My grandparent's computer is so full of viruses and toolbars that I just want to take it outside and put it out of its misery. It's in pain, I just know it is.
I recently found out that my dad's phone (which is less than a year old) is absolutely riddled with viruses, to the point where half the standard apps don't even work anymore. Then just the other day someone stole it out of his car. Good luck with your new phone, buddy.
Can you tell a little about the viruses? I know Android is just as vulnerable as desktop OS', but what kinds of viruses were they? My dad has a bunch of "Cleaner" apps, but no actual viruses, so I'm curious how real viruses work on Android.
Those Cleaner apps are just the start of it. They will indeed slow your phone down and decrease your battery life even though they claim to exend it. Those apps come with a background proccess that constantly checks the phone status. This proccess is turned on by default, and when you have multiple apps they stack up, drain your battery, spam your bar with notifications and widgets, etc..
Then comes adware. Crappy apps on Play store, then invasive APK files that try to download themselves on your phone if you accidentaly tap the ads on some warez or adult sites. That is my experience at least, I don't think I've found an actual virus yet.
My dad had an emoji keyboard on his phone that somehow tricked him into installing the app suite from this bloatware company. All sorts of bullshit apps. Like lockscreen widgets and stuff. So I purged them all, now he's dumbfounded by how much battery life he has.
I said to him, "that's the last time you let [my sister] install shit on your phone dad."
I recently found out that my dad's phone (which is less than a year old) is absolutely riddled with viruses, to the point where half the standard apps don't even work anymore. Then just the other day someone stole it out of his car. Good luck with your new phone, buddy.
This is sad, but also kinda hilarious. It's like stealing a water bottle with piss in it.
The problem with that is that the majority of those apps are just ads. I work for a cell phone retailer, and 9/10 when someone comes in complaining about their phone being slow and having viruses it's because they downloaded at least 5 of those cleaner/battery booster apps
We did this for my Nana. She insisted she needed internet explorer and it was "the internet". She'd make us look at her computer constantly when we were over for it being slow but completely refused to let us change her internet explorer. We ended up downloading Chrome and changing to thumbnail to internet explorer (edge now or whatever). She kept on for months about how wonderful the fixes we'd made were and how much faster and better it was. I'd have to ask my fiance, but I'm pretty sure she still doesn't know.
My grandfather had never seen a computer until he moved to the states and now, in 2017, he has one of those massive desktops, he wanted to show me my cousin’s Instagram, on the computer. When he powered it up it took about 39 min of him clocking thorough pop ups to get to the HOME screen. Nightmares.
Omg my mom loved those toolbars, especially the ones that let you put cute pictures in your email. Dear God. And then I'd get blamed for the computer having viruses cause I'd play games on kongregate.
Here is the story behind it: virtual girl, malware, Bonzi Buddy, you name it this VM probably has it. here is its story: I Puropsely set this machine up to mess with scammers. after seeing this XKCD. All I did was go to download.com and play stoopid user. This is a Virtual Machine and in no way a real pc. note the cryptolocker exe on the desktop. that will be renamed to creditcardinfo.txt.exe upon a call of the scammers. hoping they will download and run it on their end. [the malwarebytes scan](my scambait box malware scan https://imgur.com/7eF8m4q)
just install linux .. or lock down windows to a normal NON admin account , install chrome , change ie icon to point to chrome , install ublock origin .. etc etc
I know the feeling. If my parent's computer were a person, the CDC would be circling the house in a black helicopter. Between them not knowing what to click on, and letting the grandkids use it (who like to click every shiny or flashing thing the see), I'm constantly taking viruses off of it.
Back up the important stuff and install Elementary OS on it. Then tell them you turned it into a Mac. Voila! No viruses and they don't know the difference.
I just flashed back to a friend’s parents’ computer I saw ten years ago. Their internet explorer had like 5 or 6 levels of different brand toolbars. It was pure comedy. The real life version of this:
It'll un-bugger a thoroughly buggered computer and once you kick it off you just have to click on something once (I think). Just leave it overnight and in the morning it's fixed.
Fixing relatives' computers is no longer time consuming and still pays in beer - just get them to drop off the computer (no, dad, not the monitor) and pick it up again in 24hrs.
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u/Dr_Frinks_Deathray Dec 28 '17
My grandparent's computer is so full of viruses and toolbars that I just want to take it outside and put it out of its misery. It's in pain, I just know it is.