Among the Realm

Welcome to the 2nd part of Feed Your Technolust: Virus/Spyware Cleanups. The first part described about temp cleaners and how to use them effectively. In this edition the focus is on using Spybot Search and Destroy. So go get your pocket protectors cause its time to get your geek on.

Step 1

Go get Spybot Search and Destory <— click here to download.

Step 2

Install it to your computer like any other program.

The only thing you need to do when installing is to make sure system settings protection (tea timer) is unchecked. It will not hurt to install it but it is to obtrusive for me. I am not saying it is bad to use, here is a description from Spybot’s website. Once you read it then you can make a informed decision on using it or not.

The Resident TeaTimer is a tool of Spybot-S&D which perpetually monitors the processes called/initiated. It immediately detects known malicious processes wanting to start and terminates them giving you some options, how to deal with this process in the future. You can set TeaTimer to:

• be informed, when the process tries to start again
• automatically kill the process
• or generally allow the process to run

There is also an option to delete the file associated with this process.

In addition, TeaTimer detects when something wants to change some critical registry keys. TeaTimer can protect you against such changes again giving you an option: You can either Allow or Deny the change.

The TeaTimer is always running in the background.

Step 3

The first time Spybot runs you will get this pop-up. Check the “don’t show this message again” box and click ok. It might show this again after you update Spybot. **The first time Spybot runs a box will pop up in the left hand upper corner prompting you to perform different tasks. Click through without doing anything. I do everything from the actual program interface.

Step 4

This is what the main page looks like. The first thing to do is click the search for updates button.

Make sure you pick one that says USA and click continue.

This is what the update page looks like. F/P fixes will be unchecked so make sure you have it checked. Click download to start the update. Once it is finished click exit and Spybot should restart. **You will want to run updates before every scan**

Step 5

Click the immunize button on the left hand side and you will see that you are unprotected. Click immunize with the green plus sign and it will automatically go through and protect you from these threats. **each time you update you should run this, it will show you if your are unprotected**

This is how the immunize screen should look when you are finished with a scan and everything is protected. **notice that next to the unprotected section the value is at zero, this is want you want**

Step 6

To start your first scan click on Search & Destroy in the left hand column. Then on the main page click check for problems. Be patient the scan may take 15 to 30 minutes.

This is what you want to see. If Spybot finds threats it will list them in the box and click fix selected problems. In some cases Spybot will not fix every problem it finds and it will ask to run a scan on start up. Click yes and next time your computer restarts it will run a scan.

Step 7

If you don’t have a anti-virus program already installed you will need to use one as part of the clean up process. I recommend using AVG Anti-Virus<—click to download. Make sure to run all updates and run an in depth scan.

Once you have your computer cleaned it is a good idea to be running a anti-virus/spware program that will actively protect your computer. **This is very important, you can only run one anti-virus program on your computer but you can run multiple anti-spyware programs.**

Spybot is considered to be a anti-spyware program. You can continue using AVG Anti-Virus but I would recommend un-installing it after you clean up your system and use Norton Anti-Virus 2009<—click to download. It does cost money but I think its worth it. Norton does a better job of actively protecting your computer without you manually running a scan.

Advanced Tips

If you want to have a better result with these methods I suggest starting your computer in safe mode. Before you do that make sure that Spybot and both ccleaner and atf cleaner are all updated. We will be using safe mode without networking so you won’t be able to access the interenet.

When the computer starts hit F8 a bunch of times until a black screen comes up with a group of options to select. See image below.

Use the arrow keys to highlight safe mode. **You will not be able to access the Internet in this mode**

It will prompt you with a box saying you are using safe mode just click yes. Once you are in safe mode, follow the steps in Feed Your Technolust ver 1 and 1.2. **You probably will not see the programs on your desktop, you will be able to find ccleaner and spybot by going to start—>all programs—>and they will be listed there. To find atf cleaner you have to right click on my computer and find the search function. In the search box type atf cleaner and it will find it.**

As always I will answer any questions. Stay tuned for the next post in this series, where I will be discussing advanced methods for virus/spyware cleanups.

Welcome to a new series titled “Feed Your Technolust”. This series is to offer you a better computing experience no matter what computer you use. So grab your pocket protectors, calculator watches, and whatever other “nerd attire” you need to get your geek on.

If you are using a pc you are all to familiar with the virus/spyware issues that plague windows. This is a guide to help  your infected computer return to normal.

Step 1

Turn off system restore. The reason for this is that if you restore your computer to an earlier state you will also restore all the virus/spyware which you are about to clean up.

Right click on the my computer icon and click on properties.

After you click on properties this box will pop up. Click on the system restore tap at the top of the box. There is a little box that says turn off system restore. Click that box and hit apply. Be patient it may take a few minutes because it is deleting all your system restore files. Don’t worry this is ok. When it is finished hit ok to close the box.

Step 2

Before every virus/spyware scan you want to run temp cleaner tools. They clean out all your temp files which is where virus/spyware like to hide.

Download ccleaner <—click here to download

Once ccleaner downloads, click on the icon to start the install. The only option you do not want here is the “add ccleaner yahoo! toolbar and use ccleaner from your browser. Make sure the box is unchecked. Once that is unchecked click install.

Click run cleaner to start the cleaning process. This may take awhile depending on how many temp files you have.

It would not hurt to do a registry clean up to why you have ccleaner open. On the left hand side click on registry and hit scan for issues (see the cancel scan button, that is where the scan for issues button is, this image is during the actual scan). When the scan is finished click on fix selected issues.

This box will pop up once you hit fix selected issues. Click no.

Click fix all selected issues.

Click ok. Run this process until the search comes back clean, usually 3 or 4 times for a first time user.

Download atf cleaner <—click here (click save as to your computer)

Click run

This is what atf cleaner will look like when you open it up. You want all the check boxes checked and then click empty selected. This may take awhile depending on how many temp files you have. Let the program run, it may act like it is not responding, just let it do its thing.

If you run firefox to browse the Internet, click on the firefox tab and click select all.

When you click select all this box will pop up, click no and then click empty selected and wait for atf to do its thing.

If for some reason you are not using firefox, you should be. It is a much better and safer browsing experience. More on this later and all the add ons used to make it even better. Download Firefox <—click here to download.

That is enough for today, stay tuned for version 1.2 where I will show you how to use spybot search and destroy and other tips on virus/spyware cleanups. Feel free to ask any questions by leaving a comment. Hope this helps.