Preventing and Removing Adware, Spyware, Viruses and Other Malware

[aiisha]

Now, I really believe that is one of the most things that all of us needs to know..

Spyware, adware, and viruses does not only threaten your personal computer's life they do a lot of things, they can get in your privicy, they can reduce your computer's performance and sometimes they even disable your computer. Yes, whether you believe it or not, they do!!:shakehead Many computer users have replaced their computers believing the computer is not performing well enough, believing they have bought something not that good to be use.. [ that is why they are buyignnew personal computers? c'mon!! ] when they just needed is to remove the malware from their systems to get that "like new" performance. You can prevent and cure the problem of adware, spyware, viruses and other hostile software by learning basic preventative measures and learning how to take precautionary steps to protect your computer when removing hostile software.

First, Let us learn how to remove those Adware,spyware and those pesty virus..!! :wha4:
In everything we do, there is a certain procedure we have to follow..
Cautions and Recommended Malware Removal Procedure
It is wise to be cautious when removing malware because many times malware may modify your system so when you remove it, your system will be crippled. Not being careful could result in the necessary re-installation of your operating system. The following phases for the removal process are recommended.

Identification phase - During this phase, you only want to identify any malware or hostile software that may be running on your computer. You can run your anti-virus program, anti-spyware, anti-adware, or whatever product you choose to identify any infection on your computer. You must be sure to set the product to only identify malware on your system and not to remove, delete, or quaranteen it. You can also look through your process list to locate possible hostile malware. See the article called Processes to learn how to do this.
Information gathering phase - Gather information about any hostile software running on your computer. Determine whether the uninstall tool for that software may work (some adware or spyware is removable and written by somewhat reputable companies). Find out how the software changes your system. Does it change file associations or make your system require the software to run some executable programs? You can usually find information about processes running on your computer by doing one or more of the following:
Search Gigablast or your favorite search engine for the name of the process, product name, or company that made the program
Search your anti-virus manufacturer or anti-spyware manufacturer website to find more information about malware you have and possibly find removal instructions.
Search your hard drive for the name of the file required to run the process and look at that file\'s properties to see who created it or to determine whether you should be more suspicious.
Removal phase - Based on information found in the last phase decide whether it is safe to remove the software manually or automatically.
Automatic Removal
If you choose automatic removal, it is reasonably easy. Just allow your removal program to do the work, but be sure your system is not dependant on the malware program you are removing.

Manual Removal
Follow any the removal instructions that you may have found during the information gathering phase. You may need to edit your system registry, rename files (Initial renaming is recommended in case you need to restore a file to get your system to boot), or manually kill processes. You may need to get an IT professional to do this depending on your level of expertise.

Now,not just keep on removing we should prevent it too!

Malware Prevention
Malware prevention requires all computer users to educate themselves, make some system configuration changes, operate malware prevention programs, avoid spam, and utilize basic computer security measures

Education
One of the best defenses against malware intrusion is user education. All users should be wise to the traps on the internet and should have a basic knowledge about how their computer operates. This will help them spot potential pitfalls and avoid them.

Operate Malware Prevention Programs
You should run at least one antivirus product on your computer. You should also operate at least one anti-spyware/adware product on your computer.

Many experts recommend that computer users operate more than one malware prevention program for viruses and spyware/adware. This is a good idea but its effectiveness depends on the product. For example some anti-virus programs will use more than one method to identify viruses. If you are using a product like this, depending on its quality, it may not be worth using a separate product at the same time.

You should also use a personal firewall on your computer which will:

*Help prevent internet worms which attack using a vulnerability in your operating system or another program running on your computer.
*Prevent adware or spyware from contacting their creators without permission from you.
*Prevent malware from downloading other nasty programs without your permission

Avoid Spam
It is wise to avoid spam since it can contain malware which may use vulnerabilities in your email program, default web browser, or other programs to infect your computer. So you should guard your email address carefully and possibly run spam management or spam prevention software. You may want to subscribe to a spam prevention service.

Lastly, you needed this things too!
.Personal Firewall
.Anti-Virus program
.Spyware and Adware Prevention and Removal program
.Anti-spam product or service to prevent, block, and/or manage spam.
.Intrusion detection tools - Tools that can give you some indication whether your computer has had an unauthorized
program or person accessing it.

Computer Security

Computer security practices are essential to the prevention of malware.

It is always wise to be careful anytime you plan to download and install anything on your computer. You should always scan it for viruses or malware before installing it but there are other basic security practices that should be followed. These practices will help reduce the chance of your system being compromised by unscruplous individuals or hostile software. This is because malware has been installed on victim\'s systems using computer hacking techniques which were for the most part automated.

Security Practices - MUST DO!! :salute:
These practices include:

Always run a personal firewall on your computer when it is connected to the internet.
Operate anti-virus software and keep the virus library definitions updated daily.
Operate anti-spyware/anti-adware software on your computer.
Educate yourself about how you can be tricked into running malware.
Be careful with any email attachments you may open. Be sure who the sender is and scan attachments with a virus and spyware scanner before opening them.
Use a internet browser that is configured to prevent many attacks and/or use a browser with a good security history.

[aiisha]

Lastly,

Spam Prevention
There are several reasons to stop spam which include:

Spam can handily deliver viruses, spyware, adware, trojans, and other nasty items to you which can compromise the security of your computer and wreck your operating system. These items are delivered to millions of people.
Spam is very offensive and many times pornographic or borderline pornographic materials are sent to you without your consent.
Spammers are stealing your internet bandwidth which is a resource you pay for
Spammers waste your time forcing you to delete their junk.
Spammers have recently been known to use spyware and adware programs installed on remote computers to try to harvest email addresses from internet search engines such as Gigablast. Some of these attacks have slown down the performance of these essential internet resource services.
Spammers are just bad guys who don't care about anything other than money. They act irresponsibly polluting and hindering the operation of the internet. We hate what spammers do so we will do our best to help shut them down.
Spam Prevention Techniques
Spam prevention techniques include:

Choose a primary email address and be very selective about who you give it to.
Use multiple email addresses. Use one or more email addresses to give to people or organizations that you do not trust while only giving your primary email address to trusted friends.
Follow basic security practices and encourage your friends to do so also. If your friends get a virus, the virus could send your email address to a spam list. Consider getting a spam filtering service. Some of these services work well to prevent spam by requiring a human to enter a special security code.

Now, i hope evryone had learned something from this, though some of these things are just used in common sense.. We should also keep in mind with this.. sometimes we also tend to forget it right? Let's Take good care of our computers!

i have search for this resources in this sitemore of virus and adware issues are there.. visit it if you like

[beast099]

thanks for all the info. i can tell that you are well informed. i would suggest zone alarm for a free firewall, AVG antivirus for a free anti-virus, and spypot search and destroy and adware SE personal for anit spyware and adware

[Fire Ball]

Anyone who gets this stuff on there computer should use avast! anti-virus. It has an on guard to keep you safe when you download anything. I also have Lavasoft Ad-Aware Pro. That keeps we safe from spy ware, etc.

Thanks for the info.