Print this article (12 pages, depending on margins) and try out the suggestions and programs below.
Remember to regularly backup files and data that you have created from your personal computer on to an external storage device such as a memory stick, CD/DVD, or other computer hard drive before making changes to your computer. Regular backups to an external device of critical data is very important as part of routine personal computer use. Hard drives and other storage devices can fail for many reasons making recovery of your data time consuming and costly, if not impossible. If you can access the Internet, AVG Antivirus (Grisoft w/Carbonite, Inc.) gives 2 gigabytes (GB) of free online back-up space. With that caveat in mind, let me know if these suggestions work for you. And, if you have some other favorite tools or procedures to suggest, please email me.
These suggestions work with Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, or Vista operating systems and Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
You do not have to use them all, do them all at once, nor run them in the same sequence that I do. They cohabit well with most other antivirus antimalware tools (..though some functions of them may be limited in the presence of other antimalware.)
(note: If your personal computer is 'company owned' or on a 'managed network' in a company, government, school, or public environment such as a library or Internet cafe, its 'network administrator' may have rules governing programs being installed on networked personal computers though none of these should conflict with any network controls.)
Here's some cleaning ideas:
Then there is the good, the bad, and the ugly news.1st, the good news:
It is possible to detect, prevent, and remove most common infections using a variety of free online and downloadable software tools. (note: These are some of my favorites which in combination work well cleaning a majority of infected personal computers. All computer ' geeks and nerds ' have their favorite utilities, not necessarily these. Remember, though I reference the 'free' versions of tools to download, that all of the companies offer 'pay' versions that have more options.)
2nd, the bad news:
It is nearly impossible to 100% prevent infections. Plus, it is sometimes very difficult to detect and remove some variations of infections. If you can not remove some, but by using the programs below have identified the names of the infections, specific removal tools for them may be found on the Internet.
3rd, the ugly news:
You must work also. You must be prudent as to which web sites you visit, "advertisements" that you click on, email that you open, and files that you download. (A common source of infections are files with fake file extensions that are downloaded via peer-to-peer (P2P) programs such as Kazaa, Limewire & Bitorrent.)
And, you must keep these tools up-to-date and actually run them periodically.
Plus, from Jim Byrd at http://defendingyourmachine2.blogspot.com, a quote, "Please note: If you are a victim of domestic violence or stalking and suspect that someone has installed spyware to monitor your activities, talk to a victim advocate before attempting to remove the spyware. Law enforcement may be able to assist you and would want to preserve evidence. In the United States, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline for more information at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)."
How to enable Javascript (src: tranexp.com)
