Cleaning your computer of malware and protecting it from viruses the cheap and easy way.

My sister and her husband donated some hopeless computers to me recently, I had mentioned to them that if they had some dead computers they were just going to get rid of to donate them my way and I would refurbish them and put them to good use. They tossed me a pile, and got a big smile, and started to work on them.

After doing repairs that needed to be done I went about getting the operating systems up to speed. One of them was an Acer KAV10 notebook that was heavily infested with viruses and malware. I had to do a bit of research but what I found was that there was a way to get the little computer to be reset to factory settings. This is how I did it:

• ·        Press and hold the 'alt' key and tap the 'F10' key a few times  you will directed to Acer erecovery management

• ·         At Acer erecovery management chose restore to factory setting

• ·         Then follow the instruction until finish

What that did was reload XP to the point it was when it came from the factory! I was pretty amazed that it worked but it.

On the other 2 computers after I did the repairs I then decided that the operating systems were worth saving so the first thing that I did was run Superantispyware on them to see what was going on. The scan found all sorts of things and software running in memory. When I find software running in memory scanning with Superantispyware it means you need to re-run the scan with Windows in Safe Mode.

The first thing to do is download all of the updates to Superantispyware, install them, then boot Windows in safe mode.

• ·         Do this by hitting F8 when Windows is loading. Windows will give you options for booting.
• ·         Boot in safe Mode then run Superantispyware.
• ·         Do a complete scan and remove all of the nasties.
• ·         When you are complete load Windows normally.
• ·         Your nasties should be squashed now.

The next thing to do is load some antivirus software, there are several free antivirus software packages out there, one of them Microsoft provides for free. It’s called Microsoft Security Essentials. It’s easy to download and install. And can be used until you decide to keep it or use something else.

Make sure you update Windows to the current level, by using Internet Explorer and going to Windows Update. This could take a while but is needed to make sure all of the fixes are done to Windows.

The last step is to Defragment your hard drive. That can be done by clicking on Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools and clicking on Disk Defragmenter.

You are all set, enjoy……