Your daily regimen includes many things: eating, sleeping, school (or work) and for many dealing with a sluggish computer. I have known many people to purchase a new, fast PC to only within months complain about how slow and frustrating it is to use, spiraling into a rant of verbal (and sometimes physical) abuse of what was once their beloved, new computer. Fear not! There is a cure for your PC woes.
Most PC problems are caused by one of two things spyware/adware and viruses. Today I will explain a few measures to take when combating these villains of the PC, and how to prevent future problems.
What Is Spyware?
Spyware comes in more varieties than Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream. The simplest definition of spyware is to consider it a third-party program that collects (and usually distributes) information about you, your computer and your web surfing habits. This information is used to efficiently target advertising. Unfortunately, some spyware is malicious in nature and can all but cripple your computer.
Often times after repairing someone's computer I am asked How did I get so much spyware? The answer is simple downloading and surfing. Spyware is often coupled with freeware and shareware that is readily available on just about every corner of the Internet. Freeware and shareware, defined broadly, includes most any software that can be downloaded off of the Internet, but especially games and other items aimed at entertainment. Generally speaking, spyware is installed on PCs without the user's consent. In addition to downloading software, spyware can also be installed on your computer by merely visiting (e.g. surfing) certain websites.
Now that you know what spyware is, and how you get it, how do you get rid of it?
Spyware Removal
Spyware removal is actually one of the easier and straightforward maintenance procedures that one can perform on their PC. There are two freely available programs (that to my knowledge do not include spyware of their own) that do an excellent job.
They are:
Lavasoft Ad-Aware
Spybot Search and Destroy
I personally recommend installing both programs. Although they are designed to accomplish the same task, both detect certain types of spyware better than the other, thus to ensure that you've removed all the spyware from your PC, it is best to install and run both programs. Be certain to update both with the latest definition files before scanning. For tutorials on how to use Ad-Aware, click here, and for a tutorial on using SpyBot, click here. And don't worry it is not uncommon at all to have several hundred instances of spyware on your PC if you've never scanned for it before.
Depending upon the severity of your spyware problem, it may be useful to run these programs in Windows Safe Mode. When booting in Safe Mode, Windows will only load those drivers that are necessary for the computer to function properly. If you are unsure of how to boot into Safe Mode, simply visit this website and it will walk you through the steps necessary based upon your operating system type.
If the above steps don't help to solve your problem, you may have a virus.
What Is A Virus?
Viruses are considered more serious than spyware, and can cause much more damage. A virus is a self-replicating program that easily spreads to other computers, causing various levels of damage. Some viruses are relatively harmless while others can cause complete failure of your PC. It is very important that if you suspect you have a virus to have it removed as soon as possible.
Fortunately, there are several freely available programs that will help to remove and protect your PC from viruses.
Two of these programs are:
AVG Anti-Virus
Avast! Anti-Virus
Before downloading and installing either of these programs (only install one!), be aware that both of these anti-virus programs are free for home use only. They should not be used in a commercial setting, as that would be a violation of the terms and agreements of the software. Of course, like any other software, be sure to update your virus protection regularly.
If you happen to know the name of the virus you have, the Avast! Virus Removal Tool may also be helpful it is designed specifically for certain viruses. Additionally, similar to the spyware removal, it may be helpful to run your virus scan in Safe Mode (regardless which package you choose).
So now that you've got your PC free and clear of spyware and viruses how do you keep your PC from getting infected again?
Keeping Your PC Clean
There are two easy but incredibly efficient ways to help keep your PC clean in addition to regularly removing spyware and keeping your anti-virus up to date. First and foremost: use Mozilla Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/).
Unlike some of Firefox's competitors, it does not use ActiveX. ActiveX is what allows many viruses and spyware to install without your consent. Since Firefox does not use ActiveX, it will dramatically reduce the amount of spyware that your computer receives, thus allowing it to run much more efficiently. You might be wondering: If ActiveX lets spyware and viruses on my PC, why have it at all?
Excellent Question
ActiveX is required on some websites, such as windowsupdate.com. So if you prefer to manually update Windows via the web (most people just let automatic update do the work for them), you'll need to keep Internet Explorer handy. Otherwise Firefox (or numerous other browsers) should tickle your fancy 99.9% of the time.
The second step in helping to prevent future infections is to turn off Windows System Restore. Microsoft has published step by step directions on how to turn this feature on and off here. There are advantages and disadvantages to turning System Restore off. The major advantage is simple since Windows creates restore points on your computer, it also stores any viruses or spyware that may have been on it at that time. Viruses can be written such that if they are removed by an Anti-Virus program, they will automatically reinstall themselves from the restore point thus creating an endless loop of virus infection. Turning System Restore off eliminates this problem.
On the other hand, if you turn off System Restore you lose your restore points all together. If you ever run into a major problem on your computer and need to restore it to a previous date, you can't. Your only option is essentially to format your PC, which is a lot of work and has the potential to be frustrating for some users.
It is very important that you consider both the positive and negative aspects of turning off System Restore before doing so; this is a decision I leave up to you.
Conclusion
In summary, you should now have a decent understanding of how to keep your computer relatively healthy. As always, if you are uncomfortable performing this kind of work or the issue is more advanced in nature, then I recommend bringing it to a qualified PC technician. With that said, I recommend scanning for spyware\adware at least once every week or two, less if you switch to Firefox.
Confirm that your anti-virus software is up-to-date often new definition files are available ever week or so and you should scan for viruses at least once a month. By following these simple guidelines you should be able to keep your PC relatively problem free.
/ my profile 
