New Record

Got a cry for help from a friend because his internet was only working partially... some pages loaded, but some didn't, could get to Facebook, but not use any links etc.

He had the free version of Malwarebytes which had disappeared from the computer. I reinstalled from a flash drive and it found 1,019 PUPs! No, they weren't viruses or trojans in the strictest sense, but his entire computer was nearly a brick.

Of course, I had told him a year ago to run Malwarebytes at least once a week, but it never happened. Yes, I STRONGLY recommended he pay $25 a year for the Pro version of Malwarebytes!

I think my previous record was around 960 pieces of malware.

Do you think he'll start using the Malwarebytes now?

Your friends are lucky to have you to help them!

When I worked in the laptop repair department at a local community college, some of the laptops students brought in had well over 10,000 threats/pups/issues/whatever-you-call-them. We used a combination of Symantec, MalwareBytes, Spybot, and occasionally ComboFix to try to clean the laptops. Occasionally some of them had infections so deep that nothing could clean them, and the laptops had to be formatted and Windows reinstalled.

We also saw instances where there were so many toolbars that you could hardly see the actual webpage. They rivalled the mess in this screenshot
http://www.itguyswa.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/too-many-toolbars-IE.jpg

These were college students around 20 years old (give or take a couple of years), not older people who grew up in a different era without computers. You'd think the students would have learned how to use a computer better. Unfortunately protecting themselves against malware doesn't seem to be something that is normally considered as a required course in schools, even though using a computer for school is pretty much a requirement now.

I've had some pretty bad toolbar plagues, but nothing like that!

I expect most of the students had nowhere to go for free tech support until they went to the community college. The people you take care of have you to turn to, so the situation never gets that bad.

I don't think anything will ever top the roaches though. One student came in with a non-functional laptop, and when the head tech took the laptop apart, he found it was full of little roaches. Once he cleaned out the roaches, the laptop started up fine with no issues. Didn't even have any malware on it. The only infection was from a roach nest.

EW. I used to work at a electronics place (just in the office) but I heard stories from the tech customer service department about the roaches in radios that were sent in for repair.

Roaches! I have no words for that one!