were taking up ALL of the memory.

I've been trying to figure out how to get into DOS so i can format. Its the only way i was able to last time but my mind is clouded with frustration and migraine pain, so i'll have to track down my OTHER brother for his help.....this one is the youngest and brightest of the three of us. Little brat can do any mathamatical calculation in his head.....he's a genius!

Whitney, this brother is out of school, just doing some online courses for work. Thanks for your support. My mom apologized for yelling at ME which was nice, but it'll happen again i just know it.

I just read through the firewall instructions on the computer and saved all of my pics i had on it. Once i get into DOS i'll begin formatting........yay......NOT!

hehe, i'm just not thinking LOL. All i needed to do to format the computer was to boot from my windows disc. DUH! the computer is formatting now......

now i just have to find a way to restrict my brothers access to internet sites........

I use McAfee Online and it works well. It has stopped any virus I have encountered as well as the trojans.

Zone Alarm is a good firewall and it is free.

Ad-Aware is a good program for removing spyware.

The best thing you can do to stop your browser from being highjacked is dump IE. Switching your browser to Firefox should stop the highjacking. If for some reason you have to keep IE, read this article to help you remove it next time. But I strongly suggest you get rid of IE, it is so full of holes it is impossible to keep secure. You won't lose any of your bookmarks/favorites either. Firefox will import them right in.

Good luck.

Spybot search and destroy. An amazing tool.

Thanks Dennis, i didn't realize IE was so vulnrable. I've checked out the sites you listed and i'll install FireFox tomorrow.

I need to get to bed for now, having stared at the computer for so long its given me more head pain. I got the computer formatted and Windows installed so i can work at it more tomorrow

Thanks again

Red

If you're having to format that often, you need to pick up a program called Drive Image from Powerquest.
Get everything installed, and all the settings where you want them, then image the drive in it's pristine state. Once he screws it up royally, just run the program and restore the image. No other effort on your part, and everything is back just like it was when you last set it up.

I use the program myself. When I build a new system I install all my critical programs, set them up the way I like them, then make my original image. Then every three months or so I make a new image that gets overwritten by the next one. I always have the original and the latest image available for when it's may be needed.

The catch is you can't store the image in the drive being imaged. I have multiple drives, so it's not a problem, but otherwise you'll have to set the program to burn the image to cd for restore purposes. Would save you a lot of hassle from the sound of it.

Thanks Dennis, i've been looking for a good alternative to IE and Netscape, Firefox seems to work great
J. Dustin Loy