Free Spyware Software

When you turn on your computer, does it act like it needs a coffee to wake up? When you surf around the Internet, are you bombarded with pop-up windows? Does your computer freeze up or turn off for no apparent reason?

Before you decide to throw your monitor out of the nearest window, there may be a number of solutions to fix these problems that won’t require you having a degree in computer technology.

There are two primary ways to maintain your computer’s performance, and the maintenance should be done once a week or more. First, acquire and use software that will help you clean and protect your computer, and second, know how to use the programs already in your computer to keep it’s engines running smooth.

SOFTWARE

The software solutions below will not cost you any money, nor will they take you much of your time to download, understand, and implement:

1) Virus Protection - Avast AntiVirus is an excellent free program to guard yourself against Trojans, Worms, and Hacks.

2) Spyware - AdAware and Spybot are terrific free programs for eliminating pop-ups and other wares from your computer. It is recommended that you use them both, as one may find problems that the other may not … a great one-two punch to protect yourself.

3) Registry Cleaners - WinASO Registry Optimizer is a great program for repairing your computer registry. The free version allows you to clean or repair ten items at a time, so you will have to re-run it numerous times if you have many problems.

4) Internet Speed - If you use dial-up, or have a computer the size of a calculator, you may wish to use RamBooster to help give you the best speed possible for the limitations you have.

Go to http://www.download.com for these and other great resources.

PROGRAMS

Now that you’ve taken out the garbage, you should keep the place neat and tidy by using the programs already existing in your computer. Once again, you should do this once a week:

1) Clear your Internet History

2) Defrag your Computer

3) Use a Firewall

You can find the programs that will do this for you by looking in the System Tools or Security Center sections of your computer.

Another option for those of you who’ve got smoke billowing out of the back of your computer, with no seemingly useful solution in sight; you may wish to look at the System Restore feature that your computer may have. This allows you to revert back to a state when your computer actually worked well. It doesn’t work all the time, by it is an option … and not an end all be all … use it only when absolutely necessary.

Austin Culley is the Chief Operating Officer for Oil-Net.Com Inc.
http://www.oil-net.com

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In the beginning our computer was nothing more than a glorified typewriter. This over priced piece of home or office equipment did not have too many things that could go wrong but there were not too many things that could be done with it. Today things are a little different. The home computer is the center stone of our work, our homes and our life. We use our computers for many of our daily task at home and at work. It is not very often that we do not get out of bed, grab our favorite drink and go right to our online accounts. Checking our email, our myspace or our bank accounts is a big part of many of our daily task. We look forward to the time we spend with and on our home computers. Playing games, paying our bills and many other great time saving programs make each of our lives better in so many ways.

One of the reasons we enjoy our computers so much, is the time we save and the quicker we can do something the better. This opens up time for our families, friends and other things we enjoy doing in our lives. The worst part of our online experience is the little things that make our computer slower or less user friendly. Little messages like “your computer is infected” or ” windows has detected spyware infection“. Spyware and adware have become a big part of our online experience and these problems are getting worse. Things like pop ups, worms and Trojans have taken something that we hold dear and created a army of darkness that infects our computers. There are programs that will help with these infections, but some of the companies have used these infections to create a way of making money. There are spyware and adware tools that are the cause and not the cure. These companies install the scripts on to our computer that can only be remove by their software.

There are many good virus protection programs on the market today and many spyware and adware tools that can help with these infections. Just to name a few of the best virus protection programs, I would have to list Norton Antivirus by Symantec and McAfee Antivirus. Both of these programs are at the top of their field and will protect your computer against many of the infections that are on the Internet today. These companies are both highly involved in testing and research to keep your computer secure. For a small yearly fee they are well worth the money spent. Keep in mind that both programs do protect from virus, adware and spyware. These programs can cause problems if both are installed on the same computer. I personal like Norton the best but have used both programs at home and work and will say that you really can’t go wrong with either of the two.

There is nothing like booting up your computer and being welcomed by pop up after pop up. This can take a lot of the enjoyment out of your daily computer uses. Some of the better programs to take care of theses pop up, spyware and adware problems are very inexpensive and some may offer many of the user options for free with the choice to buy other options or make the software fully functional. Spybot Search and Destroy and Adaware from Lavasoft are just a few of the better programs that let their users have a free version of the software. These programs can be installed on the same computer with out any problems accruing.

One small part of the Windows operating system that many people do not use is the system restore. It would be wise if you check your computer settings to see if this program is active on your system. You can find this out by going to your windows start button. Then all programs, accessories and then system tools, after system tools folder is expanded you should see system restore. This is a very simple to use program that creates and stores restore points on a small calendar. These restore points are system settings for that time and date in the windows operating system. It creates a copy of the registry for that point of use and may save a restore point at anytime a new program is installed on the computer. The user can then go to the program and select any of the restore points and let the program roll the windows operating system back to that time and date. This can fix small problems with in the computers registry and make using your computer more enjoyable.

Other Useful Tools and Tips

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Viruses and spyware usually show up on your computer one of two ways.

Either they invade your system with a frontal assault like the Huns attacking the Romans, or they sneak in a back door like a cat burglar.

Either way, once a virus or piece of spyware gets on your system, getting it off can rate harder than curing a severe case of trench foot!

Viruses, malicious programs designed to disrupt normal computing, and spyware, programs intended to literally “spy” on your activities, can enter your computer a number of ways.

Most commonly they enter your system through an email attachment, by sharing files with an infected computer by disk, as a “ride along” with a 3rd party program you install, or through a “back door” port in your computer.

Regardless of how they get on your system, once in place, they cause no end of headaches and frustration.

The following represent typical signs you may suffer from infection by a virus or piece of spyware.

Your computer starts acting oddly by doing things it never did previously.

Your modem starts trying to dial out to the Internet without you initiating a surfing session.

You notice that files start disappearing, the system stalls, runs slowly, or even crashes frequently.

Your computer takes progressively longer to boot up every time you start it or you notice that your available hard drive space has disappeared. Strange popup windows appear, even when you’re not surfing the web, or you delete a program and it “magically” reappears next time you boot the system.

If you suspect you a virus or a piece of spyware has invaded your computer, follow these steps to first identify and then delete the offending code:

Step 1 - Back up your important files, but remember to scan these files for viruses before reinstalling to avoid accidentally re-infecting your system.

Step 2 - Update your anti-virus definitions and perform a scan of your hard drive.

If you don’t carry virus protection, or you suspect your anti-virus software got corrupted somehow, then log on to www.pandasoftware.com and use the free Panda Active Scan service to check your hard drive for viruses.

Follow the instructions for quarantining and removing the offending files.

Step 3 - Scan your hard drive with an adware, scumware, or spyware detection and removal tool like Adaware www.lavasoft.de/support/download/ or Spybot http://spybot.safer-networking.de/.

Step 4 - In many cases, when the virus or spyware program gets installed with a free utility or game you download from the Web, you must usually uninstall the utility or game to finally get rid of the problem once and for all.

Step 5 - Avoid re-infection by keeping your anti-virus and firewall up-to-date at all times.

As a last resort, if you run into a program you simply can’t get rid of, but can figure out the offending file’s name, do a search for the file name on Google.com. Often you will find you’re not the first victim and may get valuable advice for cleaning up your system.

However, be very careful of the information you find and think twice before modifying any system files.

About The Author

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links…

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