Spyware---Adware-Removal
This article is about how to remove Adware and Spyware from your computer. If your computer has slowed down or just seems to now be possessed you may want to read this article. I will guide you through the steps that I have taken many times to stop these annoying problems. Although be advised you will take these steps at your own risk. The author of this article will not accept responsibility for any loss of data, etc. You will need to be alert and make sure to read very closely while following the steps that I will give you. To shorten this article I do not show you how to navigate through menus, download programs, or install programs. I have to assume that you already know how to perform these actions. For a professional to diagnose and remove the Adware and Spyware from your computer it could cost you from $50.00-$400.00. This article will guide you through the process of removing adware/spyware from your computer yourself for only the cost of your time. First of all you will need an internet connection to get started or a good friend that will not mind retrieving the software downloads for you. This is probably how you acquired the problem any way (having an internet connection not a having a friend) so hopefully that isn't a problem although if it is a problem there are a few free internet services out there that you could use but beware of the long distance charges that could apply. Below you find a list of links to several free or low cost internet services:
http://www.netzero.net/
http://www.juno.com/
I personally use NetZero when I am away from my office/home. It has my local access numbers so it was the best choice for me. There are several tools that you will need to complete this task. Hopefully you have a high-speed internet connection which will come handy while downloading the following tools from the internet otherwise plan on taking a few coffee breaks or heck maybe even a lunch break depending on your internet connection speed to download the following files. If you do not have high-speed I would suggest that you find someone who would download the following programs and copy them to a CD for you.
AntiVirus protection
http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php
Please Note: This is a free version and you will not receive updates as frequent and as quickly as you would with the paid version which you can find here: http://www.grisoft.com/doc/Single/lng/us/tpl/tpl01
AdWare/SpyWare
There are several available AdWare/SpyWare removal programs out there but I usually use the free ones that I will tell you about first.
Ad-aware
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/
Spybot
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html
Spy Sweeper (My Pick - This one is not free but I have had the best success with it - It runs in the system tray next to your clock and warns you if there are any threats as they happen - this software has real time protection, you can scheduled upates and scans. I would highly recommend this product. Link below is to free trial.)
http://www.webroot.com/consumer/products/spysweeper/
You now have all of the tools that should allow you to take care of the problem. You will need to install the AntiVirus and adware removal software before going to the next step. When installing the AntiVirus software please remember to get the latest virus definitions and scan all of your drives in order to rid your system of any nasty virus that may be lurking.
Removing Any Unnecessary Programs
One of the first things that should be done when troubleshooting is looking for suspicious programs that are running.
Method One
Look at the System Tray that holds the clock at the bottom right-hand side of your screen. You can see icons for programs that are currently running on your pc. If this tray is flooded with icons or you see icons that belong to programs that you don’t recognize you will need to address this problem. The first step in addressing this problem is identifying the icons. You can hover your mouse over the icons to determine the name of the program. If you have something that you don’t recognize you normally can close the application by right clicking with your mouse on the icon and choosing exit or close from the menu that appears. Some programs that I have seen that could cause a problem are music download programs, weather forecasting programs, and chat room/messenger programs. Any program that accesses the internet to get data that is found in this System Tray will slow your computer down at least minutely but certain programs could cause a drastic performance difference. The best approach to this is to close each running application until you determine that your computer is running at the speed you expect. You may need to do a test of opening a document, going to websites, etc. to determine the speed difference after closing each application that is in the System Tray. Please note that if you close all programs in the System Tray at once you will not be able to determine which of the programs could be causing the problem.
Method Two
You can see other programs that are running by doing a CTRL+ALT+DELETE with your keyboard. Remember to press this button combination only once otherwise your computer could restart.
*PLEASE BE ALERT AND VERY CAREFUL WITH THE FOLLOWING STEPS AS THEY COULD CAUSE YOUR COMPUTER TO LOCK UP, LOOSE UNSAVED DATA IF A DOCUMENT OR FILE IS OPEN, ETC.
Windows 95/98
You will see the Close Program window appear with your currently running programs.
Windows XP/2000/NT
You will see a window appear that says Windows Security and you will need to click the Task Manager Button.
Applications
Select the Application tab if it isn’t already selected. You should see any running applications. If there are applications that are suspicious like musicserver, adsearch, etc. and you don’t know what they are I would select the application from the list and click the End Task button. Sometimes it could take a few minutes for the application to respond so be patient but if it doesn’t respond click it again and finally a window will appear to allow you to end the task.
Processes
CAUTION: DO THE NEXT STEPS AT YOUR OWN RISK due to ending some processes that Windows depends on can make your computer to lockup, loose unsaved data or files, etc.
Select the Processes tab. You should see a CPU column in this window. If you click on this you can see the process that is using most of the CPU processing power. Normally this should be the System Idle Process but if you have other programs running that are acting as servers or trying to access the internet continuously they may be the culprit. If you have a question about a process go to the internet and search with Google or whatever your favorite search engine is to find out what the process is and what it is for. Usually there will be information about that process if it is a valid windows process otherwise you may want to end that process if it doesn’t look like it is legitimate.
INSTALLING ADWARE/SPYWARE REMOVAL PROGRAMS
Normally I will use all three to scan my client’s computers but just to be sure that I have removed all of the problems. You could install either or all of them to scan your computer if you wish. Although I would only have one that will run at startup to reduce the performance hit. Ad-Aware has an option in the full version to allow it to run at Windows startup also keeping your computer protected like Spy Sweeper but again this is just another process that is running that can slow the operation of your computer down. This is totally up to you but I would monitor the speed once you have restarted Windows so that you could determine if this slowed down your pc considerably. If the speed is bearable (which it should be normally) I would take the performance hit for the decrease in security risk of running your pc without this type of protection. You can check this by going to websites or opening applications after enabling this option.
See the continuation of this article (with illustrations) at: http://www.pcknowledgevault.com/pages/spywareadware.asp
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com
More About Thomas Swaney: www.pcknowledgevault.com |
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