Antivirus for our elders

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
SoSH Member
Apr 15, 2006
8,629
Somers, CT
I’ve been out of the IT support game for too long to know what’s current. I’m sick of wiping my mother in law’s computer every time she clicks something stupid.

Is there a nuclear AV/AM option I can make her buy?

What are the current standard removal tools?

When did Google become completely useless for this shit?
 

edoug

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
6,007
This a great question. This should be asked at least once every year. You may get the same answer as the year before, it still should be asked because of the nature of technology.
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
SoSH Member
Apr 15, 2006
8,629
Somers, CT
That could have been worse.

She searched for a mall in Delaware. Google popped a recommendation on the right hand side, as it does, that included a website link. That link was horseshit and created a full screen popup that was, frankly, fairly well done and totally terrifying to my poor mother in law. Killing Chrome and forgetting the last tabs was enough.

I recreated it on my iPad with the same search term, but was taken to a different “scary” link.

For anybody out there that’s feeling sadistic, the search term was “christiana fashion center.” The website button provided by Google is the culprit. I don’t see a quick way of reporting the issue.
 

AlNipper49

Huge Member
Dope
SoSH Member
Apr 3, 2001
44,840
Mtigawi
Create an account for her without administrative access to the PC. Put remote access software on it so you can install shit on it when she randomly needs it. That and plain old Windows Defender is good enough for 99.9% old non-adept Windows computer users
 

NortheasternPJ

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 16, 2004
19,236
Chromebook
Seriously. Any elder id get a Chromebook or an iPad with a keyboard can call it a day. I wouldn't recommend a laptop for anyone over 65 at this point without a gun to my head of they just want to do online things and an occasional document.
 

Marceline

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Sep 9, 2002
6,437
Canton, MA
Chrome itself can get hit with malware pretty easily through browser extensions that old people will unwittingly click on.
So even a chromebook is susceptible.

You have to go into the settings and harden it first if you have someone that doesn't know what they're doing as a user.

Also what Nip said is great advice.
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
SoSH Member
Apr 15, 2006
8,629
Somers, CT
She has an iPad.

Her reasons for owning a desktop computer are related to her hobbies and the perception that software engineers “got it right” with versions of software that are several generations old.

She’s not alone in this. For a long, long time, the group of machinists that made the transition from paper to CAD/CAM fell in love with MasterCAM. When X was released, it may as well have been a different software package. It effectively pulled the carpet out from under them for the second time in their careers and many of them refused to start over. The number of MasterCAM 9 installations still active (on Windows XP, no less) would probably boggle the mind, though it’s diminishing rapidly as these guys retire.
 

Max Power

thai good. you like shirt?
SoSH Member
Jul 20, 2005
7,838
Boston, MA
The vast majority of what someone refers to as "viruses" these days are browser extensions they're tricked into installing and notifications they're tricked into turning on. If there isn't anything she's doing that requires an extension, you can just block all of them from being installed. There are instructions out there for doing that in various browsers. You can do the same for notifications.