Protecting Our Parents' PCs?

Frustrated Son asks: "I assume that many Slashdot readers must serve as the IT staff for their parents. My folks get my old machines and just enough software to be productive. I try to protect my parents from the forces of evil by installing automatic OS updates, virus checkers, spyware blockers, pop-up blockers... But still I find that my parents end up with unwanted applications and dangerous software. What software or strategies do you use to protect your parents' PCs? Is it possible for inexperienced users to surf the net in safety?"

Comments

Re:Get mom an iMac

[System.out.println()]

You still get a lot of virii on windows even without those apps. Plus, you still need IE for some things, like Windows Update and updating some virus scanners.

My friend uses Windows and Firefox, etc, but he had to run IE once - ONCE - to go to windows update. In his words, he got "more viruses than a vietnamese whore."