Here's my advice that I am sending her. I made it as simple as possible to understand. She also claims that her system is running very slow, so I tacked on some info about how to clean up her system (didn't get too intricate, since she is a novice). Again, this is the simple computer illiterate approach:
Step #1
Disconnect your computer from the internet.
Step #2
Click on "Start" bar at bottom left of the screen. Select "Search". On prompt, type in "Hosts" for file to look for.
When it pops up, right click on file, called simply "HOSTS" (no extension). From menu, select 'delete'.
The file is located here on your system (if you're running XP):
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Step #3
Open Internet Explorer. Click "Tools" on the top of the page. A menu will drop down. Select "Internet Options". Change home page to one of your choice (I suggest
http://www.yahoo.com). Next, delete all temporary internet files (butttons are "Delete Cookies" and "Delete Files").
Next, select "Delete History". Close out by clicking "X" at top right.
You can reconnect now.
Step #4
Download this alternative browser:
http://www.avantbrowser.com/download.htmlThis will block pop-up advertising. Do not use Internet Explorer (Microsoft's browser). There are too many flaws in it.
Download into "My Downloads" folder. Open "My Computer", then "C" drive, then "My Downloads" to access. Will be labeled as "absetup". Click on this and follow the installation wizard. Add shortcuts to your desktop and start menu for convenience (it will give you this option). You want to make this your default browser upon prompt.
After installation, some windows will pop up when you open the browser (showing on your desktop as a big blue "A"). You can disable these by clicking the box on the lower left of the message (something like 'Don't display this message'). This will make it a little less annoying.
Step #5
Now you have a new browser, and your pop-ups will be under control. Download this file:
http://www.definitivesolutions.com/files/bhodmon1.zip and refer to the page that is enclosed. This is a zipped file, so you may need WinZip to access it. Get it here:
http://www.winzip.com . Run through the Unzip wizard and place files in the folder marked "Program Files". Go to the "Program Files" on your C Drive and click on the icon for the program (BHDemon). with this program, you can enable and disable anything that tries to load itself when
you open your browser. Enable "Yahoo" and any programs such as your antivirus. If you see weird search engines ('ok-search', etc. or anything that looks like a suspicious web link, highlight it by clicking on it, then hitting the "details" button on the right. You can disable and enable from here.
Step #6
Go to Windows Update:
http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp and scan for updates. download updates under "Critical Updates and Service Packs" You may also want to take a look at the other ones as well. This may take a while, especially on a dial-up connection. Upon competion, it will prompt you to shut your system down, do this IMMEDIATELY. Select "restart" option. Go to Windows Update every two weeks or so.
From here, you should be fine.
Following this, you may need to get rid of spyware that is lurking on your system, which bogs down your system. I recommend two programs:
http://www.safer-networking.org/- Spybot Search and Destroy
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ - AdAware
Download as before, install, and run. The processes take a few minutes. Afterward, click on all the boxes of stuff that come up (there may be a lot of them).
The Next Step.....
Clean out your temp files. This will speed up your system immensely. First step: Click on "Start" on the bottom right of your screen. In XP, this should be labeled as 'All Programs'. In other versions, it will be labeled as "Programs". A menu will pop up. Go to "Accessories". Another menu pops up. Go to "System Tools" and "Disk Cleanup". Hit "OK" on the box to clean Drive C. This may take a few minutes. A box will pop up. Click on the square to the left of "Temporary Internet Files" and "Downloaded Program Files" in the window. You can also empty the recycle bin from here, if you wish. Hit "OK". This will take a few minutes. Will prompt a box. Hit "yes".
To do a thorough cleaning of temp files, go to "Search" like before. in the "All files and folders" box, type in this: "*.tmp" (don't forget the asterisk (*)). Upon completion, go to the toolbar at the top of the window. Drop down the "Edit" menu. Click "Select All". Press the delete button. Note: All files may or may not delete. Delete what you can. Also, any AOL Instant Messenger files
show up as "temp" files. If you want to save these, instead of the "Select All" feature, you can hold down the right button of your mouse and drag a shaded square over all the files you want to delete. Click "Delete" as before.
After all this, you want to defragment your hard drive. This will organize everything so it all runs faster. Click on "Start" on the bottom right of your screen. In XP, this should be labeled as 'All Programs'. In other versions, it will be labeled as "Programs". A menu will pop up. Go to "Accessories". Another menu pops up. Go to "System Tools" and "Disk Defragmenter". Run through this operation (in XP, you press the "analyze" button, then "Defragment". Note: This takes a while to do (sometimes 1-4 hours, depending on your system. Do this when you don't plan to
be on it for awhile.
Finally, you may want to go to this site and bookmark it:
http://www.pcpitstop.com . This is a complete diagnostics site with useful information and advice. The site will offer to download a temporary program to your computer that will put your unit through some rigorous tests. Do it. Upon completion, it will ask for your connection information, then offer to install "Go2MyPC" or something like that. Decline this - it is a useless program for your needs. The next screen displays the results.