This week concludes my four-part series about things that commonly affect the speed and overall performance of your PC. In order to maintain your machines at optimum condition, you must monitor all of these issues; but the topic covered today can often have dramatic consequences to the point of shutting you down or shutting you out of your PC. I’m talking about malware in all its forms: viruses, Trojans, worms, adware, key loggers, and trackers; whatever.
Let’s start with some symptoms (I am assuming you have already taken care of the issues we discussed the last three weeks). Here are a few. Your computer: slows down dramatically; stops responding or locks up; crashes and restarts repeatedly; some apps don’t work correctly; disks or drives not accessible; and antivirus program is disabled and won’t restart.
Repeated pop-ups appear, especially while you are on the Internet. Displays shrill antivirus alarms. Browser directs you to Websites you didn’t type in or click on.
Much of the malware that we used to experience on our systems came from improperly secure emails and attachments and it is still a good idea not to open such; but increasingly, serious virus attacks are coming from infected Websites. It’s kind of like drive by shootings: you park on a Website and get attacked while you’re there. The two most common offenders are porn sites and music download sites. Legitimate Websites also get infected and even if it’s for a short time, casual visitors can pick up the malware.
So what can you do when you suspect an attack? Get your PC off the Internet first and try to stop the attack yourself. If you are comfortable using the Windows System Restore program, try that and take your system back to a day when you know you were clean. Then run all your available antivirus and adware scans to see what can be removed. If you can get to the Internet, try one of the online scanners like Windows Live OneCare. I’m not saying buy software; just run the free online scanner.
If you are comfortable with downloading and installing diagnostic software, here are two I recommend for help with virus cleanup: MBAM from Malwarbytes.org and SUPERAntispyware from the Website of that same name. Both are free and you want to download a fresh copy of the programs each time you use them so that they are up to date with the bad guys’ latest tricks. Both of these cleaners are relatively easy to use … unless your PC has been compromised to the point that security systems are being turned off and disabled. Sometimes you have to run these cleaners in Safe Mode. If that happens, call in a pro; it’ll be cheaper and less frustrating for you.
If you’ve been following all our steps for the last three weeks, hopefully you won’t need to bring out the heavy artillery.
Written by Jim Hall. Email your questions to geekspeak@mchsi.com . You can find Jim online at HallsTrainingSolutions.com
