A weekly Spa Day for your Computer

Transcription

1 A weekly Spa Day for your Computer To keep your PC running smoothly and clean, I recommend this procedure on a weekly basis: 1. ATF Cleaner Double Click on ATF Cleaner on your desktop, Check Select All on the bottom and then click on Empty Selected. This will clean all temporary files, cookies, temporary internet files and other clutter that accumulates over time. 2. CCleaner Next, click on CCleaner. Sometimes it asks if you want to update the program if there is an update, you can either ignore it or download the latest version of the program. Click on the Registry tab on the left side. Page 1 of 14

2 Make sure that fonts is unchecked. Then click on Scan for Issues. After the scan has completed, click on Fix selected Issues. It ll ask you if you want to make a backup of your registry, choose yes. This window will come up and you can back up the changes to the registry to your My documents folder. It is selected by default and you don t have to do anything else. Page 2 of 14

3 Just click on Save. Next, this window will come up. Click on Fix All Selected Issues and make sure that all issues are checked. Then there will be another window that comes up, asking you if you are sure you want to fix all selected issues, just click on OK. Page 3 of 14

4 After all the issues were fixed, the following window will come up. Click on Close. I would recommend to repeat the process once more starting with clicking on Scan for Issues. Page 4 of 14

5 3. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Next, double click on Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. On the first page that comes up, you don t have to change anything, Perform Quick Scan is already selected by default. The first thing you have to do is to update the program. Just click on the Update tab. This is how the screen looks like. Click on Check For Updates. Page 5 of 14

6 The Update progress is shown by this window. When the Update was successful, the following window will open. Click on OK. Next, go back to the Scanner Tab and start the scan by clicking on the Scan button. Page 6 of 14

7 This is how it looks like while it s scanning through all the files on the computer. After the scan completed, this screen will come up. Page 7 of 14

8 In my case, the scan did not find anything (one reason is that I m running ESET NOD32 Antivirus ). If it finds anything, just click on the Show Results and then the Clean button to clean the infections. IF Malwarebytes Anti-Malware finds anything and you just want to make sure that everything is clean, run Spybot Search & Destroy in addition and your Antivirus Program afterwards. 4. Spybot Search & Destroy Spybot Search & Destroy is another great program to detect and clean Spyware, Adware and Trojans. XP users: Double Click on the Spybot Search & Destroy Icon on your desktop. This is the start screen of Spybot Search & Destroy. Vista users: Right click on the icon on the desktop and choose Run as Administrator. Page 8 of 14

9 The first thing you need to do is to update the program. Click on the Search for Updates button on the main screen. Choose (highlight by left clicking once on it) the Gigenet (USA) server for your updates and click on Continue. This is the next screen that will come up after you click on the Continue button. Make sure that all updates are checked on the left. Click on Download to start the update process. Page 9 of 14

10 This is the screen after all updates have downloaded successfully. Click on Exit. Before we proceed to the scan, it is always important to immunize your system with the new updates. When you get your PC home after I performed maintenance or virus removal, it is already immunized. To do that, click on the Immunize button in the left pane. The screen you will see looks like this: Page 10 of 14

11 In this case, there are 1080 unprotected items. Click on the Immunize button on top to start the immunization process. Once you see on the right that there are no unprotected items and everything is protected, we are all good to go to continue to the scan. This is what you want to see: Next, click on the Search & Destroy button in the left pane. Click on Check for Problems and the scan will start, it looks like this: Page 11 of 14

12 It ll show you if there are any problems after the scan completes. Click on Fix Selected Problems and you are done. Page 12 of 14

13 In my case, these are only two cookies that are considered adware nothing to worry about. The program will ask you if you want to continue with the removal, click on yes. Page 13 of 14

14 This is the screen you will see after everything is done. These are the only 3 4 programs (depending if there are any problems) that I run on a weekly basis to keep my computers here at home clean and free of any infections besides having a great Antivirus program such as ESET NOD32 (30 day free trial) or AVG Antivirus Free. HAPPY COMPUTING!! Martina Graham-Willadsen PC Literates (904) martina@pcliterates.com Website: Page 14 of 14