The How To’s of Do it Yourself Free Virus Removal and PC Protection
When your computer becomes infected with a virus, spyware, or malware it can be both frightening and frustrating. Understanding the steps you can take for inexpensive or free virus removal and how to protect your computer from future threats will help alleviate some of the anxiety an infected PC can cause.
Viruses, Spyware, and Malware: The scourge of a Connected World
In this day and age of always on, high-speed broadband Internet access it is easy for computers to become infected with viruses, spyware, and malware. These infections can cause a variety of problems from significantly slowing your PC’s operating speed to causing your computer to not even start up. If infected with spyware, your important data can be stolen; documents, passwords, personal, and company information are all at risk. Every computer that connects to the Internet needs to be protected from these threats.
How to Protect your PC
When a computer becomes infected with a virus there is always the danger of losing important data, for this reason having a good backup solution is critical. Sometimes a computer can become so infected that no amount of removal techniques will fix the problem and a complete reinstall of the Operating System and all programs needs to be done. For this reason, it is critical that regular backups are made of all personal or company data stored on your computer.
Once you have a good backup solution in place, the first line of defense is to have antivirus software installed on your system. However, due to the many new viruses and variants of these viruses that exist today, just having antivirus software installed may not protect your computer fully. For additional security, software firewall programs should be installed as well as antispyware and antimalware programs.
Windows updates and patches should also be downloaded and applied on a regular basis, many security fixes are included in the Microsoft service packs and updates. Antivirus, firewall, antispyware and antimalware programs need to be updated whenever new updates are available.
Because viruses are and will continue to be a problem for personal and business computer users, we need to continually be aware of the threat that viruses, spyware, and malware pose to home and business computers on a daily basis. With proper Security Software Suites installed and a good backup plan, if a virus does attack, recovery doesn’t have to be too painful.
What should you do if your computer becomes infected?
Many tools and programs exist that can assist you if your PC has become infected. Some work better than others and you may have to use more than one tool or program to remove all infections. Some are free virus removal programs, while others need to be purchased.
If your computer can still access the Internet (many viruses will disable Internet access for the user, while still allowing the system to be used maliciously by the virus) a great place to start is a free scan from Microsoft.
Windows Live OneCare
Windows Live OneCare safety scanner is a free service designed to help ensure the health of your PC. Click this link to go to the OneCare site. Windows Live OneCare
Click the “Full Service Scan” button and follow the on screen instructions. This will scan your system for viruses and other threats as well as clean the system registry, clean up temp files, and defrag your PC as necessary. It may take a couple of hours to perform the scan and clean up operation. The free service may fully clean your system and you may not need to do anything else. If on the other hand there are still infections you will need to do some more work.
Webroot Software
Webroot is a company specializing in virus, spyware, and malware prevention and removal. They offer a wide range of software tools and programs for home, home office, and business use. They have free trials and even offer a free system scan. Their pricing is very reasonable and they have an excellent track record.
If you need assistance with installs of their products, they offer a Professional Services package where they can remotely control your system and setup the software properly and help you with any trouble shooting issues that arise.
Do It Yourself Virus Removal
If you would rather take the do it yourself approach, there are many good utilities available for free virus removal that you can download. Below are some links to free home software. Using several of the products listed here, you can create your own security suite for free or very little cost. Please note, if you need to use this software in a corporate environment there is usually a license fee involved.
Here are a few suggestions before you get started:
· Make sure you have a complete backup of your system and its files before you begin.
· Remember only one antivirus program should be installed on your system at a time.
· Spyware and Malware programs can be used at the same time with your antivirus program.
Avast Antivirus
http://www.avast.com/
Avast Antivirus is an excellent, free antivirus software for home use. They also offer complete packages for Home and Business use.
AVG Antivirus
http://free.avg.com/
AVG Antivirus is another good, free antivirus program. They also offer complete packages for Home and Home Business use.
Kaspersky Antivirus
http://www.kaspersky.com/
Excellent Internet Security software is available from Kaspersky. They offer a free scan but there is a charge for their antivirus software. They also offer complete packages for Home and Business use.
Spybot Search and Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
Spybot is a very good free spyware removal program. The site encourages you to donate if you use and like their programs.
Malwarebytes
http://www.malwarebytes.org/
Malwarebytes is another great spyware / malware removal tool. There are free versions of their software and paid versions with more features.
Lavasoft
http://www.lavasoft.com/index.php
Lavasoft makes a package called AdAware. AdAware is another excellent program for removing spyware and adware, they offer free versions for Home use and full versions for Business use.
This is only a small list of what is available, but it is a good place to start. A quick search of the web will turn up these and many other tools to remove viruses, spyware, and malware. You can also access many how-to guides as well.
What if I don’t want to work on the problem myself?
There are many businesses’ that will remove viruses, spyware, and malware from computers. The large chain stores offer this service, as do small computer shops. J. P. Schwartz, Inc. has a list of trusted partners we can refer clients to, which specialize in virus removal and Operating System repair and reload.
What if I would like J. P. Schwartz, Inc. to perform the service?
At J. P. Schwartz we are very experienced with virus removal and repair and we offer a premium service. We Image (save a compressed file) of your entire hard drive and we also Clone (make an exact file-by-file copy) of your entire hard drive to give us the best backup configuration of your data. We then scan and clean your hard drive on a virus free system. We run multiple scans with different tools to ensure that all infections are completely removed. Next, we download and install all Microsoft updates, patches, and service packs and make sure that your antivirus software is also up to date. If you don’t have antivirus software installed we will recommend, install, and configure a security suite of your choice.
If you are in the need of virus removal or repair, give J.P. Schwartz, Inc. a call today at (303) 482-1242 or contact us by e-mail at info@jpschwartz.com. Our offices are located in the Boulder and Denver Colorado area, and we consult for companies nationwide.
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