Intersting variety of replies and some good ideas I am tossing around.
As for his anti-virus (and anti-spyware) sortware, he does have Windows Defender (a.k.a. Microsoft Security Essentials) on his system but the quick scans did not find anything. He has a weekly full scan but it may not have run after he had his latest problem. He did not know how to run it, of course, but I talked him through it over the phone last night before I posted here. I do not know if it found anything later we got off the phone. I never put Malwarebytes free edition on his system but even though I talked him through how to download it I do not know if he was successful in downloading it or running it. I'll find out tomorrow night (Wednesday) when he comes over to visit.
I agree that I may have created a sense of dependency which saps his incentive to try to learn how to figure these things out for himself. But he is so inept in that area that he would prefer to not try to figure out solutions and put up with a badly running PC than to actually improve his PC's functioning.
The MVPS host file thing looks interesting. I will have to investigate it more.
While my friend is inept, my dad (83 years old) is more inept. But he doesn't use his PC as often so he doesn't care if he he was to wait a while for me to come over. It is very tough to talk him through even easier tasks he has trouble with. And now that he finally has DSL instead of an awful dial-up connection, he is using his PC more.
I don't know how extensive the malware is on his PC. It did not get to the point where a system restore would be my next step, unlike in past years when he had some really nasty things on his system.
The remote access (Teamviewer) idea looks interesting. I would be far more receptive to being able to fix his problems from my own desktop. I already help him with other things (mainly financial stuff) without having to leave my desktop. That's one I will suggest to him to see if he is on board with pursuing it.
Buying a Mac is not an idea I will suggest. He bought his current PC only 15 months ago. That's a little too drastic.
One obstacle to helping him over the phone is his speech impediment. It makes it tough to understand him over the phone.
As I wrote above, I help him with his financial stuff (incuding income tax returns) but he does pay me for that, though. This includes the huge inheritance he got in 2012 after his remaining parent (mother) died. I have posted elsewhere about this.
The VM or making an image of his hard drive is above my pay grade, so I won't pursue those options.
I don't know how the malware gets installed on his PC, something I have wondered about for many years. He is savvy enough to know not to click on unknown things such as those fake spyware scans which claim to have found lots of bad things or warnings that your system has become "infected." He does like to play games on line and I know those are hotbeds for malware because they often require installing programs to play them. This is apparent from the many odd, often bad programs which have recent installation dates and he has no idea how they got there.
My friend may be lonely. Like me, he is 50, single, with no kids. He rarely has a girlfriend due to his various physical flaws; he is short, has the speech impediment, and has a partial physical disability from a car crash 30 years ago (before I met him in 1988), all of which sharply limit his dating prospects (he has some awkward social skills, too). Both of his parents are deceased and his one sibling, a sister, is married with 2 kids and lives not far away but has her own busy life to lead. He has a decent circle of friends but the others are not tech-savvy like I am.
Thank you for a good discussion. Any more ideas before he comes over Wednesday night are welcome.
