Computer Problems vs. Porn

[scrapple]

Okay, I know zilch about computers. All I do with them is surf the web, send and receive e-mails, and play solitaire. Eventully, of course, my computer starts to slow down and take forever to do anything. So, I do the few things I know....disk clean-up, defragment, etc. I don't know if they do any good, but the computer seems slightly faster, then quickly reverts to its slow self. Eventually, I buy another (cheap) omputer. Repeat cycle.
Recently, my computer has been really slow. I see these pop-up messages like "High Memory Use" or High CPU Usage". I'm low on funds these days, so my traditional route of buying another PC is out. I stopped by Best Buy and told them my story. They suggested I bring it in to see if they could fix the problem.
My problem: I've watched a ton of gay porn over the years (nothing illegal, just embarrassing) and I do not want to stand there while the guy plays around with my PC and suddenly up pops Chris Rockway screwing Reese Rideout. How does a closeted guy deal with taking a porn-strewn PC in for repairs? Thanks.

 

[kevin23]

Download Ccleaner, a free download that gets rid of all the junk, cookies, history, pics that you don't even know are on your computer. I use it daily. Here is the link:
http://ccleanerfreedownload.org/

Also download Malwarebytes, its free and run it, you may solve your problems without the tech.
http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebyt...4572.html?part=dl-10804572&subj=dl&tag=button

Unless you have porn files or favorites saved to your computer, Ccleaner should remove all traces of your surfing and viewing of specific sites.

 

[T-Rexx]

Okay, I know zilch about computers. All I do with them is surf the web, send and receive e-mails, and play solitaire. Eventully, of course, my computer starts to slow down and take forever to do anything. So, I do the few things I know....disk clean-up, defragment, etc. I don't know if they do any good, but the computer seems slightly faster, then quickly reverts to its slow self. Eventually, I buy another (cheap) omputer. Repeat cycle.
Recently, my computer has been really slow. I see these pop-up messages like "High Memory Use" or High CPU Usage". I'm low on funds these days, so my traditional route of buying another PC is out.

If you are open to learning your way around a new desktop interface, you are an ideal candidate for Linux.

No viruses, no worms, no malware. You don't need to run anti-virus software or to defrag. You don't need a registry or system cleaner. It doesn't slow down with use like Windows. It runs on minimal hardware, so you won't have to keep throwing away computers.

And it's FREE.

 

[trinket]

Hey scrapple. You might see this prior thread for some other tips/comments:

Apple repairing laptop. Worried about porn...

And this one:

How to delete porn!

I don't think you have to be that worried. As noted in that first thread most techs do their best to stay out of personal files, and all the moreso if you're standing there. And in the second thread, the "He's a guy, he's probably got more computer porn than you do!" rings true. I can understand you might be nervous about gay porn coming up, but believe me, most guys are *wink wink nudge nudge* about porn and having it whether it's gay or straight, and wouldn't really care. I think in another thread (which I can't locate right now) someone also mentioned try a gay-friendly, gay-staffed or gay district computer repair shop if your city is large enough to have something like that, then it'll be more of a non issue.

 

[Paws]

Clean your browser cache and history (you might lose a few important website addresses that way if they're not bookmarked).

If you are open to learning your way around a new desktop interface, you are an ideal candidate for Linux.

Never ever suggest Linux to computer-illiterate people. That's sadism and ruins their fun and interest in computers.

 

[EJMichaels]

If you are open to learning your way around a new desktop interface, you are an ideal candidate for Linux...

What Paws said.

I have enough computer knowledge to do my own repairs and tweaks, but I'm not well-versed in Linux. We've tried Puppy on one machine. Exactly which OS would you suggest? I want to convert a couple of old computers soon.

As for keeping Windows systems running - I'll add a vote for Malwarebytes. No need to buy anything. And there are other good ones out there.

 

[T-Rexx]

Never ever suggest Linux to computer-illiterate people. That's sadism and ruins their fun and interest in computers.

I'm computer illiterate and I've been using Linux for about seven years. I love it!

I'm always surprised when people imply Linux is hard, since it seems to me so much easier than Windows. No malware, no anti-virus programs, no defragging, no registry cleaners, no crashes, no cruft, no fear of opening e-mail attachments, etc., etc., etc.

I don't think I'll ever go back to Windows. Not even if they make it free.

 

[T-Rexx]

We've tried Puppy on one machine. Exactly which OS would you suggest? I want to convert a couple of old computers soon.

Everyone has his own favorites.

I would try downloading Ubuntu 10.04 LTS here. I don't like the "Unity" desktop on the latest Ubuntu (11.04), but 10.04 rocks, and will be supported for another year yet.

Puppy is great if the computers are very, very old. Otherwise, you might experiment with Linux Mint, Fedora, Suse, and older versions of Ubuntu.

 

[Ambrocious]

These are the programs that I put onto peoples computers when they are getting slow:

Glary Utilities
CCleaner
Advanced SystemCare FREE
MalwareBytes Antimalware
SUPERAntiSpyware FREE

 

[trinket]

You could help dispute the fact that the OP fears - techs will find embarrassing data on computers while fixing them

I think the OP maybe has abandoned this thread, lol. One of my "Tech Talk" pet peeves is people posting a question, getting a bunch of answers but never returning to the thread to interact with those providing help or guidance (much less thank them).

 

[trinket]

Maybe the computer died. Its only been 2 days.

LOL! That made me laugh, but you're completely right, I didn't think about that. Maybe the whole thing kicked the bucket. Because his problem wasn't just component-level "my DVD/CD drive" or something. Anyway, hope he'll return and let us know - if not, another member of the post orphan "I need help but I'll never return" club.

To follow up that problem I asked for help from you re: Redtube. A guy couldnt view Redtube videos I had posted.
His firewall was blocking access to Redtube so thats why it wasnt working.

Ah! That's one of those eureka "of course!" moments in troubleshooting something like that, that seems so obvious after the fact. Here I was thinking about Flash compatibility and versioning, browser-based settings, etc. and the most obvious first-step thing is "check your firewall/antivirus settings to allow". So was his firewall using some generic blacklist of adult sites, an adult-filtering feature that specifically prevented Redtube by name that he needed to disable/remove/update? Or was it some other problem related to the type of traffic and misinterpreting the flash embedded videos on that site as being some hostile type of traffic or embedding?

 

[Ambrocious]

Anbrocious, When you are installing programs to people's computers, are you looking for things like porn?

Is this your job?

You could help dispute the fact that the OP fears - techs will find embarrassing data on computers while fixing them

Nah, I don't check the peoples browsing history personally, and I can't imagine why another person would wanna be that invasive but I imagine that it MIGHT happen once in a blue moon if it was taken into a computer repair guy who is also a PERVERT.

I just clean up the systems from malicious software and sometimes reformat. Unless a person works for the police or something, I can't imagine that the computer repair guy would care or even bother looking. The best way to treat the issue is to learn to do it yourself and save money.

Sounds like he may need a reformat.