Business: Technology & Systems

Today we would like to present you with a tried and true way to remove malware (aka spyware) from an infected computer system. This process works on about ninety percent of malware/spyware cases and is very simple to use. If this process does not work on a spyware infected machine, that machine will most likely need professional service help. Some removal processes can become very technical and some require a complete rebuild of the infected operating system depending on the severity of the infection.

To remove spyware off an infected machine you will need a second “clean” machine, to download the spyware removal tools, and a USB drive. This process is only for MS Windows based PCs and it won’t matter which version of MS Windows you are running.

On the ”clean”  machine, you will need to download two very useful and free products from the internet. The first product is called Malwarebytes and is an excellent anti-malware product that can be found at http://malwarebytes.org. You will want to download the FREE version to your USB drive. The second product is called Trend Micro HouseCall. It is also a FREE product that can be found and downloaded at this site http://housecall.trendmicro.com/. Make sure to download HouseCall to the same USB drive you have your Malwarebytes software on.

On the infected machine, you will want to reboot the computer into Safe Mode with Network Support. You can find instructions on how to properly boot into safe mode at Microsoft website: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/boot_failsafe.mspx?mfr=true. Once you have booted into Safe Mode with Networking Support, ensure you can connect to the internet. Insure your system is either plugged in via an Ethernet cable or connected to your Wi-Fi network. If you cannot connect to the Internet, these programs may still clean your system, but they will not have the latest updates and may not be as effective.

Once in safe mode, plug in your USB drive and install the Malwarebytes and HouseCall products. Simply follow the default prompts for installation. If you can connect to the Internet while in safe mode perform the application updates. If you cannot connect to the internet, simply do not update the software.

We recommend first running Malwarebytes and have it perform a full system scan. The time it takes to scan a system may vary depending on how many files you have on your system. If Malwarebytes finds any issue have it automatically fix it. Continue to rescan the system until no more issues are discovered. Once Malwarebytes has fixed all the issues it has found its time to perform a full system scan with HouseCall. Scanning your system with HouseCall will ensure no secondary virus infections have been installed by the malware. If any issues are found, have HouseCall fix the issues and rescan the system until no more issue appear.

Once you have successfully run both programs and no more issues appear, you can pretty much (may not always be the case) guarantee your system is clean from malware. It may take hours to complete each scan so be prepared to take your time. At least the tools and instructions were free right?

To recap the process in a simple streamlined approach:

1. Download Malwarebytes Free Edition, and TrendMicro HouseCall from a “clean” system to a portable USB Drive.
2. Reboot the infected machine into Safe Mode with Networking Support
3. Install Malwarebytes and HouseCall from the USB drive while in safe mode. Perform the application updates when prompted.
4. Run complete scans starting with Malwarebytes and then HouseCall. Let the tools automatically fix all problems and rerun the scans until there are no more issues present.

That is it, pretty simple right? If your system does not come up “clean” or you continue to have problems at this point we highly recommend you seek a professional IT service company to resolve your issue and present you with your next options.

In our first Beyond Computer Repair article we discussed how costly computer repair issues can be controlled by putting into place proactive computer maintenance and optimization plan. We also discussed how removing a user’s local administration rights give us a trifecta effect on creating and keeping a stabilized dependable computing environment.

We would like to get a little deeper into how one can setup a computer maintenance and optimization plan for your system. Depending on how heavily the system is used this program should be run once a month or quarter. The more heavily a system is used the more often system maintenance and optimization should be performed.

System maintenance and optimization is handled in a variety of ways, typically it starts with closing all running applications and turning off ones anti-virus which will allow the system to run its cleanup and optimization programs more quickly. We typically like to go through and close all running items that are running in the system tray as well. The next steps involve cleaning out the systems temporary files, uninstalling any non-essential applications, performing system updates then running a defragmentation on the systems hard disk drives. A reboot is used to reset the system and ensure that the proper applications start back up and that the system is again running in proper
working order along with complete anti-virus protection.

There are a variety of ways to go about performing system maintenance and optimization; we find the following to be the easiest more direct methods that work for our needs. You could perform the process using various built in tool sets like the Windows System Tools like Disk Clean Up or other third party tools, but here is our approach and you can feel free to use it.

• Uninstall non-essential applications: Add/Remove Programs – Control Panel Programs & Features
• Perform System Updates – perform all critical updates and any optional updates you think are necessary
• Perform Disk Clean Up – Manually
  • Delete all files out of c:\windows\temp
  • Delete all temporary files off of the system (from a command prompt run c:\del *.tmp  /s)
  • Delete all temporary files from browsers using their Delete Browsing History options, but please make sure to choose the appropriate options for your needs.
  • Delete unnecessary User Profiles
  • Clean up all other User Profile temp directory. Delete the files out of c:\users\profile name\local settings\temp
  • Perform hard disk drives defragmentation using: System Tools – Disk Defragmenter
  • Reboot when the Disk Defragmentation iscomplete.

As you can tell it does require a little knowledge about your computer system and its usage to perform routine system maintenance and optimization.  A small amount of time spent will pay dividends on system longevity and usability.