No More Internet for Them
This is sad! I wish something could be done about this fast. I love the internet, and I want it to grow. But I've used friends spyware ladden PC and I dont blame these people. However they wont understand. They should be using alternative software. Or even an alternative platform (Linux/Mac). Unplugging is just plain stupid.
I use Windows time and again, and it is quite easy to setup a system that is protected from spyware. I've never had spyware on my system. The combination of software that works for me against spam/spyware/adware/virus/worm is the following:
1. Windows XP with SP2
2. Mozilla Firefox exclusively for browsing (no IE at all)
3. Microsoft Outlook with the SpamBayes plugin
4. Spybot with Teatimer plugin to stop registry changes or activex installs
5. Norton Antivirus updated weekly (automatically)
6. Norton Firewall to protect against worms and stuff (dont remember the proper name for the software).
Once this software is installed, its mostly hands off. Once in a while I'll start up spybot to update the definitions, but other than that, dont have to do much. I think the two most important software products from above are Firefox and Spybot. They keep the system running without any problems. Also, an add step might be running as a user instead of administrator, but I havent had to bother with that yet, and continue to run as administrator. Unlike in Linux, its just too hard to work as something other than administrator.
Ofcourse, most of the time I am in Linux, so I dont have to worry about this stuff as it is :)
