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There are several things you can do to keep viruses and spyware off of your PC.
The first thing you should do is load a good antivirus program.
The subscription must be kept up to date and you should run scans of your hard
drive every week or so. Most programs can be scheduled to run these scans when the PC is not in use. If
you leave your PC on at night, this would be the time to have the scans run.
The next step is to update Windows. This can be done by going to
Microsoft's Update Website. You can set your PC for Automatic
Updates . This patches many of the security vulnerabilities in Windows and
Internet Explorer.
Now that Windows is up to date, you can load Spybot Search & Destroy
and/or Malwarebytes Free edition. These programs are passive and will
not interfere with the antivirus program you have already installed. I
like to run either one of these programs or both as a check to make
sure my antivirus program has not missed any viruses on my system.
The next step is to install a
firewall. Many of the antivirus programs that can be purchased today come
packaged as a suite of programs ( antivirus, antispyware, firewall, antispam..).
Most of these programs have to be taught what outside programs have permission
to access your computer. When they are first installed, you get a lot of notices
and questions concerning programs wanting access. When problems arise, it can
block access to the Internet or any network shares you may have. You may need a
service call to get this problem resolved. Windows XP with Service Pack 2 has
a firewall. It is considered by most to be less secure than the
firewalls that are packaged with the suites. Windows firewall monitors access
in one direction only. It does not monitor programs on your PC wanting to access
or download programs from the Internet. When it malfunctions though, it does not
block access to the Internet.
Running scans to detect viruses and/or
spyware can be very time consuming. This time can be even more if you have
multiple people logging onto the PC with their own login name. To keep the
computer clean, you will have to log in as each user one at a time and run the
scans. An other option is to load a program called Hijack This, it does
not scan your PC for viruses. Hijack This looks in all the areas where the viruses
and spyware hides and reports all programs that are loaded. Hijack This can be
configured to run at boot up and can be configured to ignore all programs that
are not a threat. The best time to load this program is when the computer is new
and you are positive there is no spyware on it. Upon boot up, Hijack This will
notify you of any newly installed software. You then can decide to allow the
software to load or to remove it.
If you are not already running
Internet Explorer 9, you can go to McAfee's Website and download Site Advisor. Site Advisor loads into the
toolbar and notifies you if the Website you want to go to is known to modify
browser security, download spyware or send a lot of spam. It is a lot easier to
keep the spyware off of your system if you know what websites to avoid.
If you have kids or grandkids that use your system, you
may want to install a parental control program like Cyber Patrol.
CyberPatrol lets you block websites, filter content, and monitor
behavior.
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