Sunday, February 03, 2008

Amateur Users, Mozilla Firefox & Peace Of Mind

I'm frequently requested by friends & relatives to cleanup their computers, that are full of viruses and other malware. They tell me that it (the malware) "came" from the Internet. Thank god, now there's an effective (preventive) solution to these woes - Mozilla Firefox.

What I do is to backup all of their important data, format the machine, install the operating system again, and install the latest version of Firefox on it. And boom! Gone are all the drive-by-downloads, the unwanted pop-up ads, and a nice side-effect is the increase in browsing performance.

And how do I ensure that they do not use Internet Explorer again (accidentally or otherwise)? The simplest way (and its quite effective too) is to remove its icon from, the start menu, the desktop, and the quick-launch tray. And I also make Firefox the default browser.

The blue e isn't visible anymore, and I've noticed that what people can't see, they use it less often.

Here's what someone has to say. Although it isn't about Firefox, the spirit nonetheless is the same...

"I'm actively contemplating installing (Ubuntu) for a few friends and family, because I'm sick of de-spywaring their Windows machines." --Stephen O'Grady, analyst, RedMonk

Read My Thoughts On Human Brain