SOHOLogics

The Ultimate Spyware Offensive

By: Christy Osborne

“If you remember one thing, remember this…” Now for a recap of four important programs that will ensure the your computer's security.

“If you remember one thing, remember this…”

We have all heard this statement, and most of the time if you are like me, whatever that one thing is was forgotten! Fear no more! Since we have covered so many techie tips and tricks, I want to give a recap of four important programs that will ensure the safety of your personal information and the security of your computer. Over the past year, you have read through articles that focus on Ad-aware, CCleaner, AVG, and Spybot.

If you have not installed these programs, then look below and use each link to discover how. Otherwise, if you have already installed these four programs, make sure to update the programs, which are also detailed in the article links below.

• Ad-aware
• CCleaner
• AVG
• Spybot

When running these anti-spyware and anti-viral programs, the greatest success results occur when they are run in Windows’s Safe Mode. At times, if run in Safe Mode, these four programs are seventy percent more likely to find and remove malicious content on your computer.

To boot to safe mode, do the following:

1. Turn off your computer, and then wait thirty seconds before turning your computer back on.
2. As soon as you turn the computer back on, you will see your BIOS screen. Mine looks like this:
   
   
   
   
3. When you see your BIOS screen, start pressing your F8 key every few seconds until you reach the options page where you can select Safe Mode. The screen is shown below.
4. Use your arrow keys to select the Safe Mode option, and then press enter.
   
   
   
   
5. You may be asked to pick the copy of Windows you want to enter. You should just be able to press the Enter key to get past this screen.
   
   
   
   
6. You will now see a bunch of files loading before Safe Mode initializes.
   
   
   
   
7. Once it has booted you into safe mode, log into your PC and run the tools listed above to ensure the spyware on your PC is removed.

Run each program in Safe Mode just like you would in the traditional XP boot process. For a walkthrough of each of the four programs, please refer to the above links.