BleepingComputer.com: Good way to clean computer from porn?

I have a friend...seriously...who has a laptop he wants to give to his daughter. But he has used it to surf porn sites pretty heavily.

Aside from the virus security risks, he just wants it cleaned up so his daughter (and his wife) doesn't find any residual things that would be inappropriate.

Is there free software out there that detects and cleans everything? I know that just going and clearing browser history isn't necessarily enough. He gave me the computer because I know way more about computers than he does, but I thought I'd check with the experts here.

I've cleared everything through IE (the only browser he had installed). I also went into his user account on the c: drive and checked browser cache, history, downloads, favorites, etc., making sure everything was clear.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

IMHO, the only sure way is to reinstall Windows.
Since the computer goes to someone else, it makes perfect sense.

If he also saved photos/images and later deleted them, those types of files can possibly be recovered and a reformat and clean reinstall as Broni suggests would be the best solution to ensure every trace has been removed.

If that is not an option or if browsing ONLY was involved, then two of the more effective tools to remove traces of Internet activity are:

• Privacy Eraser
  
• Privacy Mantra
  
• CCleaner - Using and Understanding CCleaner

Although these types of tools do a good job, there is no guarantee that something will not be missed. It really depends on how thorough you are trying to be.

This post has been edited by quietman7: 10 November 2010 - 07:53 AM

Thanks! Privacy Eraser worked great.

quietman7, on 10 November 2010 - 07:37 AM, said:

You're welcome on behalf of the Bleeping Computer community.

I would really recommend a clean install with full format, there is too high a likelyhood that the system files are compromised.

This post has been edited by Mooseby: 12 November 2010 - 03:18 PM

Quote

How do you know this? Do you have support for such a statement?

Actually with Windows XP and above, its pretty easy. Just create a new user account and dump the old account. Your browsing history, documents etc are all stored in user profile. Deleting a user account will get rid of all that. But there are two glitches -

1. If you surfed porn using an Admin account and got infected with malware like a porn dialer, then it will make system level changes and all accounts will be affected. (a porn dialer program usually has a dirty icon)
2. If you saved files not to "My Documents" but to some custom folder like "c:\myporn\", and forgot later, then its going to be a problem. Once a friend of mine, who fixes computers as a side job, showed me people hiding dirty pics in a subfolder inside system folder like "c:\windows\system33".

This post has been edited by Romeo29: 14 November 2010 - 12:14 AM