Protect your computer from viruses!

Unfortunately, one of the most common problems that home users experience is virus and spyware infections. Getting rid of these infections can be a pain in the behind, but rest assured there’s lots of ammunition for you to use.

The best way to remove an infection is to not get one in the first place. Read up on how to protect your computer from viruses and spyware.

Note that you should always back up your documents before attempting operations involving malicious software removal.

1. Use System Restore

If you have a spyware infection, System Restore could be your best friend. If the problem occured recent enough that you still have an earlier restore point available, you should try restoring to that date to see if it removes the spyware.

2. Use Anti-Virus & Anti-Spyware Software

If you don’t have anything installed, you should install a free suite such as AVG Internet Security. Use your anti-virus & anti-spyware suite to scan the computer for infections, if any are found you should be able to remove them.

3. Try Virus & Spyware Removal Tools

There’s lots of removal tools available on the internet, here are some of the well known and respected applications you can download for free:

• Ad-Aware Free
• Spybot Search & Destroy
• Windows Defender
• Norton 360
• McAfee

If anyone has any other tips, feel free to leave them in a comment.

Whether you want to clear your browsing history because it’s causing your computer to run slowly, or because you’ve been looking at wedding rings – it’s a task easily achieved in most browsers.

In Internet Explorer, you do the following:

1. Look for the Tools menu. If you have Internet Explorer 7+, the Tools menu is on the right hand side of the screen with a ‘cog’ icon.
2. Click Delete Browsing History…
3. Click Delete history… and then click Yes to confirm your action.
4. You can do the same with Temporary Internet Files to save space on your hard disk.

And that’s it! For internet addicts, deleting your history once a week can help keep your computer healthy.

Note that to speed up your computer, you may have to mix any number of the solutions. I’m starting with the most innocent causes of a slow computer, read over them all to see which you think you should try first. Some of these solutions costs, but are a wise investment over all.

1. How much RAM do you have?

Is your computer slow like a turtle?

Click Start, and you see the ‘My Computer’ link? Right click it, and click on Properties. Give it a few seconds to load, and then look for the heading Memory / RAM. How much RAM you have directly affects how much your computer can handle simultaneously. Note down how much you have.

Next, right click your taskbar and click Task Manager. When the Task Manager appears, select the ‘Performance’ tab. Under the ‘Memory’ graph, you’ll see a figure that tells you how much memory is currently being used.

The memory will be measured as MB or GB. 1GB is 1024MB. If you’re using more RAM than you have, or you have less than 100MB of RAM left, then you’d definitely benefit from a RAM upgrade. Check out this article which explains why RAM is important and what it does for your computer.

2. How much hard disk space left do you have left?

This is something many people just don’t consider, or over consider. You need a couple of GB of disk space left for your computer to run optimally. A full disk becomes fragmented too easily, and fragmentation drastically reduces to speed at which your computer can access files.

Click start and click My Computer. Look for the Local Disk drive or the C: drive, right click it and click Properties. Look for the Free Space heading to find out how much space is available on the drive. If there is less than 2GB of space available, you may need to consider uninstalling some applications, deleting some files, or upgrading your hard disk. But before that you can try the Disk Cleanup Wizard to see if it has any temporary files it can clear – you might be surprised how much space this can save you.

3. Is your computer clean of infections?

If your computer doesn’t have anti-virus and anti-spyware protection installed, you’re at risk – and you’re putting others at risk. If your computer had an application running in the background that watched everything you do, and could ultimately send anything you type to someone you don’t know, would you trust your computer? The majority would answer no. Anti-virus and anti-spyware, despite actually slowing your computer down some because of the overheads created by scanning files, keeps your computer running as efficiently as possible whilst not sacrificing the importance of security.

If you constantly get pop-ups involving gambling, removing spyware or pornography, consider installing anti-virus and anti-spyware protection. AVG provide free security software to home users, you can read our step by step guide for installing AVG by clicking here.

4. Have you backed up your documents?

Although backing up your documents won’t speed up your computer, it’s something people often forget to do. Spyware, hard disk failure, faulty RAM – there are many reasons a computer can fail, and you can bet that if you haven’t backed up your documents, you’ll be kicking yourself for a long time. Backing up is easy, click here to find out how.

That’s all for now. If you liked these tips, you may want to bookmark this page as I plan to expand them in the future.

How can I back up my computer files?

There’s lots of online backup software available (Mozy for example), but Windows XP has its own backup software included. If you’re using XP Home Edition then you might need to download the package and install it. If so, you can follow this link to do so and then come back here when you’re ready.

NOTE: You’ll need a backup device such as an external hard drive or a USB flash stick to back your data on to. The size of the device you need will depend on how much data you’re backing up.

Let’s get started.

How to back up your computer files:

Step 1. First, load the backup software. You can find it by clicking Start, Accessories, System Tools, Backup.

Step 2. Wait for the application to load. (If the screen doesn’t look like the picture below, click switch to Wizard Mode.) Then click Next.

Step 3. On the next screen, the wizard will ask you what you want to do. Select ‘Back up files and settings’ and click Next.

Step 4. At this step, the wizard will ask you what you want to back up. The options are self explanatory – most importantly you’ll want to either backup your documents and settings, or everyone’s documents and settings. Select an option, and click Next.

Step 5. Choose where to save your back up. Choose the corresponding letter from the middle drop down (labelled F: in the picture). Name the back up (Data Backup would be an appropriate name). Then click Next.

Step 6. Review the settings, and click Finish.

That’s it! Go make yourself a cuppa! The backup could take a while. Repeat this process whenever you want to make a back up.

Note: The best solution would be to combine local backups with an online backup service.

One day, you may just find that your CD/DVD drive has vanished. When you check in Device Manager, you see your drives have little yellow exclamations by them – what’s up with that?

If you look further, you might come across something similar to:

“Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)”

So, Windows can’t load the driver. Is it a corrupt driver? Well, as far as I can tell, this problem is more frequently caused by CD/DVD burning software such as Roxio or Nero “latching on” to the driver. The system files that these application suites add sometimes fail and inadvertently cause the driver to fail.

Fixing it is actually a quite simply task, we just need to remove what the burning software has added to the driver.

Follow these instructions:

1. Load the registry editor. (click Start, click Run, type “regedit” and click OK)
2. Using the navigation on the left, find your way to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlClass{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
3. Here you should find two keys named “UpperFilters” and “LowerFilters”. Double click UpperFilters, delete any value stored, and click OK. Do the same for LowerFilters.
4. Close the registry editor.
5. Restart your computer.
6. Your drives should be usable again.

An important note: You might need to reinstall any CD or DVD recording software you’ve installed.

Shameless plug: I’m starting another blog dedicated to solving computer problems. You can get your problems solved for free at www.pckb.net.

RAM

Here’s a few ways to think of it:

• Computer memory is the equivalent to “thinking memory”. When you’re trying to work out a long equation, or complete a puzzle like a Sudoku, your thinking memory is what limits your ability to do so efficiently. If you can’t remember something, you have to write it down. The more you have to write down, the longer the entire process will take.
• When you go shopping, you take a shopping list. If the shopping list is in your head, you know what you need and where to go. If it’s on a piece of paper, you have to look at the piece of paper, read it, and cross out where you’ve already been. The latter takes longer.
• You have a desk that is big enough to spread eight sheets of paper and keep them visible. If you have less than eight sheets, you’ll be able to work on the paper with no problems. If you have more than eight, you’ll have to shuffle sheets with a pile, which is less efficient.

Get the picture? Your computer works the same way – it can only remember so much at any given time. It’s important not to mix the purpose of memory and your hard disk space; memory is a precious resource that applications use to temporarily store data, and hard disk space is an abundant resource that you use to store your precious documents that should be backed up!

The problem with RAM is computers never seem to have enough of it. The more you have loaded simultaneously, the more RAM you’ll need. (Note for the less literate: Loaded isn’t the same as Installed, think of Installed as having an application readily available, think of Loaded as actually having the application visible and usable. Having lots of applications installed doesn’t necessarily mean you’re using up memory.)

So where does the problem occur?

When your computer finishes booting, it will have an “idle” memory usage level of (we’ll guess for argument’s sake) 300 megabytes. This is fine, because your computer has 512 megabytes of memory available.

The problem occurs when you open four Internet pages that suck up the remaining 212 megabytes of RAM and you suddenly find yourself firing on three cylinders! Your mouse cursor starts to judder, images redraw slowly from top to bottom, and everything else comes to a grinding halt. Sound familiar? Your hard drive at this point might sound like something from The Matrix.

“WHY?” you scream at the top of your lungs, “why is my brand new computer running like crap?” The answer is simple; no matter how new your computer, the laws of computing still apply. If you don’t have enough memory, your computer will grind to a halt.

But there are solutions to this problem! Voila:

Solution 1: Buy computer memory

This is the best option if you can afford it. It’s the computer equivalent to buying a friend a house closer to work to save them that 3 hour commute everyday. By giving your computer more RAM or “thinking memory”, your computer will have less to do. If it has less to do, it can spend more time concentrating on the tasks you actually want it to do, thus the tasks you’re trying to get done will get done quicker!

These days, you can upgrade your computer’s memory moderately cheaply. Fitting it is an easy job you can do yourself, just open up the side of the case and look for the memory slot that it clips into. Crucial sell memory and even have a memory selector you can use to find the correct memory for your PC. It’s worth spending a little more on memory if you can, because more expensive RAM is generally more reliable. What’s an extra few quid or dollars anyway?

Upgrading your computer’s memory is one of the best investments you could make, and the difference is almost always noticeable. It will make your PC boot quicker, run quicker, shutdown quicker and will help improve performance all round. It reduces wear and tear on the hard drive, improves cooling by reducing the machine’s work load, and gives you a better computing experience with little to no frustration.

Solution 2: Make better use of your computer’s memory

This is a solution that has been long forgotten, but can make the difference between a PC that runs like a moped going uphill, and a Ferrari. By making better use of your RAM and therefore reducing your memory usage, your computer will have more RAM to use for the applications you load.

Here are a few tips:

Try removing any programs you don’t need from startup. Applications for your printer and camera can usually be loaded from the start menu. Any icons in the tray bar count towards your total RAM usage.

Uninstall unnecessary toolbars. If you have the Yahoo, AOL and Google toolbars installed, try removing one of them!

Run a spyware removal tool such as AVG Anti-Spyware. Get rid of any adware or spyware from your machine that could be using up precious RAM and processing power.

Solution 3: Apply Solution 1 & Solution 2

Combining both solutions is a smart move for any computer user. Applying solution 2 should be mandatory regardless of whether or not you are monetarily prepared to fork out for some extra megabytes.

These days, RAM is cheap enough for everybody to upgrade. I’d definitely recommend you do so if you have the money, as the difference you’ll notice will definitely be worth it.

AVG – that’s short for Anti Virus Guard – is a PC security package that provides comprehensive protection against the latest threats on the internet today. It is supported and trusted by millions of users across the globe. The authors of AVG provide free antivirus and antispyware protection for home users because for them, it’s a win-win situation  - you get the protection you need, and they get to know about any viruses you encounter which helps keep the protection comprehensive.

Please feel welcome to take a look at our other articles too, the latest are published in the column to the left- along with the most popular.

How to install AVG Antivirus

Step 1. Download AVG
You can download AVG FREE by clicking here. When prompted, click the Run button.

Notes:

• Downloading AVG could take several minutes even with a broadband connection, so be patient and make yourself a cup of tea while you wait.
• You are in no way obligated to pay GRISOFT / AVG anything, so you won’t need to enter any credit card details or even personal details. But there are other versions of AVG, so if you like it you might consider supporting the company’s efforts by purchasing their commercial product.

Step 2. Start the Installation
Now that AVG has downloaded, the installation wizard will start. Your PC might ask you if you’re sure you want to run the file, if it does you’ll need to click Run to confirm.

Notes:

• You’ll have a short wait while AVG extracts.

Step 3. The Installation Phase – “Welcome to the AVG Free Setup Program”

First screen: You’ve just entered the Wizard, so click Next.

Second screen: For the Acceptance Notice, click Accept.

Third screen: It’s a license agreement, read it if you want to, otherwise just click Accept.

Fourth screen: It’s a waiting game! Let the installer do its job and wait patiently.

Fifth screen: Standard or custom installation? Choose Standard, and click Next.

Sixth screen: Activate your AVG Free License. If the user name isn’t your own name, change it. Click next.

Seventh screen: AVG Security Toolbar

You may want to install the toolbar if you visit websites that are questionable, or if others use the PC and you are unable to monitor their usage. The Toolbar will alert you when it thinks a website is a potential threat, the downside is it makes your browser a bit slower. If you don’t want to install it, untick the box. Click Next.

Eighth screen: Setup Summary
Nothing of interest here. Just click Finish.

Nineth screen: Don’t worry about this one, leave it to do its job and go make yourself another cuppa!

(No picture for this one!)

Tenth screen: SUCCESS! Installation is complete! Click OK.

— NOTE: You may have to restart at this point, so be prepared to do so. —

Step 4. AVG First Run Wizard

First screen: The First Run Wizard helps set up AVG to suit your needs. Click Next.

Second screen: Schedule regular scans and updates
Adjust the time to a time that is more convenient. Your computer will need to be switched on to perform a scan. It’s also worth noting that you can optionally disable this scan if your computer is generally slow to perform – you can run scans manually whenever you feel the need. Click Next.

Third screen: Help us to identify new online threats
AVG offer this service free of charge to you and millions of other users, you can help them improve the service by reporting information about potentially malicious websites. If you don’t mind AVG knowing which websites you visit, then enabling this feature shouldn’t be a problem. Otherwise, you may want to leave it disabled. Click Next.

Fourth screen: Update AVG protection
Click Next on this screen, and AVG will perform an update.

Fifth screen: AVG Update
Whilst it is updating, go make yourself another cup of tea! Once completed, you can click Next.

Sixth screen: Register AVG Anti-Virus Free.
Optionally you can register your copy of AVG – but there is no obligation, so if you want to you can just click Next.

Seventh screen: AVG protection configuration is complete
You’re done, your AVG security software is now fully installed and protecting your computer from the evils of the internet.

If you have any questions, you can leave a comment on this post and I’ll be sure to send you a virus respond.