Web Life

A Happy Machine is a Clean Machine

Posted on 05 September 2009

How many people in the world have computers?  At least 365 million – not much when compared to the worlds population (just over 6.7 billion)! Interestingly, half of the worlds population has NEVER seen a telephone, nor used one!  I wonder how many homes now have books!  But I digress.

I find it quite unnerving that viruses and trojans are so prolific these days.  Although, you have to be extremely unlucky to contract a deliberately malicious and destructive virus, most are a downright nuisance and have to be eliminated.

In this blog post I will give you a few tips I have learned through my own experience, on how to get rid of these cyber nasties and how to be pro-active in avoiding them.  Some are hard to get rid of and ultimately, the only way is to re-install the operating system.  Of course, before doing this you’ll want to back up your documents, pictures and movies.  Perhaps also your personal Windows settings; this is not advisable however, if you have a stowaway on board, because you don’t know where it lurks! It could be nesting right there next to your screensaver file for example.

1. Backing up your System  – Only backup your system settings when you know your computer is “clean”.  That way you won’t be transfering the virus to your newly installed operating system or worse, your new machine.  You will find simple instructions for this here if you are running Windows.  If Apple Mac check here.  If you run any other operating system you can easily search for a solution.  I am not including them here as these are in a minority and not ususally in the mainstream domestic marketplace.  Backing up your system is really worthwhile, you’d be amazed at all the tiny tweeks you make over time and you realize this when you have to start all over again.

One of the main problems I have come across with people I have troubleshooted for is that they have no media to back up to.  Blank CD’s work but can become clutter and get scratched or damaged if not stored properly.  I would recommend an external hard drive.  These are readily available anywhere now, very cheap and very easy to use, no installation disks just plug and play.  LaCie, Maxtor and Western Digital are good makes but there are many manufacturers out there.  This makes the back up process easy and you can include all your documents photos , music and other media also, all in the same place.  www.misco.co.uk have a huge range and are dinosaurs in the online retail technology business.

On to viruses and trojans…

Here are some pro-active things you can do to prevent infection.

1. If your antivirus software isn’t already set up to do so by default, set up a daily full computer scan, schedule the time for when the machine is on but you are not using it as it does slow the machine down.

Do not let the subscription expire because you don’t want to pay to renew it.  If you are unwilling to pay, remove the entire software package and download and install the latest AVG Free Edition.  In my experience it is completely reliable, the latest edition marks genuine websites  in your browser search results with a green tick.  It updates iteslf daily and alerts you to free upgrades.  No other free anti-virus software compares to it.

Be very very wary of installing freebies from games disks or other free computer magazine cover cd’s.  Very often these are malware that once installed nag you to purchase the upgrade with hard to eliminate pop up windows.  Stick to well known established security software.

2. Trojans usually reveal themselves via a normal Windows pop up dialogue box, alerting you to something such as, “unknown software trying to install itself do you want to proceed?” or a” software expiration notice” to renew a subscription or upgrade, or a straightforward alert warning you that a “trojan has been found”. Your machine may  slow down and normal everyday tasks will take much longer.  Simply rebooting will not get rid of it.  In fact this may do more harm if you have been infected with a boot virus which could have you spiralling into a boot loop making your machine irretrievable.

If your machine still functions take these steps:

1. Download and install Spyware Detector from  – www.maxspywaredetector.com.  I recommend this software because I have used it on several ocassions and it has always worked for me.  (There are other that also work but I cannot recommend those I have not tries myself.)  After installation run the free scan.  If it detects your infection then you’re only option for removal is to purchase the software.  This is entirely up to you.  It is the same with any spyware removal software, they scan for free then ask for payment to remove, quite normal.   I cannot advise you on this, all I can say is there is no 100% guarantee that it will remove the infection, even if you do buy it, and that the only alternative may be reinstalling the operating system from scratch.   If you decide to purchase and remove then the chances are your problems will be over.  If not, you can search for manual removal instructions, however, this can be a very protracted process and often your machines set up may not tally with specific references in the instructions.  Do try if your brave, you may have nothing to lose anyway if this is a last resort.  Remember that those really smart trojans often use legitamate Windows files to hide themselves and just when you think the coast is clear, up it pops again like the witches curse!

They are frustrating.  Their is no anger worse than having no one to blame.  Although I have to keep saying that there are no guarantees, here are some simple things you can do to avoid the same thing happening again.  These suggestions are specifically for Windows users.

1. In addition to you antivirus software, download and install Windows Defender here.  It’s completely free.  Schedule a regular quick scan and run a full scan manually at least one a week.

2. Find a good Registry Cleaner such as RegCure od Registry Mechanic and run this at least once a week, more if you do a lot of installations and removals.  It clears out redundant registry keys and values and generally keeps your pc running smoothly.

3. Lavasoft’s AdAware is a solid piece of software that seeks out and removes (purchased edition only) malware and spyware.  Install and run at least once a week, more often if you do lots of surfing.

4. In your Control Panel double click the Internet Options icon and delete your Temporary Internet Files and Cookies regularly.  A good registry cleaner should do this for you, but in it’s abscence, do it yourself.   You can also get to the Internet Options dialogue box under the Tools menu in the Internet Explorer browser.

I have found that I can no longer rely on one piece of software alone to discover infections.  Because of their proliferation and increasing sophistication malware can often slip below the radar of  well known and extensively used protective software.  So, it’s good to allow at least two protective software packages to work for you.  With all of the above you should be fairly safe so long as you upgrade when recommended and keep the definitions up to date.  Good luck.