Buying a used computer

[OkLeo]

Ok, so a student at local college is graduating and returning to his home country and is selling his computer setup. Pretty nice setup w/ dual monitors etc. Here is the question though, How can I tell if he has installed any keylogger software or other malicious monitoring software? I plan to use to play games, login to netflix, hulu, etc. and don't want passwords given out. Not the least of which is cc numbers.

 

[schau314]

You could have him wipe everything and give you the os license keys and this would remove all programs to my knowledge.

 

[Jacob McIntosh]

You could also have him give you the OS key, and then format all the drives yourself. This way you know for a fact that everything is off the PC, then do a fresh install of Windows and you will have a "like new" PC.

 

[USAFRet]

With a used computer, the first default action is to wipe the drive and reinstall the OS. Nothing less.
Either with a valid key he gives you as part of the sale, or something you bought.

 

[jaimelmiel]

The only way to be sure is for you to wipe it clean.Think about it. and yes you need to get the os key.