I love my kids!!

download avgfree and spybot. put them on a flash drive and load them onto your kid's puter then run them. I have to run these every week on my kid's puter. Last time i did it they had 2 worms and a trojan.

http://free.avg.com/download-avg-anti-virus-free-edition

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

 

Click on buttons to download program but instead of running the installation directly from the net, there should be an option to SAVE the file, you can save directly to flashdrive, or to local HD then xfer to flashdrive.

Then plug flashdrive into infected computer and double-click program icon on flashdrive to start installation process.

 

you should be able to start the puter in safe mode with connectivity. Haven't had to do that in a long time so I don't remember how to do it, but I think it is one of the options when you start in safe mode.

 

Hmmm, I just downloaded the AVG file, and it seems to be a self-extracting executable. (I don't want to install it on my computer so I stopped at the 'do you want to run' screen.)

So try booting into safe mode. After the BIOS startup screen, but before the 'Windows' screen, press the F8 key a couple of times. You should then have a menu that gives you several options, including 'safe' mode. Since you're running wireless, I'm not sure if 'safe mode with connectivity' works. Never tried it.

But the AVG program should be able to run without connectivity. So just boot into safe mode, then try running the above file.

 

Can you run any executable (Not shortcuts, but actual executables)? Though I've never seen it personally, I don't imagine getting a virus to 'disassociate' executables would be very much trouble.

Try this to see if that's the case -

 

Or if it has a manufacturers restore feature you could just drag all their documents, music, favorites, passwords, calender etc onto an iPod, run the restore and drag the docs back.

It will run a lot faster anyway if its a windows computer.

They can put their own extra programmes back. On Dells you just press CTRL and F11 on startup, give it the OK and 10 mins later its like when you got it new.

 

Can you give a specific example? The full name of the file that you are trying to open and the error message?
It sounds like the kid's computer doesn't have a program installed to deal with .zip compressed files. Windows XP has built in support but it can be hosed.
If it won't run a .exe file this can be caused by a virus - they specifically block common anti-malware program files from running so if you downloaded say malwarebytes anti-malware and you are trying to run mbam-setup.exe and it won't run try re-naming it to test.exe or something and see if that will run.

 

What you want to do is to make the flashdrive bootable and boot directly to that. hmmm I remember booting to bartpe using my flash drive a few years ago to run spybot and adaware. Or you can just use a bootable cd... I'll see if I can find a link to something that already has the programs you want to use.

http://www.techmixer.com/bitdefender-rescue-cd-with-auto-update-virus-definition-features/

http://www.techmixer.com/free-bootable-antivirus-rescue-cds-download-list/

try one of these two. Very easy to download and create the CD. Bitdefender will update the virus list before scanning too, so that's the one I recommend.

 

Download the executable for another browser like Google's Chrome. It will allow you to do everything. Try installing adaware too.