If you've got lot's of pop-ups, or your computer system has become very slow...chances are, you have a virus, Spyware, or a Trojan Horse. Spybot and Ad-Aware do quite well with spyware/adware but don't do much with viruses and trojan horses. The good news is that you can likely eradicate your daughters malware infection, and not spend a dime in doing so! Here are some steps to follow:

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Step one: (if not done already) You need to turn on the computer's firewall. Xp2's firewall is an improvement over SP1 and quite easy to use. To enable the firewall, simply click the SP2 Windows security icon in your system tray (bottom right), then click recommendations, and click enable now. Don't see the security icon? Then click start, then My Network Places, then View Network Connections (upper right) then right click on the connection you are using. Click properties, then advanced, then settings and turn the firewall on. This will limit most inbound connections, and will make it easier to clean the computer. For a more powerful and user configurable firewall, check out Zone Alarm Free available at www.Zonelabs.com

Step 2: Turn off system restore. To do this, right click on the My Computer icon on your desktop and select properties. Select the system restore tab and put a check in the box that says turn off system restore on all drives, then click the apply button. The reason to do this is that system restore mirrors the current state of your system, and once your system is infected, system restore will restore the malware on each new boot up.

Step 3: Scan your system with a good online virus scan. My favorite is by Trend Micro, and is available at: http://housecall.trendmicro.com/. Click the scan now, it's free button, tell them what country you live in, and be sure to click the auto clean button after the virus definitions have downloaded. The reason to do an online virus scan is because sometimes your own anti-virus software can become compromised when your system gets infected.

Step 4 A. If the Trend Micro scan cleans every infection it finds go to step five, else go to step 4 B.

Step 4 B: If the online scan couldn't delete some files, make careful note of their name AND their location. Reboot  your computer into safe mode with networking, and navigate to the location of every file found and delete them. The reason that you couldn't delete the files in normal mode is that they were currently in use, and XP won't always let you delete a file that is in use - booting into safe mode allows only protected operating system files to run. Afterwards, it might be a good idea to run another virus scan in safe mode, just to be sure. (To reboot into safe mode, restart your computer by clicking the start button, then turn off, then restart. Hit the F8 button repeatedly on boot up, and it should take you to a screen with several boot up choices.)

Step 5: To ensure that you have cleaned everything - you need to hit the triple play of free anti-spyware software. 1: Run a full system scan with the latest version of Ad-Aware (available at www.Lavasoftusa.com) 2. Run a full system scan with Spybot Search and Destroy (available at: www.Safer-Networking.org/en/index.html)
3. Run a full scan with CwShredder (available at:
http://www.Intermute.com/spysubtract/cwshredder_download.html) It is critically important that you update each product before you scan as anti-spyware products have definitions that need to be updated just like anti-virus software does.

Step 6: Chances are, you should be clean by now. Now it's time for some preventative measures. First, go to www.windowsupdate.com and install the latest security patches (Microsoft has released several since Sp2) Then go to www.Javacoolsoftware.com and install the latest version of Spyware Blaster, which is a great tool for preventing Spyware from ever getting on your system. Finally, go to www.toolbar.google.com and install Google's free toolbar, which includes a pop-up blocker, among many other nifty tools.

And there you have it - a cleaned up and well protected system, and you didn't have to spend any money on software or a computer technician.

I very much hope this helps!

Chase Thompson/ChaseandSam.com

 

This site is designed and maintained by the ChaseandSam.com team. For several years, we have broadcast a computer help radio show, and also do a weekly computer help segment for Fox News on T.V.

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