Spyware -- How to regain control of your computer
Do you often get pop-up ads on your computer that seem to come from nowhere?
Most likely you have spyware
or adware
on your computer. The most common ways of coming into contact
with these pests are through the use of the Internet Explorer browser
or the use of freeware found on the web such as file sharing programs.
How do you get rid of spyware and regain control of your computer?
There are a few steps to take to clear your
computer of these pests, I will outline the most important ones.
- Uninstall the spyware
- Clean the remaining spyware with removal tools
- Prevent future infections
1. The first step to take is
the most obvious, uninstall the spyware. Open up your Add/Remove
Programs list in the Control Panel. This is a list of the software
installed on your computer. Compare what you find in Add/Remove
Programs to known spyware listed at www.doxdesk.com.
If you get a match, uninstall it.
2.
After you have uninstalled the obvious malware it is time to use some
additional tools that will help clean up what has been
missed. There are many free programs that will help remove
spyware. Ironically some of these are actually spyware
themselves masquerading as helpful tools. Two well known and
trusted programs you can use are Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware.
These programs are free, though Spybot will accept donations if you are
so inclined and the makers of Ad-Aware also make a version available
for purchase. After you have downloaded and installed Spybot
and Ad-Aware be sure to update them. These programs need to
be updated, just like anti-virus software does. Just look for
the update button and follow the on-screen prompts, it is fairly
straight forward. After you have done the update simply run a
scan with them, again just like you would with anti-virus
software. When the scan is done running you will get a list
of what was found, allow Spybot and Ad-Aware to remove what it
found. You may also find it helpful to boot Windows into
"safe mode" to do this scan, though it is not required. The
advantage of safe mode is that it may be easier to remove the spyware
since most of it probably won't be running while Windows is in safe
mode. You may not be familiar with safe mode, Symantec has a nice description of it including how to boot to it.
3.
Hopefully by now you have a fairly clean system. This is just
the beginning though, if you don't take precautions you will find your
computer reinfected very quickly. One of the quickest ways to
get spyware is by using Internet Explorer. The only option you really have to keep
yourself safe is to not use Internet Explorer. You do have
choices when it comes to web browsers. Firefox,
the very popular browser from the non-profit Mozilla Foundation is
currently the most used browser besides Internet Explorer. It
offers pop-up blocking and most importantly a very secure browsing
environment. Once you have Firefox installed, the next thing
to do is make sure you have updated anti-virus software.
If you don't have any, there are quite a few companies offering free
versions that do a very good job. Two of the choices you have
are AVG Anti-Virus and eTrust EZ Armor LE. Keep your anti-virus software updated and routinely run full system scans with it.
If you
follow all of these steps you will have a much happier computer.
You might even start to enjoy using the Internet again. Good
luck!
It is worthwhile to mention that competitive operating systems such as
linux exist and provide a nice alternative to Windows. Users of these operating systems
rarely experience issues with viruses or spyware. Firefox is a great browser for linux users
but let's not forget about Iceweasel
which was first made famous by Debian.