Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Antispyware: How to root out the demons.

    Today's post involves spyware, malware, and general yuckiness that even the best user eventually gathers on their computer. If you suspect spyware, and you will if your Internet connection is slow or spotty or the computer runs slow, or web pages open up that you specifically didn't ask for, then the very first thing I recommend is going to this site: http://www.malwarebytes.org/ and download the free version of their antispyware program. This program has single handedly resurrected a number of systems. Run the program on it's deepest search settings and then go for a jog - it'll be a while.


   

    You back? Good! Did you see all the junk your machine grabbed off the Internet? Some of it may look extremely alarming, but don't fret, you can just continue and delete the offending material with a press of a button.
    Don't you feel better now? I'm sure your computer does! But how do you avoid getting all that gunk to begin with? A lot has to do with safe searches, but even the safest appearing website can infect your machine. This link http://www.safer-networking.org/ will direct you to a nifty little program that will immunize your web browser against a myriad of virus issues. Once you have the program installed and updated, select the "immunize" feature of the program and watch as it builds up a wall of protection for your browsers.





    Take a look at your antivirus. There's a good chance it's either outdated or nonexistent. If you have Norton or Mcafee you need to check the date on it. If it says 2012 or 2013 you should be safe (and check when your subscription expires). If your antivirus is old, then uninstall the antivirus (I know, it sounds dangerous - but trust me!) and head over to http://www.avast.com/en-us/free-antivirus-download and select the free version of the antivirus.

If you are still having issues and need a little more in depth look at what do do when nothing works, head over to: http://hub.me/aeVBW and good luck!