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[yatesDELTA]

My son was on msn and click a link someone sent him and it downloaded some kind of file. this in turn made is send the link to all his contacts and keeps doing it.
How would he get rid?
Already done a advance system care scan and deleted said file...

[waspy]

Does your son have an Anti Virus or Anti Spyware in place? If yes, do an update & then do a scan. This should pick up the problem.

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Blimey a computer problem I think I can give advice on!!

Review what contact details your son has in his profile on MSN as from what you are saying someone uninvited has entered correspondence with him as "a friend" when in fact they mean mischief.

I am aware myself of far too many naive youngsters giving all kind of personal details on MSN, Facebook, etc, etc.  Close down his profile so it can only be viewed by selected contacts / true friends!!

[yatesDELTA]

restarted computer and it seems to be fine now. This download was from someone who actually was a friend who got it from somewhere else.
He is 16 and probably can deal with computer problems better than me lol
Shame my daughters cant keep her laptop working properly aswell

[tunnie]

are you running those accounts for your kids as Administrators?

[Taxi_Driver]

I used to get this a lot on MSN, contacts of mine would suddenly send me a link, and ive got upto date antivirus software, basically their MSN has been compromised......never click on the link  If you ask the contact, they will say they never sent it.

Strangely tho, not had the problem since ive been using MSN Live  :-/

[yatesDELTA]

well its my sons laptop, i assume he uses the administrator account

[TheBoy]

With Windows (or any other OS for that matter), nobody should be using the superuser type accounts day to day.  That alone will stop an awful lot of problems.

Trouble is, most people's ego suggests that they are clever enough to run as a superuser - yet these are the same people who click on links in emails/IMs etc.  Additionally, any software vulnerabilities puts your entire system, and those systems of your friends/associates at risk.

This is the whole idea behind the UAC feature in Vista - the feature that IT idiots think is really clever to turn off.

[dippydave]

i got a virus through msn years ago, on a pc running windows 2000 with norton antivirus. The virus checker was bypassed as i clicked ok to save the file. doh! In my naivety then I thought that a file (photo or mp3 IIRC) from a friend would be fine!

never sent or received data through it since. always use email or good old pendrives!

oh and to remedy the situation, i took the hard drive out and used another pc to clean it.  worked fine after but took a while!

PS don't have Vista, what's a UAC?

[KillerWatt]

In my naivety then I thought that a file (photo or mp3 IIRC) from a friend would be fine!

The ability to piggyback a virus or trojan on to an MP3 has been reality for years.
What more than likely happened in your case though was that you had the displaying of "file extensions for known file types" disabled.

never sent or received data through it since. always use email or good old pendrives!

That doesn't protect you any more than using MSN.

oh and to remedy the situation, i took the hard drive out and used another pc to clean it.  worked fine after but took a while!

Bit of an overkill.

PS don't have Vista, what's a UAC?

User Account Control.

It doesn't actually stop you from getting infected, all it does is ask you twice if you are sure you want to do what you are about to do.

[dippydave]

In my naivety then I thought that a file (photo or mp3 IIRC) from a friend would be fine!

The ability to piggyback a virus or trojan on to an MP3 has been reality for years.
What more than likely happened in your case though was that you had the displaying of "file extensions for known file types" disabled.

can't remember, it was so long ago. haven't had the problem since using more Common Sense, AVG and Zone Alarm!

never sent or received data through it since. always use email or good old pendrives!

That doesn't protect you any more than using MSN.

it's easier to scan stuff before opening/copying though... :-?

oh and to remedy the situation, i took the hard drive out and used another pc to clean it.  worked fine after but took a while!

Bit of an overkill.

yeah but worked. 

PS don't have Vista, what's a UAC?

User Account Control.

It doesn't actually stop you from getting infected, all it does is ask you twice if you are sure you want to do what you are about to do.

Ah. that really annoying feature indeed. i recognise it from friends pc's. I suppose it was originally thought of as a good thing, but mostly one ask is enough.

[KillerWatt]

it's easier to scan stuff before opening/copying though... :-?

If your A/V is doing it's job properly (that means scanning the file BEFORE it gets copied from the Temp directory to the location you specified), it won't make any odds as to the original transport medium.

[TheBoy]

In my naivety then I thought that a file (photo or mp3 IIRC) from a friend would be fine!

The ability to piggyback a virus or trojan on to an MP3 has been reality for years.
What more than likely happened in your case though was that you had the displaying of "file extensions for known file types" disabled.

never sent or received data through it since. always use email or good old pendrives!

That doesn't protect you any more than using MSN.

oh and to remedy the situation, i took the hard drive out and used another pc to clean it.  worked fine after but took a while!

Bit of an overkill.

PS don't have Vista, what's a UAC?

User Account Control.

It doesn't actually stop you from getting infected, all it does is ask you twice if you are sure you want to do what you are about to do.

Sometimes its does actively block it unless you have specifically run a task as Administrator under Vista (Win7 bit more lax).  But even if it does give the prompt, this should set off the alarm bells

[TheBoy]

Ah. that really annoying feature indeed. i recognise it from friends pc's. I suppose it was originally thought of as a good thing, but mostly one ask is enough.

Win7 is better in that respect, but to be honest, even under Vista, only poorly written software will prompt multiple times...

[dippydave]

Ah. that really annoying feature indeed. i recognise it from friends pc's. I suppose it was originally thought of as a good thing, but mostly one ask is enough.

Win7 is better in that respect, but to be honest, even under Vista, only poorly written software will prompt multiple times...

that's good to know for future use  .
Any idea if  win7 needs dual/quad core tech and oodles of gig to run like vista does? or is it more friendly with older pcs?