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My Girl needs advice on her PC.

M

macswitcha2

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 18, 2008
1,255
8
I know, this is a mac forum but we have all experienced working with Pc's and many of us still work with them. So, my girl has a Sony Vaio vpccw21fx and it has not even been a year since she bought it and she got a virus two times and her hard drive failed so after a grueling experience with costumer service having to wait nearly two week for her new HD to be shipped to her, she has installed the new HD and reinstalling all the disks that Sony sent her, 4 disk!!!!! Originally, the machine did not come with any recovery disk, after her HD went bad, then Sony sends her the four disks.


What would be your advice to her in regards to getting the best out of her machine? I have heard that the best thing to do is a clean install of Windows 7 but what is she to do with all these disks? I feel like Sony is loading a bunch of crap into her machine.

In regards to security, should she stay with Microsoft Security Essentials or is there something better out there?
 
The discs have her Windows 7 operating system on them. The fourth disc probably isn't needed as that is the extra stuff Sony adds on.

And use Kaspersky.
 
imaketouchtheme said:
The discs have her Windows 7 operating system on them. The fourth disc probably isn't needed as that is the extra stuff Sony adds on.

And use Kaspersky.
Click to expand...


I just got off the phone with her. She said all four disks says windows 7 on them.
 
macswitcha2 said:
I just got off the phone with her. She said all four disks says windows 7 on them.
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That's fantastic and wonderful. But, most likely, the first three discs are all that's needed for reinstallation of Windows. It will tell you when you install it, though.

(I create recovery discs almost every day of my life at my place of employment; I know these things...) :rolleyes:
 
I love how everyone says "PC" when Macs are PCs the same as Windows. :D I mean, I know it's the de facto way of expressing it and I do it myself, but I still kind of smile.

OP:
1. Don't use a Windows PC. :p

2. I used Windows machines for years, and never had an infection once. Granted, I had AV, but that's not a complete protection. I'd suggest once you resolve this to go over some safe Internet Usage stuff with her. No limewire, kazaa or whatever the kids use nowadays, etc. Oh, and no pron torrents. :D

3. Mcafee & Norton are horrible; they're not much better than the alternatives and are complete hogs on system resources. ^^Someone recommended something else. Try that. Also, use AdAware and clear spy ware stuff.

New computers always load junk and freeware crap. Macs don't have all that stuff, as you probly know, but on any Windows install you have to deal w a lot of stuff that is largely totally unnecessary.

Hope you can fix it for her :)
 
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I'm not sure about the install CDs, but as for security software, I use Microsoft Security Essentials on my Windows installs. It's pretty lightweight and stays out of your way.
 
I use a PC and I never had a virus. Your security is find, it's the fact that there are new viruses every day. I can't give you any advice unless I know how she got two viruses in the first place. I been using PCs for years, and I can tell you that it's not that hard to avoid viruses.

1. Install McAfree SiteAdvisor or Web of Trust.
2. Stay away from porn sites.
3. Never click ads.
4. Believe that every pop-up is out to get you, unless you KNOW it's not.
5. Never TRY to download free music. (My cousin doesn't learn) :eek:
6. There's no such thing as free Smileys.
7. If something's free on the internet, it's a free virus.
8. Always update your Adobe products. :rolleyes:

If she follows my list, there is absolutely no way to get a virus. It's better to be safe than sorry. As parents always say when you're in the pool, "Don't do anything you think is fun!" If your daughter thinks my list is too much, tell her to get a Mac like I'm gonna do. (I'm still going to follow my list though, better to be safe than sorry) :D
 
Sony does load a bunch of bloatware, but you may be stuck with it. With the system restored discs, usually they just load the factory default image on the hard drive. With some companies, you can back-door a clean load from the image cds, but I don't know about Sony.

As for the protection: I would stay away from the McAfee and Symantec all-inclusive protection stuff. They tend to be bloated and intrusive. For paid, I would go with Kaspersky, Panda, or Webroot. For free, Microsoft Security Essentials or Avast are pretty decent. I personally use MSE on my Windows 7 box.

The key, as others have pointed out, is behavior. I really don't understand how all these people get infected. I have been using Microsoft OSes since the DOS days and I have never gotten any kind of infection on a machine I use on a regular basis. Install a good adblocker in the browser, don't download free music/movies, and don't click on that link promising hot pics of the latest celebrity, and you will be fine.
 
Melrose said:
New computers always load junk and freeware crap. Macs don't have all that stuff, as you probly know, but on any Windows install you have to deal w a lot of stuff that is largely totally unnecessary.
Click to expand...

That's why you build yourself and install a retail copy of Windows, so you don't get all of that garbage.

I build my PCs, I would never buy a pre-built one, and the bloat is one of several reasons for that.
 
yg17 said:
That's why you build yourself and install a retail copy of Windows, so you don't get all of that garbage.

I build my PCs, I would never buy a pre-built one, and the bloat is one of several reasons for that.
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...and it's cheaper most of the time. You can build a nice gaming PC for under $600. At least, that's what PC World told me. :D If I ever got a desktop again (I'm a diehard laptop person) I'd build it from scratch. A Windows thing, I mean.
 
Melrose said:
...and it's cheaper most of the time. You can build a nice gaming PC for under $600. At least, that's what PC World told me. :D If I ever got a desktop again (I'm a diehard laptop person) I'd build it from scratch. A Windows thing, I mean.
Click to expand...

Now days I think it is reaching about break even when you build your own. Now I personally like building my own because I get to choose exactly what parts I want in it and on top of that the when I install the OS and what not no extra bloat is installed.

Even if I lost money on the deal I would spend the money on building my own because I enjoy building computers.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
Now days I think it is reaching about break even when you build your own.
Click to expand...

I don't mean the impulse-purchase desktops, though - not the $300 sale jobs. I'm talking ones with higher end components, graphics cards, powers supplies, cooling systems, etc.
 
Melrose said:
I don't mean the impulse-purchase desktops, though - not the $300 sale jobs. I'm talking ones with higher end components, graphics cards, powers supplies, cooling systems, etc.
Click to expand...

yeah I figured as much and like I said I think it is pretty close to break even give or take cost wise.

Now in build your own you may be able to cut some other cost by cutting out some extra crap that you do not want/ need and that is were the real savings are.

Take for example a Mac Pro. If you wanted to build that spec for spec you would hit about the same price give or take. But it has a lot of extra crap that most people are do not need/ want so it falls under crap and price bloat.

Also when you build you own you can generally get a little better parts for the same price but big part is you can throw out crap you do not want.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
Now days I think it is reaching about break even when you build your own. Now I personally like building my own because I get to choose exactly what parts I want in it and on top of that the when I install the OS and what not no extra bloat is installed.

Even if I lost money on the deal I would spend the money on building my own because I enjoy building computers.
Click to expand...

I've gotten lazy as I have gotten older. I don't care about building my own anymore. I bought my last Win7 gaming machine pre-built. I just didn't feel like mixing and matching all the right parts. It has served its purpose well and still runs Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas just fine. :) (Ok, I do actually do some work on it as well)
 
Thanks for all the tips and suggestions. She has installed everything and is up and running. I think she visited a bad site when she was doing a search but at the time she did have Microsoft security Essentials and it did not prevent her from catching a virus. So, she is trying out kasperskey.

If I can only learn how to get to just the Windows via a backdoor and do a clean install. I think her machine would work better. I think its a great laptop, shoot, her specs are better than the ones on my macbook.
 
BTW, since we're on the topic of "PC's," and Windows, I have an old Dell desktop and would like to know how I can remake it into a better machine.

Also, I have an eMac with a clean empty hard drive but when I try to reinstall the disks, it freezes on the secon cd install. Is it possible to boot up from an external drive?
 
macswitcha2 said:
BTW, since we're on the topic of "PC's," and Windows, I have an old Dell desktop and would like to know how I can remake it into a better machine.
Click to expand...

I have a 14" Dell laptop, and it was sloooow until I stripped - literally - every app off except Chrome and Age of Empires. Runs quite nice now.

Sometimes, just reducing HD clutter makes a difference.
 
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