Computer repair firms have found a growing market. Spyware, adware, maleware and viruses removal has become a service with great potential. With good reason, they are all part of a growing problem and definitely add to their profit margins.

Most users notice their system slowing down after a few months of usage. The first step most users take is to call a local computer repair company. They do not realize they could have avoided this expensive service.

Not only are these problems bad for your computer. They can also be extremely bad for you as well. You see these programs running on your system without your knowledge; have been installed by YOU, to steal your personal information. Yes you read that right; you installed them. In this case ignorance is definitely not bliss.

So if your system is running sluggishly I am going to show you how to fix this. But first I want to teach you about these viruses’ threats so you can avoid them in the future.

Malware

Malware is software installed on your system without your informed consent. It can be used to spread viruses, send out spam, or to cause harm to your computer’s hardware.

Spyware

Spyware is software that is installed on your system without your informed consent. Its basic purpose is to spy on your activities and gather information about you. This could include your name, age, date of birth, ss#, or something as simple as what sites you visit.

Adware

Adware or ad supported software is software that display ads while it’s running. It may not seem harmful, but this type of software generally sends back information to the software creators, that you may not want them to know.

Viruses

A Virus is software that can replicate itself on your computer, and spread to other computers in varius ways. A virus’s main goal is to harm your computer’s data, (AKA) any file on your computer.

Other harmful threats:

There are still other threats to your computer. However, if you follow my suggestions below you will not have to worry about them.

Protect yourself.

Software you should NOT use…

Browsers & Email clients
Microsoft’s IE (Internet Explorer) & Outlook Express
Microsoft has tied it browser to tightly with it’s operating system. This will allow software to be installed on your system without your knowledge. If you do insist on using this browser, do not install any activex objects.

There are alternatives to IE, that in my opinion are much better anyway.
Firefox
Opera
Safari (works on windows too!)

Here is a short list of alternative email clients
Gmail
Thunderbird
The Bat!

File Sharing software.

Software like LimeWire, BearShare and Kazaa allow you to share music, books, videos and apps. Unfortunately viruses and the such have been written to target such software sharing networks. If you insist on using a file sharing network try emule. It’s open source and safer than others.

Things you shouldn’t do….

With Email
Open email attachments from people you do not know or do not trust. This is one of the easiest ways to get a virus. Even simple picture files can contain a virus.

You should also set your email client so that it does not open attachments automatically to display them online.

Also opening email with inline photos (photos displayed with in an email) can verify your email account to spammers that send out spam to random accounts. The result is you’ll end up with more spam. Make sure you set your email client not to open any images so you can decide whether to view them.

Replying to junk email should not be done as well. In most cases the reply to unsubscribe, or click here to unsubscribe is but a cruel trick to again to verify your email address is real. Or even worse; to set you up with spyware, adware or the like.

Do not give to much information about yourself.
You would never give out your social security number or credit card number to a stranger would you? You shouldn’t and the same is true with the internet, even more so. Few website need your social security number. In fact the the only time you should give it up is when dealing with the IRS, a reputable financial intuition or… well… no nobody else.

A few things you should do

Research.
Before you give any information about yourself to any person or intently online do a little research on Google. Find out if they are who they really say they are.

If you find software you would like to try, make sure you do the same research on Google. If the search turns up nothing about spyware or adware then download it and scan it with antivirus software before you do more with it.

If you just have to open an attachment, make sure you scan it with your antivirus software first, even if it just a picture.

Software you should install and use.
Don’t worry, all the software I will suggest to you will be free. So for the first time ever money is no object….

Antivirus - Software that scans your system’s files and memory to find viruses and other nefarious types of software. It will then, in most cases destroys, cleans, purges or quarantines the infected file. Stopping the viruses in their tracks.

Here’s a short list of free antivirus software.
AVG Free Edition
Avast
Clamwin

Spyware scanners are software that scans your system for known spyware. When found it will remove it them.

Here’s a short list of free spyware removal software:
Spyware Blaster
Spybot
AVG Anti-Spyware

Adware Scanners

Adware scanners will search for software that contain adware, and present a list for your review. But be if there is software that you like to use on the list simply instruct the software not to remove it. Also note that some spyware , and virus software will remove adware too.

Here’s the short list:
Ad-aware
Spyware Blaster

Firewalls are software that monitors the packets traveling to your computer to the internet. They are good at keeping hackers out of your system. A good firewall will also detect packets leaving your computer as well. This is good if you don’t want a particular piece of software to send information out to the internet.

Here’s the short list Firewalls:
ZoneAlarm
Comodo

One last note on firewalls; there is no freeware firewalls for MS Windows Vista 64bit at this time. That should change soon, hopefully.

Identity Theft

The internet is not a safe place. It’s filled with all kinds of threats to you and your computer. But identity theft has got to be the worst. No matter how careful you are, you can still become a victim of this heinous crime. I would suggest everyone use a credit monitoring service. This is the only way to truly protect you and your assets from identity theft.

I’m sure there is something I’ve missed so if you have any questions, or anything to add please leave your comments below.