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.

This strategy serves two purposes. First, it makes sure that the system you buy will last you a long as possible based on the amount of funds available. Secondly, it insures that the system you purchase will perform the tasks you require it to. Now, I know it sounds over simplified, but the reality it is. You only have a specific budget for the system you are going to purchase the easiest logic to follow is to get the “biggest bang for the buck”.

Now on to a few simple rules to help those non-technical of us out there figure out how to buy a computer system. These rules will work well for you, because they are simple and allow you to get the most for your money. It does not matter if you are buying a desktop, laptop, PC, or Apple computer system.

Before we get to the rules though I must put out a quick disclaimer; these rules will only cover how to specify core components of the computer to fit your needs. They will not cover all countless options that are out there like monitor size, super performing graphics cards, or blue ray DVD ROMs. All those components will come into the price comparison shopping you will do. What is most important about the system you are buying is how it will function for the work you intend to use it for. Buying a system based on that
requirement will force us to look at four main categories, Processor Speed, Physical Memory (RAM), Hard Disk Speed, Graphics Memory.

Now back to the rules:

Rule 1: Processor speed, CPU, isn’t as important as it used to be, UNLESS you are performing intensive graphics intensive work or playing graphic intensive games. The higher the megahertz and the greater the number of processor cores the better performing the system will be.

Rule 2: The more physical memory, RAM, you can get for your budget the better off you will be.

Rule 3: Hard Disk Speed, measured in RPMs, is the key for better performance. The size of the Hard Disk is almost irrelevant since external drives are now so cheap. The speed to at which your internal hard drive operates is going to affect how your system performs.

Rule 4: Just like physical memory, RAM, the more Graphic’s memory you have the better your system will perform when access graphics, which is almost all the time now.

That’s it, very simple right? Your budget will determine what you can and cannot get out of all of those available options. But, to make sure you are getting the “biggest bang for the buck”, when you buy a new computer system you need to make sure that you simply buy the option that has the best processor speed with the most amount of cores, that has the largest amounts of graphics and physical memory, and has the quickest internal hard disk speeds.

To keep it simple, find the few systems you are interested in buying, compare the CPU, RAM, Graphics Memory, Hard Disk Drive speed, and then weigh in the other options to make your pick based on the budget you have. Buy the highest performing one you can for the money, since it will perform better over a longer period of time then one that is under powered.

Hope that helps take some of the technical complexities out of buying your next computer.

Who is this for?

• Organizations that start their business process from the Lead Entity
• Businesses that have all users take inbound calls and need to locate the
  owner of a record to transfer the call

Customize Quick Find Functionality – LEAD ENTITY

Step 1. Navigate to Lead
Step 2. Click the Customize Tab on The Toolbar
Step 3. Click System Views to Open the Views of That Entity (Leads)
Step 4. Double Click “Quick Find All Leads”
Step 5. Click “Edit Filter Criteria: Under the ” Common Tasks” Pane on the Right
Step 6. Clear the Default Filter

When you qualify a lead, it creates an Account/Contact/Opportunity.  Each of the entities references the originating lead.  Since the lead is never actually removed/deleted from Leads it is possible to search through the organization to find out basic information, like; Owner, Name, Phone, etc.  When a user takes a phone call and needs to find out who owns the record in order to transfer the call to the appropriate agent/user, they can now use the Lead Quick Find search bar to lookup a client even if they are no longer in leads.  This simple change opens the ability to query ALL leads regardless of status.

Step 7. Click “Save and Close”
Step 8. Publish All Customizations

Summary

Now you can use Leads search box to lookup customers even if they have been converted and determine owner, contact info or anything else you want to see.   This provided a solution for businesses that have their users take inbound calls and need the ability to lookup who owns the record so they know where to transfer the call.  You can tweak the Quick Find in each of the entities to not only change the Filter Criteria, but also update which fields in the entity are queried.  Since you can reference lookup fields in the find filter, you can effectively search across the organization in cases where a relationship has been established with an entity.  Since the out-of-box configuration builds the relationship for qualifying leads, you can effectively search across the org from leads or backwards from opportunities.

Thymio Barbatsis
Solution Architect | Company Built, Inc.

Get PDF Version w. Pictures HERE

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.

By implementing a proactive management approach to your businesses computer and network systems you can get a head of the curve when it comes to computer issues affecting your business productivity. A proactive approach is much like regular scheduled maintenance with a vehicle. The idea is to perform preventative care to reduce the amount of repair that is necessary for your computer and business systems by keeping them running optimally.

Computer optimization not only keeps your systems running as fast as possible, it ensures that they have the latest system updates, are free from component errors, and is taking advantage of the most efficient system settings. Along with optimization ensuring your systems integrity is also an integral part of a systematic approach requiring less computer repair, and continued reliability with your business computers.

A simple way to ensure your system is less prone to viruses and malware programs is to remove the users default local administration access to the system. This helps to ensure the integrity of the system is maintained by requiring a user to log in with administrative access in order to install any programs. By limiting local administration access to the computer, you greatly limit the ability for a user to accidently install a virus or malware program.

Limited malware and optimized equipment means you now have an efficient and productive computer ready to perform the daily tasks you depend on it to perform. Running reliably is key to preventative care for your computer and will limit the damage done to your wallet when you do have to take your computer in for repair. If you add in daily backups, you now have a program that significantly limits your vulnerability to a catastrophic failure/event of your system.

See our next installment of Beyond Computer Repair as we will outline an effective computer optimization scheme for you to use so you can begin to avoid the costly computer repair bills.