Spyware Cleaning

Topic: Maintenance|Level: Beginner|Type: How-To

If you're connect to the Internet, there's a good chance you have stuff running on your computer you don't want that's dragging its performance down. These "spyware" applications can come from a variety of sources and do all sorts of things you don't want. But a big problem with them is if they're running it's memory and processing time your computer can't give to the applications you do want to run.

So the most common procedure I use to clean computers of Spyware is...

1. Download & Install "Spybot - Search & Destroy"
Go to http://www.download.com and search for "spybot search destroy", or just use this link. Download & Install the application

2. Download & Install definition updates for Spybot
During the Installation of Spybot it will give you this option to Download Definition Updates. Do so.

3. Reboot the computer to Safe Mode
Reboot your computer. While it's booting up and all that stuff is flashing by on the screen repeatedly and fairly quickly tap the [F8] key. After a couple seconds (before Windows starts loading) you should get a black screen with white text and an option near the top to "Start Windows in Safe Mode". Select that option and press Enter. Windows will continue to boot, but may look a little different than you're used to. That's ok. Safe Mode is a mode in which Windows runs with minimal drivers and software support. Basically in normal mode all those spyware things generally start automatically with Windows and then 'hide' themselves. Safe Mode prevents them from doing that so Spybot can have a better chance at finding and eliminating them.

4. Run a full scan of the computer with Spybot in Safe Mode
Start Spybot from your Start Menu and continue through the options to run a full scan. This will take awhile, possibly hours, depending on speed and size of your computer's contents.

5. Allow Spybot to clean out any problems it finds.
Once the scan is finished, Spybot will list all the problems it found and will give a button to Fix Selected Problems. Click that and wait for the clean-up to finish. Reboot your computer normally to get back to regular Windows mode and you're done.