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If you are not careful when you are using Google to search, you will click on an innocent looking link and message will pop up warning you that your computer is infected and that you need to go to Bob's Spyware Emporium in order to free your computer from harm. The truth of the matter is, there is nothing wrong with your computer-yet. But there will be if you go to Bob's Spyware Emporium and click on anything. Many if most of the websites that promise to rid you of computer problems will immediately infect your computer with adware, spyware and viruses if you should actually try to use their services.

Google has not yet mastered a technology that will complete rid your searchers of these hidden minefields so preemptive action on your part is called for. The first thing you should do if you want to stay away from viruses and porn is to put Google's most restrictive filter on your search results. Just to the right of the Google search box click on the Preference hyperlink. Scroll down to Safe Search Filtering and choose "Use Strict Filter." Scroll down further and pick the "Save Preferences" button. It's a lot harder for porn and viruses to show up on your computer if you have the safest search option selected.

There is even more you can do to keep your searches from turning up bad software, viruses and the like. If you want to exclude something from a Google search then precede it with a minus sign. For instance, we often want to exclude programs that would do something on your machine without your permission. These programs often are associated with the letters "exe" which stands for executable. To avoid them we would add to whatever we are searching for the term "-exe" . So if we are searching for baby ducks the search might look like this:

Baby ducks -exe. Leave space between the "s" in ducks and the minus sign. Leave no spaces between the minus sign and the "exe" .

One of the problems with a Google search can be a lack of specificity. If you type baby ducks and push enter the computer sees something like: baby or ducks. So anything with baby and anything with ducks will come up. Include cute baby or Mighty Ducks. If you specifically want to have baby ducks appear in each of the search terms that comes back then surround the term baby ducks in quotes like this: "baby ducks". So the complete search might look like this:

"baby ducks" -exe -spyware -adware -anti -virus -security -spam -scam -download -js.

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