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identify and quarantine and eliminate the malware in one simple scan. However, I have found life not so simple. The way in which say if my computer had malware, i would first run AVG Anti spyware using Windows Safe Mode. This can be done when the computer is first loading up, by pressing the F9 key on the keyboard a few times. Then when in safe mode the scan of the AVG will firstly find the spyware activity on the computer, locate the source and possibly the extension files associated with the malware. Here write down the details of the location of the spyware on the computer. An example would be

C:\Program files\bonjour\mdnsdlp.dll. I usually malware components will have a dll file, or a exe with a strange looking extension as provided for example purposes. Some files are deleteable, others upon deleting, still return later. It is vital to delete the files that are slowing down the computer by pressing the button named 'Apply all actions'.

Hijackthis.exe is a free online scanning tool that works in a few seconds by simply scanning the computer and identifying the location and also the details of computer processes that are running at that time. So if i wanted to delete an unknown process, I would click against the entry on the Hijackthis tool and it would be deleted. The tool can provide a log that be saved to show the user the processes running, along with the location of the processes being used. Online forums are helpful to confirm a trace of a browser hijacker object, a executable file, a dll process associated with malware.

Other free tools include a neat and trusted virus remover in the form of Vundo.exe. Here the tool upon scanning for the spyware will freeze the computer whilst it scans for a while. If there are bad malware files the tool will delete them from the computer. Spybot search and destroy tool, is another free of charge scanning tool that can help identify the problems on the computer. It's database of spyware and malware objects will immunise the computer against these bad files.

Windows registry cleaning can be done after the main virus removal and spyware identification scans and malware removal processing. Using the 'regedit' search facilty in the run box of the Operating System allows the user to find the registry entries associated with the spyware activity. Upon knowing which entries to find it is important to take careful care upon deleting registry items. Finding the correct registry entries can be found based upon scans using free anti-virus, or free spyware scans.

Another area that would help speed up a computer though is good is a port scan of the computer's main service area ports. By visiting this website http://grc.com shield's up section of the website will allow a computer user to scan all service ports. An explanation upon the final scan results is given to each major service port that is open and what needs to be done to stealth these ports. Having stealthed service ports makes the computer not so vulnerable to a computer attack. Use of anti virus along with Windows own security settings can all help this objective. The Windows firewall helps stealth most open or closed ports, this will also improve computer's performance and ability.

Learn more about this author, Costas Chryanthou.
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