Do you suspect your PC already has infections?
Here is my “stock approach” for self-help ... you can try any and all of the following to do a general PC clean up [I can assist with any or all of this ... if you get stuck or lost!]. This article was last edited early 2010 ... some links, recommendations and comments may no longer be up-to-date NB. All this will take some time and is part of the route I take when presented with slow PCs that might also be infected. Apologies if this all seems like a lot to do ... but don’t try to do it all at once! Any one of the following can take from a few mins to a couple of hours, so do it progressively over a week or so. The first three listed are not to remove evil thingies ... but rather to get the system tidy. 1. Defragment your drives: http://www.defraggler.com/ [better than the one built into windows] 2. Tidy your registry: http://www.pctools.com/registry-mechanic/ ... not free ... but see Point 3 3. Clean out clutter: http://www.ccleaner.com/ ... free. Lots of tools built-in here, including a registry cleaner, so No.2 above can probably be skipped. 4. Use a variety of tools to scan for malware: [always run one at a time and reboot in between]. a. New windows defender: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx b. New MS online Full Service Scan http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm?s_cid=sah/?s_cid=sah c. MS Protection scan:http://onecare.live.com/site/en-US/center/howsafe.htm?s_cid=mscom_msrt d. You can always scan occasionally with other manual tools ... The following have free versions to download and install. Note: Most of these have to be run manually. Excuse me if I do not explain these in detail ... they are pretty intuitive to install and use but you may need to read a bit as you go.
All these 5 can co-exist on your PC as they do not run automatically in the background. Just run a different one each week so that each is used once over 4 to 6 weeks. Always choose “update” for each prog before using each time. Additionally, download AVAST to temporarily replace existing AV software
The above combination is likely to find some things on most PCs ... just clean out all that they find. Each prog has a different user interface which you’ll have to negotiate to see how the deletions are done ... mainly pretty obvious. I swop antivirus products occasionally as none is perfect. Current pro favourite is Eset[Nod32] ... We can get licences for you if needed Other good, free AV progs I like are Panda Cloud and http://www.clamwin.com/ And http://www.free-av.com/en/trialpay_download/1/avira_antivir_personal__free_antivirus.html NB. Some of the above free versions are licensed for use on business PCs ... a few are not, and ask you to pay for the business version. Finally, there are more serious pro-tools which are hard to describe here. Best left to an I.T. type bod. Over and out David Oh, one more thing. There are some infections which are really hard to remove ... and in those cases it can be more time-efficient/cost effective to back up your data and then to reinstall Windows and all software [you do have all your software and Windows disks don’t you!]. |
