PC Anti-virus, Firewall, & Anti-malware

Time after time we see PC computers with in-adequate security, some have a firewall’s where as others have anti-virus or anti-malware; very rarely do we see all 3 of these essential security elements; which nowadays you will need these in order to keep your Windows PC fully secure.

All too often do we see hijacked PCs where the owner’s complain of their computers slowing down! Or given a computer with loads of viruses the owner then complains about it not working as it did when it was new!

Does my PC have security problems?

If you don’t know if your computer (desktop, laptop, notepad, or other windows based device or computer) has a security virus or malware then take a look at the following indications:

• Computer very slow
• Internet very slow
• Computer keeps crashing
• Computer is acting strange
• Computer gets pop-up windows
• Internet browser is acting strange

Now this doesn’t always mean that your computer has a problem of Viruses or other Malware, however it sure does indicate that something is wrong!

Now this could be as simple as your computer just needing more RAM because, say, you upgraded from Windows XP to Vista, or because you installed a new game (which was expecting a higher specification machine) etc.

However, if this is not the case then the problem will be of one of 3 things:

• Hardware Issue
• Software Issue
• Security Issue

If you are certain it is not a hardware issue (no issues being shown with device manager), is not a software issue (operating system or application), then it will be a security issue.

The next thing to check and confirm is your MS Windows updates. How do they look, are they being updated and installed? Or are they turned off? If they are turned off then this will because one of 2 reason: Either you or someone else turned them off (which is pretty dumb), or a virus or malware has done this (for you).

Removing Viruses & Malware

A simply article such as this one cannot go into too much detail concerning exactly how you go about fixing every PC. The main reason we say this is because the amount of problems or things that can go wrong (and hence need resolving) is too great. Every PC will have slightly different areas that can be exploited by different software; this could be a Java version, a browser exploit, or a non-existent Windows update.

However we will give you some excellent pointers so that If you are a little technical then you should be able to complete the steps as necessary to get your computer back working again securely.

The first thing that you will need are 3 pieces of software, all of which completely free – and offer professional security as good, if not better than the paid solutions such as Norton (Internet Security).

• MS Windows Defender
• AVG Free edition
• Spybot Search and Destroy

The normal course of events that nCoded would normally follow when removing computer viruses and malware from computer PCs is as follows:

Use Windows Defender to remove any stubborn software that injects itself into processes pre-start-up. This is excellent software that will remove most nasty software that most of the other software (including the big players) wont even detect it (let alone remove it).

Be warned though; Windows Defender is NOT anti-virus software.

Once we are confident that Defender has done the work we require, we would then run an in-depth Spybot Search and Destroy scan, Immunizing after this completes.

Once both of the above have been successful completed we would then run a complete scan within AVG FREE. Once this has been completed we would then download any available Windows and Office updates as well as any applications that need updating.

Please note that before we do ANY scans we update the given software and or update any signatures that it requires.

Tags:  Antimalware, Antivirus, Computers, Firewalls, PC, Security, Windows