Port Saint Lucie and all over the great state of Florida, say Spyware, Adware, or malware, and Business owners and any technically average Windows PC user will shudder in horror. That’s because these programs are not only incredibly stubborn when trying to remove them, but they often change administrator or security settings on your computers, Workstation, or Servers, such as what sites you allow trust or the settings in your HOST files. Spyware or adware is a malicious program that can add, change or remove values in the Windows registry enabling the program to fully install on the opening of Internet Explorer or Firefox or the next reboot of your computer repair even after deleted if not obliterated.
Today’s spyware is more common than a virus for the average Windows user surfing the Internet. Spyware has hundreds of successful ways to disable or infect your computer via all the common exploits or software bugs, like errors within the Windows operating system, allowing spyware the use your CPU cycles, spam others, and solicit your desktop to show you pop-ups for everything from pornography to other spyware programs that will claim to be able to remove the currently installed spyware or clean a virus from your computer, when in fact it can make it worse by installing more spyware. Spyware can copy secure data from your desktop computer or PC and send it off to another country, or even somewhere else in our own country, where a malicious hacker wants to sell or use your stolen data for anything from ID theft to pirating your Audio and or Video collection and posting it online. It is imperative to remove spyware as soon as it’s detected, as you can see by all the harm it can cause besides just slowing down your computer and making its use a miserable experience.
The best path to take is to try stopping the spyware before it can fully take hold or control of your computer, server, or workstation if you already have some installed. If you have a clean spyware computer, follow the tips below to keep it that way. It is just as important to verify complete removal once you feel the spyware has been uninstalled to make sure it cannot reinstall on the next reboot and that your data is once again secure from the theft of prying eyes. Simply put, Spyware is part of a big online business of data theft and forced marketing along with fake software to remove the spyware for another 50 dollars, then they can go for your credit card info next. Suppose you are seeing a major slowdown in the functions of your Windows desktop computer. In that case, you need to have the computer cleaned and probably a little spyware removal depending on your internet surfing habits and what you like to Google for. Worst case, you must reinstall your Windows operating system and all programs, then copy your data from a backup if you have one.
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If you are not backing up, please allow me to introduce you to a great little program called Carbonite. Carbonite provides a great solution to the problem of backing up your home or office computer. Carbonite includes unlimited online or off-site storage for your files at a very reasonable price of $59.99 per year. Not only do I recommend the program, but I also use it myself for years. I was a beta tester and had it installed on three of my home servers, protecting my data with off-site storage day and night. I have witnessed this program save four companies from complete data loss because the person in charge at that office did not test their backup tapes; a raid went bad in another.
They never complained about the error on the reboot of the server until it was too late, and one company claimed they backed up to a USB hard drive and said don’t worry about us, well they forgot for a year and had no back at all when their server got hit by lightning. Each company listed was saved by the great little program for off-site backups called Carbonite. After the problem was repaired, in all cases, the software they lost was immediately downloaded to the new location and re-shared to the office, allowing them to get back to work. Follow my free tips below to attempt to remove installed spyware from your PC server or workstation.
Step 1.) First, you should download the programs listed below to remove spyware and disconnect your computer from the Internet. After you complete the downloads, unplug your computer from the modem or router to ensure that you are offline. You’ll need the right programs to remove spyware from your computer. Suppose you cannot surf the Internet with your browser correctly. In that case, you will need to download the free software for removal from another computer connected to the Internet, like a friend’s or family member’s PC. Once you have downloaded the files from Google, Yahoo, or Bing, you’ll need to burn the spyware removal programs to a cd or copy them to a USB memory stick and then install them on your PC and use them there. Hundreds of plans exist to remove or repair a PC or computer infected with spyware.
The programs I would like you to download are:
a.) Cleanup.exe to remove temp files
b.) Spybot Search And Destroy to search through its definitions after you update it like antivirus software and remove the spyware from both the folders and registry and also clean up the Host files
c.) Sysinternals process explorer to view the running process or services to see what is hogging your resources
d.)Unhackme for rootkit removal
You can use all programs listed or one or two if your problem is easily removed. These will work unless you have an intense infestation and need to call in a pro like me for the do-it-yourself. The easy way to get each of these files except unhackme is to open your favorite search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing, then type download program MG. The program name will be the name of the software listed above. The download will bring up this type of page or link for downloading; the MG stands for and will take you to “Major Geeks,” a great place to download free or paid applications to help with anything you can think of on the PC or MAC. To download the unhack me software, type in download unhackme. The first result, gratis inc, will be the one you want to download from.
Now that you have the correct software to clean up your PC, it’s time to get dirty.
Step 2.) Once you’re offline, click the start button the look for the control panel icon. Once in the control panel, go to your add/remove programs screen by clicking the add/remove programs icon. Often, spyware will have uninstallers that will allow you to remove them without too much effort. Remove as many as you can. This way, some will give you errors, take you online for feedback, and force you to answer to close. Just put unhappy and click remove. If you are unsure of an item in the add remove programs section, do not delete it.
All your real programs, along with your Windows updates, are also on this list. To learn what something is, click or highlight the item, and it will have more information under it, like programmed by and company name. Now armed with more info than a program name, open your favorite search Engine, again: Google, Yahoo, Bing; type in the program name, and find out what it is. If it shows up as marketing or pop-ups or ads, or how to remove this or that yep of spyware, you are on the right path to get rid of that spyware. If you see many warnings and info on spyware when you look it up nine times out of 10, it would be safe to remove unless you have a program with the same name running in your office or home that you need. Please ask your boss or double-check, then delete.
Step 3.) Now we install and run the cleanup.exe program selecting the first button, top-right cleanup. The program will ask you if you want to run in demo mode, which does not do anything. You will choose no and run for the first time. Your pc stores many temp files in multiple locations to save settings for faster loading and use in those apps. By deleting these backups or cached settings, your computer will run better, allow speedier removal, and remove the spyware saved in the temp folders. Once you have run the cleanup program to remove the trash, your pc will run slightly faster. This does not delete your files, only the temp and saved settings in the browser, which you need to run to clean up spyware. No bookmarks or favorites are deleted.
Step 4.) Now we need to install and then allow the full update process during install of the Spybot program. Once installed, the first thing you need to do is click the immunize button in the upper left, and it will run once and will need to be run twice for all items to turn green. The good in green should now be a large number, and the bad or unprotected in red should go down to zero. Once your computer has been immunized, it’s time to search the computer files and registry for spyware fully. This is completed by clicking the Search and Destroy button on the upper left, then clicking the Search for Problems button with the magnifying lens image to start the search for spyware.
Once the program searches the whole computer, you will be shown a list on the right side of the screen, and they will have open checkboxes or squares to the left of each. You will notice the search for problems button has now changed to fix issues in the upper left. To remove all spyware, you need to click this button again, and the Spybot program will attempt to remove and delete any files it has found associated with spyware. For ones it cannot clear, it will ask if you can run one more time when completed after a full restart of your computer. You must say yes to this and let the program work its magic again. If the laptop shows clean at this point, all green checks to the left of each removed spyware file or registry entry. You are most likely clean and can continue happily surfing. If not, please follow the additional steps below to draw a more aggressive problem called a rootkit or hijacked browser.
Step 5.) Suppose you cannot remove all spyware with Spybot or have many pop-ups on your computer’s start-up without even going online. In that case, you will need to download the program, unhackme next, then install it to stop the rouge service from starting when your computer boots up. This is risky because you must be careful what you stop to keep your Windows programs and your good software from becoming damaged. The next step is to open your internet browser and then pay another visit to your favorite search engine Google, Yahoo, Bin,g, and type your search request. Download unhackme; the first result, from Gratis inc, is where you need to be. Open the link and click the download free trial in the center of the page. Next, we run the installer when downloaded, then remove what it can with the spyware removal tool button.
Once that is done, you will be given a few more choices. The only one you want to hit is to remove the rootkit. The software will tell you to restart to run and stop processes from starting as they try to create. This is the be a careful moment while it runs. You will be asked after each find to remove or if it is a false positive. There will be a help button under each which will tell you most times if the file is good or bad, and the answer given is usually safe to follow. Once you have clicked through all removal screens, the software will not start on the next login, and you will need to run Spybot one more time to clean whatever programs were running before that could not be removed. Now that Windows did not load them to memory, they will be quickly deleted. If your problems are now removed, you are good to go. If not, you can try step six.
Step 6.) Unfortunately, if you are still here, you have a bad infestation of spyware or possibly a virus. Let’s try to remove the virus first unless you feel comfortable diving into the repair posts available on Google, Yahoo, and Bing and trying registry fixes. This would be a good time to call a professional computer repair person or an online computer repair expert to help with your problem. You can download a free year’s worth of anti-virus protection offered by Grisoft inc by going to your favorite search engine once again and typing in download Avg free mg. Download then install the AVG anti-virus software; during the installation; it will have you run a full update for the virus definitions. Your computer must be online for this to occur, so please plug it back into the modem or network once the update is completed; open the software by clicking the avg icon and selecting run full computer scan. After completing your scan, you will be given a list of files found superior to delete all or clean if one is a document you need or want.
You may need more programs to entirely remove the spyware infection on your computer, depending on the severity of the disease. Plans are easy to find and use depending on your computer experience, be careful. Not all that is free is good. It may be more spyware—look up any software before you try it. Google, Yahoo, and Bing are your friend. It’s a good idea to scan your computer safely to ensure you can complete any PC repair that needs to be done within Windows. You are locked out of specific changes for security reasons, and safe mode will allow you to complete the same task.
When the PC starts up after you press power, tap the F8 key until you get the menu to enter safe mode. Then, you can select the first choice, safe mode, and try your new cleanup software. The programs must be installed outside of safe mode in a regular boot for the most part. The best way to remove spyware is not to get it in the first place. Keep your system and anti-virus updated, and be very selective about what programs you download. Many websites offer computer help and or repair. You should be able to find anything that you need online. Nothing is truly free; remember that you will be one step closer to staying spyware free the next time you see a pop-up.
Looking for a computer repair expert to remove spyware or repair your computer/network in Port Saint Lucie, West Palm Beach, Stuart, Boca Raton, or the greater South Florida area? Give Eric Jaffe from Jejtek.com a call (754) 245-1477. Not only will you end up with a repaired PC for a reasonable price. I will teach you how to keep the computer clean and spyware-free while I complete your repair. The next time you run into computer trouble, you can follow the notes you took during our session and do essential removal of your self, saving your budgeted cash for more important things.
