Malware is any type of malicious code or software which wreaks havoc on your system, whether it’s a virus, pop-ups, browser hi-jacks, or the scam anti-virus software which has been really popular. This is this stuff you don’t want on your computer and probably the reason you are here at this blog now. I’m not going to sell you any software to remove the malware and I’m not going to ask how it got there.
What I will say is, there are typically three programs I recommend: SpyBot S&D, AVG Free, and Ad-Aware.
If you are currently infected, your best bet is SpyBot S&D. I’ve found this nifty free tool to be a great resource in cleaning computers from pesky infiltrations. If it won’t remove everything or has permission denied, you have a more sophisticated malware. If this is you, your best bet may be to install SpyBot S&D and then reboot in safe mode to run the scan. You can access the control panel for safe boot by going to your start menu and clicking on Run and typing “msconfig” with no quotes. This is going to be different for Windows XP and Windows 7 users. Windows 7 users can type in “msconfig” with no quotes in the search box under the start menu. Once you have your system configuration window up, you can click the “Boot” tab and check “Safe boot”. Once you hit “Apply” and/or “OK”, it’s going to ask you to reboot. Go for it. Your computer will reboot and when Windows restarts it’ll ask if you intended to start up in safe mode. Just tell it yes and proceed. Once Windows loads, run Spybot S&D and let it remove any bad guys it finds.
The best thing about SpyBot S&D is the immunization feature. If you keep SpyBot S&D up to date and immunized, you’ll find most baddies can’t get on your system.
AVG Free is a lower resource hog than Norton/Symantec and McAfee so I prefer it for that reason over the two commercial anti-virus companies. This anti-virus software claims to have real-time detection and protection but I haven’t tested it against a live attack.
One point I like to make about Norton is if you can identify the strand of virus your machine has, they usually have a removal tool available for free. For this, I give them some credit.
The last program is Ad-Aware. It is very highly rated by users and seems to complement SpyBot S&D well. Between these two programs, I haven’t had a virus in years. If you have a weaker or older system, I would recommend picking one (my preference is SpyBot S&D), keeping it updated, and running it often. After all, you don’t wait until you’ve died before you go see the doctor for an illness do you? Be proactive on security and you shouldn’t have many, if any, issues.
