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Computer
First Aid
Computing can be a difficult and even intimidating task for many people. One of the most troublesome problems with computing is when unwanted software (often called malware)is installed on the computer, causing it to slow down . The presence of malware (viruses, spyware, adware, trojans, etc.) on a computer can make computing very difficult, and unsafe as well. Often, end-users reach this stage and then give up--they just don't turn on the computer or surf anymore, because it is too tedious. This problem is very unfortunate, because with a few simple steps, most home users can clean up their computers, and keep them running in a very efficient manner. This is turn can save money, because a a cleaned computer that is already paid for is much cheaper than a new one that you would put on your Mastercard.
You would be well advised to know that there are three sections to this essay. If you have been experiencing problems with malware on your computer, it is important to take care of all three steps, because all three are essential for the continued safety of your computer.
A. Cleaning up your computer
If you are willing to put a bit of time and effort, you can most likely clean up your computer (and keep it clean), for free--there is no charge at all for any of the programs linked to, below. If your computer is running noticeably slower than before, or is having problems with a high amount of pop-up ads or even other problems, try the following steps, in order:
| Note: If your
computer has been seriously infected
(to the point that it is slowed to a crawl, or is otherwise unusable),
you should definitely take two extra steps: A. Run the antivirus and antispyware programs in Safe Mode. This is a stripped-down instance of Windows running, with fewer programs running, which make it less likely that the malware will be running as well. This in turn will give you a better chance of removing the malware. You can only get into Safe Mode by booting your computer into it: after you turn your computer on, but before the Windows startup screen appears, hit the F8 button. Choose to boot into Safe Mode (if you haven't been able to get online and update your virus or spyware definitions, then you should boot into Safe Mode with Networking, which will allow you to go online). B. Get a second opinion--after cleaning up the computer, get an online virus scan. Many of the antivirus companies provide them for free. You can find a few here: Norton Antivirus , Bit Defender, and Trend Micro (which work with Windows 98, ME, 2000, and XP). If you are running Vista and want to take advantage of an online scan, you can try F-Secure. |
1. Get updated
antivirus and antispyware programs
If you don't have both types of programs, you
can go to free.grisoft.comand follow the links (on the left side of the page).
AVG offers excellent editions of both. Whichever one you don't have,
download and install. Do keep in mind that AVG Antispyware requires
Windows 2000, XP, or Vista to run. If you are running an
earlier version of Windows (the 9x series: Windows 95, 98, or ME), you
will need to use Spybot
Search&Destroy
as an antispyware program. Scan with both an antivirus and the AVG
Antispyware program, making sure to update each before you scan.
AVG Antispyware can be updated by simply opening up the program. In the middle of the window that opens up, click on a link that says "Update now." AVG Antivirus can be updated by simply right-clicking on the AVG icon in the System Tray (bottom right corner of the screen), and selecting "Check for Updates." If you can't find it in the System Tray, find it in the Programs menu. Click on the AVG--Test Center shortcut, and then in the window that opens up, click on "Check for Updates."
2. Scan for
viruses and malware
If what is being reported as malware, shouldn't be on your computer,
you can remove what the scans find. If you aren't positive about
removing some or all of the items they recommend for removal, both
programs give you the option of "quarantining" the spyware. Quarantined
malware will not be able to disrupt your computer. You can go back a
week later and delete the quarantined file, if nothing is going wrong
with the computer. On the other hand, if a problem is created by
quarantining those files, you can always restore them.
Quarantining with AVG Antispyware:
When the scan is complete all detected malware will be listed
on the
left-hand side of the Scan dialog. By left- or right-clicking on the
Action of the selected item in the list a context menu will appear
displaying the optional actions available. Select the action
Quarantine. Once you have set the required action for each item in the
list, click on the Apply all actions button.
Let me warn you about one particularly subtle type of malware. There are some programs that get installed on your computer, and then inform you that your computer has umpty-six infections, and that if you pay $20 to download a certain program, you will be able to clean up your computer. Don't ever go through with that and pay them money-it's a scam! Apart from some incredibly isolated examples, everything you need to get, to clean up your computer, you can get for free. If you think you might have some program on your computer that is malware posing as a good program (trying to scam you out of $20 or so), you should go to this anti-spyware site. This site will provide you with information on such rogue anti-spyware programs.
Symantec (the makers of Norton Antivirus) maintain a fairly up-to-date library of utilities and information on how to remove malware that is prevalent in the wild. If you have a particular bit of malware that is hard to kill, you would do well to see if Symantec has a tool to deal with it.Keep in mind that you should not consider your computer to be cleaned up (after you have become infected) until after you have rebooted and run a new scan. Believe it or not, a fair amount of malware has the ability to change its directory when a drive is being scanned, and thus even though the anti-malware program tells you that it has taken care of it, it will still exist on the hard drive. This is why it is good to reboot and do a new scan, even after your program has told you that it has disinfected your computer.
3.
Look in Add or Remove Programs
Most spyware will not alert you
to its presence by placing an entry
here, but some programs will. Go to
Start>Settings>ControlPanel>AddOrRemovePrograms
(in Vista, the
Start pearl>Control Manager>Programs). You will be
presented with
a list of programs installed on your computer. Be forewarned-- the Add
or Remove Programs menu is not a list of spyware or viruses-it is the
menu in which all regularly installed programs go. However, there is a
chance that malware is listed here. One type of malware that does
commonly list itself in the Add/Remove Programs menu is adware search
toolbars (anything that has the word search in it
is possibly
one of these). Don't uninstall anything until you are sure that you
don't want it there. Once you have determined that you don't need or
want a particular program, select that program, and then click on the
Change/Remove tab to uninstall. You may have to restart your computer
after the uninstall process is finished. Again, you should only
uninstall a program on this list, after you are sure it doesn't belong.
A Google search can help you decide if you want it on your computer.
Don't be surprised if your antispyware progam doesn't get rid of such a
toolbar. They are notoriously difficult to kill. If you have one, and
an antivirus and antispyware scan, or the Add-Remove Programs window,
in Safe Mode won't get rid of it, you'll probably have to look it up
online to see how to remove it.
4. Consult the
experts
If you have not been able to clean up your computer on your own, you
have two other choices: go online and get expert advice to clean up
your computer (still for free), or you can simply reformat your hard
drive and start over, if you have the original Windows installation
disks on hand. If you are unwilling or unable to reinstall Windows, you
can go online to the Techguy.org
forum and get very timely and expert assistance with your
computer problems.
Some users might prefer a slightly different browser, akin to Mozilla Firefox--called Seamonkey . There are two advantages of using Seamonkey. Seamonkey is compatible with Windows 95, so if your computer is running Windows 95, you can safely browse with Seamonkey (Firefox requires Windows 98 or above). Additionally, Seamonkey has an email client built in to its program. If you have used Netscape Navigator in the past, and like the built-in email cient, then Seamonkey is for you. Simply wanting an email client doesn't mean you have to use Seamonkey, however. If that is your only concern, you can use Firefox for web browsing, and its sister project, Thunderbird, to read your email. To summarize: if you want separate web browser and email client, you can use Firefox and Thunderbird; if you want them both rolled into one program, then you would want Seamonkey. If all you are interested in is a browser, then by all means take Firefox--it represents the future of the Mozilla project, and is more actively maintained than Seamonkey is.
5. Make sure you have Spyware Blasterinstalled, if you are going to be doing most of your surfing with Internet Explorer (I don't--the only uses I make of IE are when I go to microsoft.com to update Windows, or on a rare occasion that the site I'm surfing doesn't work right with Firefox). Spyware Blaster isn't a program, so much as a set of registry settings that ensure that malware using Active-X technology won't be installed on your computer. This program is designed primarily for those who surf with Internet Explorer, becasue IE is the only browser that uses Active-X technology that some sites use to install malware on your computer--(the technology is proprietary, owned by Microsoft).C. Best Practices (to keep your computer clean)
Now that you have cleaned up your computer, there are some things that you can do to keep your computer from getting infected to begin with.
1. Make sure that you have an antivirus and antispyware program running in the background at all times.
2. Make sure that Windows itself is updated regularly. The best way to do this is to let Windows download and install updates automatically. If you are runing Vista, go to the Control Panel>Security>Windows Update. To configure XP for automatic updates, right-click on the My Computer icon, and select Properties. Then, select the Automatic Updates tab, and check the top button, Automatic Updates. If you choose not to use automatic updates, then use the same method that you did in Part B (to update Windows), to update it manually.
3. Use the Firefox web browser to surf, instead of Internet Explorer. And be sure to get Firefox updated automatically. Make sure that your version of Firefox is the latest one (2.0), and that Firefox is updated regularly. Now Firefox is set up by default, to update itself automatically. If you aren't sure, you can go to Tools>Options>Advanced. Look at the Update tab, and make sure that the "Automatically Check for Updates to" Firefox and Installed Add-ons boxes are checked.
4. Don't install toolbars from unknown companies! These are a very common form of malware. If you really do like the functionality that search toolbars provided, get one from a reputable company: Google, Yahoo, or MSN. Now this doesn't mean that these three are the only legitimate toolbars. If you would like to install another toolbar, just google that toolbar's name and "+uninstall," and see if others are having problems uninstalling it.
5. Use a cleanup utility to clean up temp files and browser cache. Malware can look in these files and get information that you have viewed or typed in to your keyboard. Now for a cleanup utility you have a choice. If you have decided to use IE for your surfing (and this should only be IE7--if you are using an older version of Windows [95, 98, or ME] you cannont download IE7 and for security reasons, should be using a modern browser: Firefox or Seamonkey), you can easily use Windows' default Disk Cleanup utility. In XP, go to Start>Programs>System Tools and select Disk Cleanup. Tell Windows what drive you want it to clean up (usually the C drive), and then make sure that Disk Cleanup has checked: Downloaded Program Files, Temporary Internet Files, Recycle Bin, and Temporary Files. I would recommend that all other options be unchecked. Then, click on OK and Windows will delete these files for you. If you are running Vista, you can run Disk Cleanup by going to Start>All Programs>Accesories>System Tools, then select Disk Cleanup. Select the drive you want to clean up (again, if you don't know, just select C). In the Disk Cleanup tab, check all the boxes EXCEPT Hibernation File Cleaner and the three three Windows Error files at the bottom. Click OK, then Delete Files.
Now if you are using another browser (besides IE7), you can still use Windows' Disk Cleanup, but then you would also still have to delete the temp files (cache) in your browser as well. If you download a small but potent program called CCleaner, you can have it do everything that Disk Cleanup does, plus it can delete the cache in other browsers as well, saving you a few clicks and one more thing to remember. If you choose to use CCleaner, I would recommend only the following boxes to be checked:7. You should not have your browser remember any sensitive passwords (via a cookie, when you check the "Remember me when I sign in again" box, or through the password manager). One of the problems with not writing down passwords or having software remember them is that they can get pretty hard after a while.If you go to a few financial sites and you aren't comfortable using the same password, try using the same basic password, but then adding a character or two that youc an easily remember--the first letter or two of the name of the institution, or the type of account, etc. I have Firefox remember all my non-secure passwords (such as website forums), and I enter in manually those for banks and my email.
8. Set up a regular schedule (from once a week to once a month) for maintainance tasks, such as scans and updates for programs that you don't have set to update automatically.
To aid this, you might want to make a folder in your Start menu, that gives you shortcuts or links (either to programs on my computer, or to websites) to every task you need to do in your maintainance program. You can do this easily by setting up a folder in your Start menu; right-clicking on any folder you want to get into, or program you want to run, and then dragging the icon onto this folder. When you let up, Windows will ask if you want to move or copy a shortcut. Copying would be fine, and still allow you to leave the links where they originally were.
For example, you would place
links to any programs
that aren't set to update automatically in this folder. If you want to
do backups of your data, or defragmenting, you can also place
links/shortcuts to those programs as well. You will want to do at least
the following, every time you perform your maintenance. First, update
the definition files for any malware programs that aren't configured to
update automatically, including Spyware Blaster (if you have it
installed). Next, run a scan with your antivirus and spyware programs.
After that, you can clean out old files by running a disk cleanup
utility, and then defrag the hard drive. Finally, update Windows. You can see an example of such a folder that I
used a while back, in the graphic below. To
make this all easy, I created a folder in my Start Menu with shortcuts
to those tasks; I simply start at the top and go down the list until
its all done. In this
folder, I have shortcuts
to 4 Windows folders or programs (Prefetch, System Restore, Disc
Cleanup, and Disk Defragmenter). I also have shortcuts to 2 programs
(and MS AntiSpyware), as well as a link to the Windows Update site.
