How can I prevent customer from downloading malware?

[Platypus]

I have a customer, an individual, not a company, who's forever on the phone because he keeps breaking his PC by downloading every bit of malware that's offered. Every pop-up, accelerator, freeware and BHO he clicks "ok" as it seems he can't tell the difference between a genuine Windows pop-up and some iffy website offerings. His surfing history shows that he does visit certain specialist sites.

At first I thought it was funny because I can earn beer money for old rope. Now I'm bored and wish he'd stop, but he's too dumb.

Getting a Mac or Linux isn't a realistic option as he occasionally uses his PC for emails (Outlook Express) and work (MS Office) plus some genealogy stuff that only runs in Windows.

Getting him to change his habits is also not an option. I've tried

So the question is, can I configure IE8 to stop him doing this?

[Tingles]

Charge him double.

[DiscoStu]

Create him a virtual machine to use when visiting more "specialist" websites. Every time it breaks, just refresh the image.

[Moscow Mule]

How about locking his PC down, so only you can install anything. Make sure he's allowed remote desktop...

[DimPrawn]

http://www.faronics.com/html/product.asp

[SlimRick]

Set him up a separate user account on the PC with no rights whatsoever. Keep his current account for legitimate software installation etc. but with his new account having no installation rights it should cut down on the phonecalls somewhat.

[Platypus]

Solution: I'm going to fire him as a customer.

This is too much like hard work now.

[pmeswani]

I have a customer, an individual, not a company, who's forever on the phone because he keeps breaking his PC by downloading every bit of malware that's offered. Every pop-up, accelerator, freeware and BHO he clicks "ok" as it seems he can't tell the difference between a genuine Windows pop-up and some iffy website offerings. His surfing history shows that he does visit certain specialist sites.

At first I thought it was funny because I can earn beer money for old rope. Now I'm bored and wish he'd stop, but he's too dumb.

Getting a Mac or Linux isn't a realistic option as he occasionally uses his PC for emails (Outlook Express) and work (MS Office) plus some genealogy stuff that only runs in Windows.

Getting him to change his habits is also not an option. I've tried

So the question is, can I configure IE8 to stop him doing this?

Configure his DNS to point to OpenDNS's DNS servers, install the OpenDNS software on his system(s). Also, download BlueCoat's K9 software and install it on his system. Configure it to block Spyware and viruses. Both solutions are free.

HTH

[TheFaQQer]

Configure his DNS to point to OpenDNS's DNS servers, install the OpenDNS software on his system(s). Also, download BlueCoat's K9 software and install it on his system. Configure it to block Spyware and viruses. Both solutions are free.

HTH

Open DNS - Industry-leading Web content filtering, anti-phishing, DNS infrastructure and navigation services.

That's the last thing his client really wants, now, is it?

[Platypus]

Thanks for all the suggestions, but he's fired. He's knackered his machine again and tried to blame me for installing Firefox (which I did as I believe it's a more secure browser than IE).

But his penchant for using IE and accepting every download and BHO he's offered got the better of him again. Seems that AVG missed something too

After much investigation trying to fix a severe problem with browser requests being intercepted and redirected, and a failed "Repair Installation" I've resorted to a factory restore and am now putting back all his apps and data

Game over.