Hi! I was away for the Songkran holiday and allowed my neighbour, who is a uni undergrad into my condo to water the plants. However, I found out that he had also been using my computer to view porn from the internet.

How do I remove all traces of this on my hardware. Are there any reliable softwares, etc. Also should i tell his parents about this?

Hi! I was away for the Songkran holiday and allowed my neighbour, who is a uni undergrad into my condo to water the plants. However, I found out that he had also been using my computer to view porn from the internet.

How do I remove all traces of this on my hardware. Are there any reliable softwares, etc. Also should i tell his parents about this?

Clear your cache, delete your cookies, then after looking through Windows Explorer for any saved files, then if you really want it wiped for good, take Eraser and shred the footprints those files leave behind.

http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/download.php

Don't tell his parents, it will only embarrass them and make them very uncomfortable.

P.S. You may want to wipe your mouse, keyboard, and chair with some disinfectant.

Hi! I was away for the Songkran holiday and allowed my neighbour, who is a uni undergrad into my condo to water the plants. However, I found out that he had also been using my computer to view porn from the internet.

How do I remove all traces of this on my hardware. Are there any reliable softwares, etc. Also should i tell his parents about this?

Pull the other one its got bells on it

Thanks a lot for the advice guys. Currently trying the earser programme.

How do I remove all traces of this on my hardware. Are there any reliable softwares, etc. Also should i tell his parents about this?

Try CCleaner - http://www.ccleaner.com/ It does a great job of removing almost all traces of indiscretion - though it won't defeat a full forensic examination. No commercial product would. It's free.

As for telling his parents, why? Weren't you an over-sexed teenager once?

P.S. You may want to wipe your mouse, keyboard, and chair with some disinfectant.

When your done cleaning I suggest you set up a password so no one except you can start up the computer, I thought everyone did that

When your done cleaning I suggest you set up a password so no one except you can start up the computer, I thought everyone did that

Beat me to it

Never leave an unsecured PC in an area to which 'strangers' have access, you know for certain it's going to get used and for who knows what. Even the simple Windoze password is enough to keep casual users out.

That said, what sort of 'porno' was being accessed? Regular naked people, maybe a willy / pussy or two is no big deal Anything 'else' (if you understand what I mean) then maybe time to worry and do a thorough clean out as detailed by others.

Thanks For All The help guys. I never installed a password system into my home desktop system as i only used it for internet access while I had my own laptop.

I found out that he had been viewing porno because when I clicked on IE, the homepage had been shifted to a porn site plus they were numerous other sites stored in the favourites list. I have changed the homepage backed to msn home and also deleted all the porn sites from the favourites list. I could not use the eraser prog but managed with the ccleaner but not sure how thorough it was.

I am not a "holy" or a strict moralist but the problem was that some of these sites were totally sick such as sex violence and beasility. I know that a young guy has hormonal surges but I am worried about this and that why I was wondering whether I should talk to him (though I know I ain't the right person to advise" or should I subtly mention it to his dad. He has been a very nice and helpful kid but just concerned.

Any advice of totally getting rid of all traces would be helpful plus what i should do with this kid.

Thanks

Right click on IE. got to properties, delete cookies, delete files, clear history.

I would do a full sweep for spyware and viruses now. Porn sites can be crawling with nasty things.

Thanks For All The help guys. I never installed a password system into my home desktop system as i only used it for internet access while I had my own laptop.

I found out that he had been viewing porno because when I clicked on IE, the homepage had been shifted to a porn site plus they were numerous other sites stored in the favourites list. I have changed the homepage backed to msn home and also deleted all the porn sites from the favourites list. I could not use the eraser prog but managed with the ccleaner but not sure how thorough it was.

I am not a "holy" or a strict moralist but the problem was that some of these sites were totally sick such as sex violence and beasility. I know that a young guy has hormonal surges but I am worried about this and that why I was wondering whether I should talk to him (though I know I ain't the right person to advise" or should I subtly mention it to his dad. He has been a very nice and helpful kid but just concerned.

Any advice of totally getting rid of all traces would be helpful plus what i should do with this kid.

Thanks

I would just forget about the "accident", kids are curious, it doesn't mean you had Jack the ripper junior at home.

It's so easy to stumble upon these sites... and they are obviously designed to hook people.

I'm not an expert but blaming the kid for watching them, may even cause some sort of trauma. If you decide to speak to him you need to be very careful imho. Not easy to be a Dad/Mum ....wheeew.

He ( the kid ) will get over it...we all do

It's 21st century masturbating

I found out that he had been viewing porno because when I clicked on IE, the homepage had been shifted to a porn site plus they were numerous other sites stored in the favourites list. I have changed the homepage backed to msn home and also deleted all the porn sites from the favourites list. I could not use the eraser prog but managed with the ccleaner but not sure how thorough it was.

I am not a "holy" or a strict moralist but the problem was that some of these sites were totally sick such as sex violence and beasility. I know that a young guy has hormonal surges but I am worried about this and that why I was wondering whether I should talk to him (though I know I ain't the right person to advise" or should I subtly mention it to his dad. He has been a very nice and helpful kid but just concerned.

Any advice of totally getting rid of all traces would be helpful plus what i should do with this kid.

This posting puts a different perspective on it. I'm 99.999% certain the kid didn't change your home page or add the porn favorites. He (and you) were the victim of some hopeless security holes in Internet Explorer which allow malicious websites to change your home page and favorites. He may have visited a porn site, but equally may have visited "fluffybunnies.com", "cutekittens.com" or "americanapplepie.com" (should such sites exist - I haven't checked). Any site (if you use Internet Explorer) can make these changes.

Ccleaner is very thorough. Your PC should be restored to a suitably "holy" state.

And if you want to talk to the guy, simply tell him it's wrong to use other people's computers without permission. No need to mention the specific sites. The links you see are those chosen by the dodgy website he visited, and are not a reflection of his personal preferences. He'll be sufficiently embarrassed by your confrontation; it won't happen again.

And in the longer term, ditch Internet Explorer and use Firefox or Opera as your browser. (They're both free and don't have the nasty security holes of IE.)

Thanks For All The help guys. I never installed a password system into my home desktop system as i only used it for internet access while I had my own laptop.

I found out that he had been viewing porno because when I clicked on IE, the homepage had been shifted to a porn site plus they were numerous other sites stored in the favourites list. I have changed the homepage backed to msn home and also deleted all the porn sites from the favourites list. I could not use the eraser prog but managed with the ccleaner but not sure how thorough it was.

I am not a "holy" or a strict moralist but the problem was that some of these sites were totally sick such as sex violence and beasility. I know that a young guy has hormonal surges but I am worried about this and that why I was wondering whether I should talk to him (though I know I ain't the right person to advise" or should I subtly mention it to his dad. He has been a very nice and helpful kid but just concerned.

Any advice of totally getting rid of all traces would be helpful plus what i should do with this kid.

Thanks

If that was what he was into I suggest you don't let him near your pet Dog, Cat and Hamster !

I would do a full sweep for spyware and viruses now. Porn sites can be crawling with nasty things.

Tell me about it

Oh, and I seriously doubt this is the victimization of an innocent kid who commandeered his neighbour's computer without permission to go see cutekittys.com.

I'd just like to add (not that i speak from experience or anything ) that it was added by the O.P that he is concerned because certain sites of a disturbing nature were viewed.

Although this may be the case, it is MUCH MORE than likely that these pages were "pop-ups" from otherwise "friendly" porn. These can often re-set a homepage, and take you, unwittingly to rather crude sites, as well as opening twenty windows, when all you did was click an image to enlarge it (hidden links in the original site)

I had a long pitched battle against this years ago when i was 18-19 y.o. and getting started on the internet, much to the chagrin of my tech friend who often received calls from me. Nowadays i have learnt to master the power of the force, somewhat better. I also know how to run computers a whole lot better.

A possible (in jest) solution: 1> Let the kid practice using porn sites more often, as he will find by trial and error which sites are dangerous for that sort of thing, and therefore not access them again.

Seriously though, this is (hopefully) the more likely scenario.

I agree with Oswulf, that maybe just a quiet word in his ear, without specifics, might be the best coursee of action in this case.