Can he still access her computer?

Question

My friend was kind of seeing a guy but stopped seeing him as (amongst other things) he made himself the admin on her PC with a password and username. She is now wondering if he can access her computer via the internet. Is it possible for him to do this? Can she disable or prevent this.

*note she is currently away from her PC and uncertain which windows distro it is*

Answer 1

A full reformat/OS reinstall is a bit paranoid. It is technically possible to remotely connect using an administrator account on the machine, as others have already pointed out. What should also be mentioned, however, is that this vulnerability is easily fixed by removing his administrator account. Control Panel > User Accounts (or thereabouts, anyhow) will let you modify and change users on the PC. She'll have to be logged in as administrator as well - if she isn't, booting into safe-mode (tapping F8 during boot-up and choosing 'Safe-mode') will let her into the generic administrator account for the machine.



Checking for other vulnerabilities is also recommended if this ex was more malicious than most. The most likely of tricks he may have left behind is a trojan or other such networked service. It's easy enough to find and remove these - run a port scan on yourself (sites like probemyports.com/ will do this without much fuss). Open ports are, as a general rule, not good. Running a full virus and adware/spyware/malware scan is also a good idea.



Of course, I should note that this is all extremely generalized information. The easiest way to make sure you're secure is to do some research yourself. Barring that, get friendly with a local nerd and mention the possibility that you'll need defending from some heartbroken hacker with a chip on his shoulder. Geeks love to white knight, and they love to fight with other geeks even more.

Answer 2

lol Windows distro! Distros are for Linux not Windows.

Yes he can. Look up how to disable "remote login" in the help files or on the Internet. Also remove any installed software that your friend doesn't know about.

Answer 3

No he cannot. If she's behind a router then she's fine. The router acts as a firewall. If she's on a regular modem with a cable connection she should still be fine, he would have to hack past her IP address that was assigned to her by her ISP.



The only way he could do it was if he set it up via remote desktop or VNC or some other method, which she could easily find out if that was installed by going into her programs. Even for remote desktop he would still need her IP address.



If she's that worried just have her re-install her operating system.



I think she should be fine.

Answer 4

technically, what you have to do is reboot the computer, depress F-8 when you see the manufacturers screen, you will see a black screen next. Your going into safe-mode. A lot of words will pop up on the black screen, allow this to pass. You will eventually see safe-mode.

Click on administrator and if you can get into that, its not pass worded.

create a new screen name and delete the pass worded one. Reboot

Assuming your using XP

Only if he has desk top remote enabled will he be able to access the computer remotely.

Hopefully he did not set a password for the operating system.

Then you need a pro

Answer 5

Hard to say what he did on her machine.Maybe the best thing is to do a complete re install of the operating system if she has the disk at hand.

Answer 6

Yes, there is still a way for him to access her computer..

He's he like obsessed with her or what?

Answer 7

no