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Let's clean up your pc and stop this crap from coming
in to begin with!
Sick of the adware, spyware and scumware that kill your pc
... or worse? Do you even know if you got some? If you are using
IE I'm sure you do! This has become a major "battleground"
these days when it comes to surfing the web. All the inquiries
I've been getting lately prompted me to write this so I can give
my voice a rest. And now I've got something to copy & paste
to the next inquiry. So here goes...
All software in this article is good freeware
I don't understand people's reluctance to use something different
or to do something that will help them in the long run.
There are serious problems on the internet that (like it or not)
that you WILL have to address! People will whine, swear and are
always worried about whether a computer virus or problem will
affect them. These are the same people who have have Norton or
McAfee Antivirus programs and feel safe even though they haven't
updated their virus definitions in 3 years (oh yeah, you might
want to do that too!). It's time to fix things and not worry as
much.
So....
Unless you've been living under a rock lately, you've heard about
spyware. First, most spyware is NOT a virus, so don't think that
your antivirus software will do much good. Most are ad companies
that just want to track your surfing habits usually thru cookies.
Some will install a code or program on your pc for the purpose
of displaying ads with or without your knowledge. Usually you'll
get that one from something you've downloaded and/or installed.
Then there is the worst one ... code or programs installed on
your pc to change settings and disrupt normal usage of your computer
for ad display or whatever. These can be picked up from just surfing
the web to installing software from a scumbag "company".
But the "whatever" is even a bigger problem .... hackers
are using (mostly) Microsoft's back door active-x controls to
install stuff to view and steal personal info from your pc ...
and they have had success doing it. One of the biggest problems
is the use of IE (Microsoft's Internet Explorer) to surf the web
with.
I hate to say "I told you so", but I wrote a blog
about 6 years ago about how (IMHO) Microsoft was purposely putting
these back doors (or "features" as Bill Gates would
put it) into the Windows operating system to be able to install
software, run diagnostics, and basically "nose around"
in your pc. Don't you find it strange that with all their resources,
that Microsoft itself hardly ever seems to detect a security breach
in their own software. Is it funny that it is usually found by
some Swiss, German or other 3rd party tester? Hell no it's not!
I sincerely believe that the reason for this is that Microsoft
WANTS these back doors in Windows. IMHO, I believe that holes
in Windows are NEVER fixed ... they are only MOVED! One
of the biggest reasons I believe that they are there on purpose
is because Microsoft has yet to remove these controls from their
email programs ... Outlook and Outlook Express. There is no (or
very little) reason for these controls to have to work in email.
Most viruses are written to exploit Outlook's so-called "vulnerabilities"
but Microsoft still wants the ability to track and spy. That is
why Windows, IE and Outlook are patched continually. Every time
someone finds a problem, it isn't fixed ... it's moved.
Eventually it is found again .... but NOT by Microsoft. Without
Microsoft's IE connected to to internet, this ability becomes
much more difficult for Microsoft and the hackers because it removes
their active-x avenue of attack ... the intergrated-into-windows
browser.
I believed it then and I still believe it now .... and that is
why I wrote the blog, "Why
Internet Explorer 4 has to go!" 6 years ago.
Now that I've given you a little "heads
up" about the problem, let's find solutions...
*Note* .... obviously, if you are not on a broadband connection
(cable or dsl), some of this is gonna take awhile.
*The first thing you should do is turn off any unnecessary
icons that run in your clock tray that you really don't need running
24/7 (almost all don't). Some of these are forever "pinging"
the web (supposedly looking for updates). Most people don't even
know what half this crap is (I have 3 and know what and why they
are there! Do you?) If it's something like realplayer or some
dumb office thing and you don't use it, turn it off. Try right-clicking
to see if there is a "stop using" or double-click it
to bring up the program. Look thru the options and try to find
something like "start when windows starts" (most of
these programs can be shut down or re-started by selecting them
in your program files and re-setting the startup option). You
can also turn off the "automatic updates" in that program
while you are looking (IMHO, I find that these things constantly
searching for updates to be unnecessary). Also, go to "Start"
... "Programs" .... "Startup" ... and see
what is starting up in there when you start windows. If it is
something that you don't need running all the time, delete it
(will not hurt the program, it's only a shortcut that runs the
program on windows startup. You will just need to start the program
manually after that from PROGRAMS shortcuts)
*Shut down all of your programs and clean out all the files
in your "c:\windows\temp" directory. Hopefully,
you have never installed or saved something in there. The Windows\Temp
directory should only contain temporary files from past installations
and garbage files that have never been cleaned up. Some of it
could even be spyware! It also helps the overall performance of
your pc when the temp directory is clean. Any crash in your pc
usually means more files not being cleaned up in the temp directory.
Some programs always use temporary files when they are running,
and they are usually erased automatically when you exit that program.
So, if it tells you that a file "cannot be removed",
that means that you still have a program running that file ...
find a way to turn it off or delete the files around it.
*Reboot your pc and check that all is as it should be.
*Go online and download any Windows Critical Updates (sadly,
you can only use IE for this ... it gives them a chance to snoop
:-). Installing the Windows XP SP2 patch is still a toss-up for
some users ... some problems have been reported. I'm using XP-SP2
here and don't seem to be having any problems. This also
should be one of the few reasons you should ever use IE again!
Unfortunately, until the pressure gets on web designers, you may
have to use it every once in awhile to access the "IE only"
web site
*Reboot your pc a couple of times to make sure the updates
have finished installing and everything is working fine.
(You can never reboot enough during these things ... some things
do not finish stabilizing until after 2 reboots. Whenever you
do installations that need to reboot to finish, you should always
reboot even again after that.)
*Download and install the latest version of the Mozilla
Firefox Web Browser.
... because surfing with IE these days is like walking blindfolded
thru a mine field!
It's dial-up friendly at only 4.5 meg (as opposed to IE's 30 meg!)
and way better than IE in terms of security, looks, and functionality.
And best of all, it's FREE! This is your main wall of spyware
defense. Time to turn off those third party cookies and block
those adbanners with Adblock, a great Firefox "extension".
Adblock will block adbanners, ad scripts, ad i-frames and ad cookies
from even being allowed to come to your pc. It's the BEST! It
blocks this stuff right at the source!
Firefox installs without affecting your present web browser or
mail setups. If you want to test it first without making any changes
to your current browsing setup, just say "no" when it asks you
if you want it to be your default browser ... you can easily change
it later. It will then import all of your cookies, bookmarks and
some of your other settings from IE, Mozilla or Netscape. When
you want to use Firefox, just start it up by clicking on the tray
or screen icon when you're logged on the internet. If you want
to use your other browser instead, you can still do that too.
Give it a few days, it gets better after you install some really
great themes and extensions. Run IE when you HAVE to use it ....
not because you WANT to use it!
Make sure to go online and install a small Mozilla
Macromedia Flash plug-in first. You must do this while
using Firefox otherwise, if you are still using IE to view Macromedia's
page it will want to install the IE Flash version. So copy and
paste this or the Macromedia link into Firefox's address bar and
then run it. Flash is used by a number of websites (mainly for
navigation menus) so it is necessary.
You can also download the Thunderbird email program while you
are there for future considerations ... I highly recommend it!
*Download and install the Zone
Alarm Firewall (if you do not already have an aftermarket
firewall). It makes you "invisible" on the web and blocks
most attacks coming in. It also will only let programs allowed
by you to access the internet (you'll find out about those auto-updaters
in a hurry).
Zone Alarm will initially ask for each program to be verified
that uses the internet as you use them, so fire up your instant
messangers and media players and such and give them the green
light. That'll get that part out of the way.
With my DSL connection, I had to check a couple of boxes in the
options for my dsl to ping out ... works great now.
I also recommend that anyone with an add-on firewall go into windows
and disable the standard windows firewall in XP (I don't trust
it anyway).
*Reboot your pc and check that all is well.
*Download and install both Ad-Aware
and Spybot
Search & Destroy.
Run the "Check for Updates" on each (there are new spyware
definitions) after installation. Run the programs. These will
find and delete spyware from your pc, but won't stop new spyware
from coming in (that's what ZoneAlarm and Firefox with cookie
settings and Adblock extension is for). If you've been running
IE for a while with no firewall, prepare for a shock!
*Create a folder in C:\Program Files called Regseeker. Download
Regseeker
to that directory and unpack the files (zipped). Run the program,
it needs no installation. This will clean out bad registry entries
from your pc. You can also make some neat windows settings that
you normally can't find (if you want).
*Reboot your pc and check that all is well.
*Clean out the "c:\windows\temp" one last time.
*Reboot again.
*Enjoy.....
Note: I still have no antivirus software on my machine and
I keep the last 3 programs on this machine just to run every now
and then just to feel good about things ... "spyware be gone".
A user with a little bit of understanding and the right software
is the best defense! Hope this helps with both ...
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