Useful Computer Tips For Everyone (Part1) - Cleaning Your Computer of Viruses!

What Will You Learn inside This Series?

Part 1 - Cleaning your computer of viruses

Part 2 - Cleaning your computer of spyware

Part 3 - Cleaning your computer registry

Part 4 - Defragmenting your computer, and disk cleanup

Part 5 - Useful keyboard shortcuts


All of these tips ought to be used on a normal basis. Your computer is like a car, you need to alteration the oil, replace the tires, clean the interior frequently to make sure that your car is runs smoothly, that it keeps you safe, and remains clean.

Cleaning Your Computer of Viruses:

I think I can make the assumption that most of you have heard of computer viruses before? For those who haven't, a computer virus is a program created by highly advanced programmers world wide with the aim on harming your computer in so a lot of ways. Viruses can infect your computer, delete significant files, corrupt your difficult drive, or even make your computer unusable. Viruses can mean death to your computer. We are all subjectable to a virus attack, in fact millions of computers are infected with some form of virus right now as you read this, and your computer may be among those infected.

Ways To Get Infected With A Virus:

1) - Firewall is not activated

2) - No anti-virus software

3) - Spam Email attachment

4) - File transfer via a messenger service

5) - Copying files from an infected CD, or floppy Disk

6) - Network of computers sharing files

A virus can infect your computer through any of the methods from above. Prevention is the key to making sure you do not keep your computer to such attacks.

How To Prevent Viruses From advent In:

1) Activate Your System Firewall:

You prefer to ensure that your firewall is active. A firewall blocks hackers from finding loop-holes inside your computer that gives them a gateway (doorway) in. A firewall can help to stop most hackers, but not all of them.

Activating your firewall:

Windows systems: embark on > CONTROL PANNEL > INTERNET CONNECTIONS > WINDOWS FIREWALL > "On (suggested)".

Mac Users: APPLE MENU > SYSTEM PREFERENCES > SHARING PANE > FIREWALL > embark on

There you go; your firewall is now active!

2) Scan Your Computer With An Anti-Virus Software:

Installing an anti-virus software is key! An anti-virus software will help to monetize your computer for viruses. An anti-virus software will also help to perform a system wide scan of your computer for already infected areas.

Most newer computers come with an anti-virus software already installed; all you need to do is run the program.

Here are some of the top PAID anti-virus software's:

(No particular order)

Norton Ani-Virus By Symantec

McAfee Ani-Virus

BitDefender

Kaspersky



Here are some of the top FREE anti-virus software's:

(No particular order)

AntiVir Personal Edition Classic 6.32

Active Virus Shield (AOL)

Alwil Software Avast Home Edition 4.6

Grisoft AVG Free Edition 7.1

For more anti-virus software's, with good editorial reviews attend: Download.com

Once installed, launch the program, and find a button that says "update virus definitions". This will help to ensure your virus definitions are up-to-date. Virus definitions have the most recently found viruses that just came on the market. Up-to-date definitions are key to finding newer, more powerful viruses.

Once you've updated your definitions, close all running programs and perform a "full system scan". Depending on your computers size, and speed, the scan can take up to a few hours to complete.

Once complete, hit a button that will say something like; "Quarantine Files", "Delete Infected Files", "Clean Up Files", "Remove Infected Files". This process will remove all files that have been flagged as a virus, and it will do this safely without harming your computer.

Things to know:

Once a virus scan is complete, reboot your computer.

Some viruses cannot be caught while your computer is running; they may must be removed after a reboot (which ought to be automatic).

you are able to setup a full system scan to embark on at 12 midnight every night.

Scan your computer ATLEAST once a week if connected to the internet.

You'll probably embark on to notice that your computer is running faster, this is because the viruses which were there before, are no longer using your computers memory to run consistently.

Some viruses are extremely resilient and cannot be removed from a simple virus scan. Going through (Part 2 & Part 3) will help to attack these harder-to-find viruses.

3) do not Open Suspicious Email attachments:

So a lot of viruses are activated by folks like yourself who open email attachments that they do not recognize. Most viruses are distributed this manner. Part 6 - "Useful Email tips & fighting spam" from this mini-series will go into greater detail on fighting spam, but for those of you who won't get to read that article, I have to mention a few things here:

don't open an email that you do not recognize, or didn't ask for!

don't open an attachment with the extension ".exe".

Immediately delete emails from folks you do not recognize

don't save emails onto your computer that you do not recognize

Spammers will try to trick you into thinking they're your friend

Pay close attention at the person, email, and content from each email

don't click "Unsubscribe" from a spam email, this will do the opposite

don't reply back to an email you do not recognize

don't forward an email that you do not recognize

Report ALL spam to your internet service provider

These email tips I just mentioned are part of the basic foundations to helping you fight spam, and to make sure that you do not inadvertently activate a malicious virus onto your computer.

4) Avoid Using Messenger Services:

Messenger services, or "chat programs" on your computer are like leaving an open gateway pointing directly to your computer. Messenger services like "MSN Chat", or "Yahoo Chat" connect two computers together to talk to each other over and over again. This provides the two computers to give, and receive information through the software.

a good example of What Can Happen:

a lot of viruses have infiltrated millions of computers through this easy to hack service by disguising itself as "your chat friends" and by sending you a link to a virus file to open up onto your computer. The problem is, you have no theme what kind of file you're opening, because it seems as though the file came directly from your friend (who is infected by this virus), and it looks as though they're simply trying to send you a photo of themselves.

Personally, no one is provided to have a messenger chat software installed on any of our computers. they're too easily misused, and can give a hacker a passport to your computer.

If your children use such a service, ensure to let them know of what can happen if they accept files from other people. Tell them that it is better to send files via an email attachment, instead of through a messenger chat script. At least this manner, an email can pass through various firewalls, and anti-virus software's before getting to your computer. This also ensures that you know exactly who is sending you the file.

5) Copying Files From An Infected CD, or Floppy Disk:

We've all done it, taken a disk from a friend, or co-worker, and inserted a disk into our computer to copy all the files from the disk. Did you ever think to scan the disk for viruses before copying any of the files?

Viruses come in all shapes & sizes, they're passed along from one computer to additional. The person who gave you the disk could have had a virus lurking inside their files, and they may have copied it onto the disk they just gave you. It happens all the time.

An easy manner to protect yourself from getting viruses this manner is to launch your anti-virus software, and scan your disk drive with the cd, or floppy disk in it. It takes only a few seconds to prevent a disaster.

6) Sharing Files From A Network of Computers:

a lot of companies network their computers together so that they are able to share files easily between the two, rather than always copying files onto a disk. The same thing happens at home as well when two computers are networked together. ensure you have your firewall in place (step 1 above), and ensure your anti-virus software (step 2 above) is keeping an eye on your "shared folders" section. This just helps to prevent viruses from jumping one computer to additional. Again, always perform a virus check out inside your "shared folder" when you receive files from other people.

finally:

There you have it. You now have a good pedestal of knowledge to help prevent viruses from getting into your computer. ensure to make it a habit to double-check out everything to make sure that you do not unwillingly leave an open doorway directly to your computer. When using software's like chat scripts, ensure not to accept files via your chat script. Never read, or open emails that you do not recognize, and always make it a habit to scan your disks, difficult drive, and email attachments before something terrible happens.

Now that you have some knowledge against fighting viruses, let's move onto part 2 of this series which talks about fighting additional form of attack against your computer, the deadly spyware!

Next: Part 2 - Cleaning your computer of spyware & ad-well knowledgeable