cleaning instructions windows 2000

hi i just met a friend's friend who says his windows 2000 is running very slowly, has popups and has other problems too. he isn't sure if he has a firewall or AV etc. i was going to give him the link to Blackspear's cleaning link, but it doesn't say which steps should be used for which OS. so, as he doesn't seem to know too much about his PC, i don't think he'll know which steps, from the guide, he should use. does any of that matter much? or should i find another guide he can follow?

also, what's the easiest way to backup windows 2000? (something like system restore)

he doesn't know the specs of his PC, so i'll just have to assume he has very little RAM and a slow PC. so which firewall should he use? which AV should he use?

is windows 2000 NT based?. i just had a quick look to see which programs he can download, and SpywareBlaster only runs on 98/ME/NT/2000/XP, and i suppose other downloads will say the same.

are there any other things i can tell him to do? thanks

 

Windows 2000 is also known as Windows NT 5, so yes it is NT based. If he has small RAM, he should upgrade. I recommend using the link to Blackspears cleaning guide and then keeping Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, SpywareBlaster, ZoneAlarm Free, and any of the free trojan hunters. I only recommend these, because of the simplicity of setup and usage. If he wants a free AV, I recommend AVG or AVast...both very good for being free and don't eat up the system resources.

There....that's my 2 cents

 

thanks for the help, Capp i'm not sure i'll help him now. i asked him to take a very quick look at firefox's tabbed browsing on Helen's PC and he couldn't be bothered to get up and take alook. then as i was leaving i asked him to write down his email address so i can send him the things he needs, and he couldn't be bothered to do that either, he said "you can get it from Helen next time you see her"

it was him that asked for help in the first place, it wasn't me imposing myself. he was using Helen's PC and said he was impressed by there being no popups and how much better it worked then his PC. so i said if he likes i'll help him get his PC working correctly.

oh well. i dont think i'll help anyone again. Helen has malware on her PC too. but, whenever i go around there i'm asked to help, then before i can clean it properly, she always says "can you wrap-it-up now?"