A few steps to keep system software clean and virus free

Pop-ups can be normal, mainly in the form of a balloon above the clock in bottom right hand corner, these pop-ups consist of Windows updates alerts, Adobe reader updates and Java updates, these are normal as well as HP printer updates, Quicktime and
Itunes updates.

If your pop-up is in the form of a regular window, and stating that you have some form of threat, and wanting you to download software, this is most likely spyware, and trying to trick you into downloading a virus. Also they come in the form of something like i.e.- “Windows media player can not play this video, download this codec to view the file or video”……..That is also most likely a virus, especially if you know media player had worked in the past, and you can view youtube videos via Flash player.

**Keep in mind that clicking “cancel” may be the same as clicking “okay”, this is the spyware trick. Is better to click on the red “x” at the top right of the window, sometimes the spyware is written to grey out the ‘x’, so as a rule of thumb, is always best to click Ctrl+Alt+Delete,
Upon Ctrl+Alt+Delete, you should have the “task Manager” appear, click on the “programs” tab, and close out the program that is trying to get you to download something, if you cannot get to the “task manager”, or if able to close down the program, follow these steps as always:

Firstly, go to control panel, “add and remove programs”, see if there are any out of the ordinary programs such as anything that seems to be antivirus, or cleaners, or some security center jargon, that you know was not there before, If you have AVG or Norton, or McAfee, one of those would be all you need, remove the others, some viruses name themselves “Windows Antivirus Pro”, or “System Doctor”, if unsure of its Integrity, you can go to www.excite.com, and in the search engine, type in name of questionable program, and some of those links may help you figure out if it is legitimate or not. After removing any unwanted programs, restart system.

Then, Go to “Start” menu, “run” – type in prefetch, (for windows XP – *Windows 7/Vista - does not include prefetch folder) “enter”, then select all, then hold down Shift button, and hit Delete button, all should be deleted, if some do not delete, they are tied to other processes, not to worry, this is normal. – close window.
Go back to “Start” – “Run” type in “temp” in run window, in the “Temp” folder, select all, Shift+Delete, and try to delete all of them. Close window.
Back to Start, then Run, type in %temp%, enter. Select all, shift+Delete, delete all, close window.
Next go to control panel, “internet options”, in internet options click on “settings” then click on “view files”, these are your cookies, and you want to select all of them, and click Shift+Delete to permanently delete them. Close window, back at the internet options click on the “Delete files” button, in that window check all the boxes, and Delete, close window.

Next go to “My Computer”, right click the C: Drive, and click “properties”, click on “Disk Cleanup”, check all boxes except the “compress files” box. And click okay.

Lastly, go back to Start menu, run, type in “msconfig” (without quotes), be very careful in this window, the only tab you can fool around in is the “startup” tab on far right, In startup, look for anything out of the ordinary and uncheck the box, a lot of the process jargon in there are necessary for your system to function, so if unsure what it is, leave it be, if it says something like “antivirus pro” or even if is blank, then go ahead and uncheck the box, if uncertain what it is, again, go to excite.com and type the process name in the search engine to learn of it’s legitimacy. Once unwanted processes are unchecked, click apply, then okay, and restart the system. *If all of a sudden your sound doesn’t work, or video looks funny, or you get some error message it is most likely due to turning off a legitimate process in Msconfig, you will then need to go back, and recheck the box to turn that process in particular back on.

Upon restart, a window appears, just click the little checkbox in lower left hand corner “do not display this again”. Then open your antivirus software if any, and run a full system scan.
If in the beginning, you had trouble deleting some files either in prefetch, temp, or %temp%, go back and see if you can now delete them, If many files were deleted, or you removed some programs, go ahead and “defrag” the Hard drive, by right clicking C: drive, - properties – Tools – and the Defrag option is there. This consolidates any gaps in hard drive made by removal of files and/or programs.

After all that, and you still get some popup, or notification of virus threats, and whatever antivirus protection you have installed does not seem to remove the threats, this must imply that the spyware or virus has been executed, and has embedded itself within the configuration files of windows, at this point, there is still not much more the user can do, but to call someone like myself for further assistance.

Good Luck!! And remember to never Download much of anything aside from updates, or software for your new printer, or something legitimate and needed. Who cares if your best friend told you such and such, or so and so is the best of the best, ignore them, you have everything you need, Do not download something that someone told you to because they said it was cool, or worked for them, depending on what kind of system you have, software, or manufacturer, it may not work for you, and may not be so cool anyway.