To achieve the best performance out of your computer I suggest doing these following:

Cleaning up cache, cookies and history: Daily
Disk Cleanup: Daily
Defragmenting: Bi-weekly
Error checking: Bi-weekly
Virus scanning: Weekly
Spyware removal: Weekly
Adware removal: Weekly
Trojan removal: Weekly

Since computers do not come with the spyware, adware and Trojan removal tool here are
addresses to download the programs I am typing the guides to.

Spybot Search and Destroy v1.3 :
http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10289035.html?tag=lst-0-1
Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition 1.05 :
http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10319876.html?tag=lst-0-1
The Cleaner Professional 4.1 :
http://www.download.com/The-Cleaner-Professional/3000-2239_4-10279992.html?tag=lst-0-1
Microsoft Anti-Spyware :
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx

This can be setup to auto-update and auto scan every night, when coupled with a good antivirus software you should then have NO problems, make sure your antivirus software is also set to auto update frequently and auto scan at least once a week.

If you do these tasks as recommended they will not take as long, if you don't
they will take longer when they are actually ran. It is also recommended when
you run these applications you do not do other tasks.

How to clean up cache, cookies and history:
1. Right click on the internet explorer icon on the desktop, then click properties.
2. Click delete cookies, a window will pop up then click ok.
3. Click delete files, a window will pop up then check the Delete all offline content box. Then click okay.
4. Click clear history, a window will pop up then click yes.

How to do disk cleanup:
1. Double click the my computer icon on the desktop. The my computer window will open. Right click on Local Disk (C):. Click properties. Under the general tab it will show a button that says disk cleanup click it.
2. It will automatically start scanning. (It may take a while.)
3. When finished a window will pop up. Check everybox then click ok. It will ask do you wish to perform these actions click yes. (This may also take a while.)

How to defragment:
1. Double click the my computer icon on the desktop. The my computer window will open. Right click on Local Disk (C: ). Click properties.
2. Select the tools tab. Then click the Defragment now button.
3. A window will open name disk defragmenter. Then select the hard drive (c: ) and click defragment. This process may take a while depending on how often the disk volume is defragmented.

How to error-check:
1. Double click the my computer icon on the desktop. The my computer window will open. Right click on Local Disk (C: ). Click properties.
2. Select the tools tab. Under the error-checking section click check now.
3. A window will pop up with options check the two boxes then click start.
4. It will say that it will run at the next restart. So restart the computer. This process will take a while (20 minutes). It will reboot itself when it is finished.

How to scan for viruses:
(This isn't very detailed because there are many different programs for this, and I didn't feel like installing each to type separate guides.)
1. Double click the virus scanners icon on the desktop.
2. Before doing any scanning I suggest you search for updates on virus definitions then restarting your computer if you update them.
3. When your virus scanner loads click Scan for Viruses. Then scan your entire computer for viruses. It'll start scanning a few seconds later. This process will also take about 20-30 minutes.
4. If your scan finds anything you should try to quarantine it or delete it all together.

How to use Spybot to remove spyware:
(Warning: Some programs send information about your computer across the web, which necessarily isn't spyware. If you have programs that you commonly use show up in the list. Do not delete them.)

1. Open Spybot up by double clicking its icon.
2. When it opens there is an option to search for updates button. Click it, then it will goto the next screen when it is done searching for updates. Any available updates should be downloaded and installed before you scan. To download them check the box next to the updates and click the download updates button at the top.
3. On the lefthand side of the program there is a button that says Search & Destroy. Click it and it will open up to be able to scan. Now there is a Check for problems button, Click it and your scan will begin. This process varies in time depending on your system specs.
4. If anything shows up after the scan check the box. And click fix selected problem. This doesn't completely get rid of the problem, it moves it to a recovery area, in case you accidentally deleted something you didn't intend to.
5. To completely get rid of the spyware ,click the Recovery button on the lefthand side, select the items you wish to delete forever, then click purge selected items.

How to use Ad-aware to remove adware:
1. Open up Ad-aware by double clicking its icon.
2. When Ad-aware open there is an option to check for updates now. Click it, then a window will pop-up, when this happens click connect. And it will search for needed updates. If it prompts you to download them, do so. When the updates are done click finish.
3. Now you are ready to scan for adware. On the main screen click start. Then it will goto a screen to select which mode to use. I suggest doing a doing a smart system scan, so select it and click next. The scanning will take a lil bit of time, normally under 10 minutes.
4. After the scan is finished it will tell you how many critical object there are. Click okay, then select the ones you wish to delete, and click next. It then tells you how many objects will be removed and asks you to continue. Click okay. This also does not fully delete the object, in case you selected something you did not want to delete.
5. To completely get rid of the adware, on the main screen open the quarantine list. Select the file, and click delete. It doesn't harm you to keep the file in quarantine though.

How to use TheCleaner to remove Trojans:
1. Open up Thecleaner by double-clicking its icon. Since it is an evaluated 30 day trial. Click evaluate.
2. This program you have to set it to update at startup to get the necessary updates. So at the top click options, a window will pop-up, then click the update tab. Select Check for updates at startup, then click the connection settings which apply to you. And click okay.
3. After you are updated now you can scan for Trojans. So on the main screen click scan system.
4. If anything shows up in the list, right click it and click quarantine. This moves it to the quarantine manager, which you can permanently delete it through there.

Also..

1. Try and not use Internet Explorer. That big blue E is not safe as the majority of the worlds hackers will always target IE. Try :-

Firefox browser: http://www.getfirefox.net/

Make it the default browser.

2. Make sure javascript is turned OFF. Only turn it back on for sites you REALLY trust.

Add on for Firefox that allows you to whitelist sites you trust: http://noscript.net/

It's easy to instal and the smartest thing you could do.

Javascript is basically a super powerful script language for web sites that can be used for bad very easily to make your computer do crazy shit from the browser.

3. AVG and Avast are good free virus things, but they are annoying and always trying to up sell you... always with the notifications of what it's doing to seem like you need it.

Microsoft just released its "Security Essentials". It's lightweight and weirdly for Microsoft... powerful and not annoying.

http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

4. Don't open attachments in Emails unless you know exactly what it is and who it came from. Really. And DO NOT use Microsoft's email client.

4a. DO NOT CLICK links in emails. If you get mail from Paypal, Ebay, Banks etc go to your browser and use a bookmark or type the URL in. That way you can not inadvertently be redirected by a spoof email.

Gmail has the best spam filters out there, worth switching from hotmail or whatever to use. Easy to set up, you can forward your other account to it and send email using your old email address if you really want. I would recommend using the old account purely for giving to sites if you think they are going to junk mail you.

5. He is NOT really a Nigerian prince. Do no send any bank account details.

5a. If you get an e-mail that looks too good to be true...then it probably is!

6. Keep your system updated. Double check they are set to download automatically.

Can't stress that enough for either Windows operating system or whatever browser you choose.

Linux and Mac heads get complacent, but the browser is where the attacks are now and it doesn't matter what system you are on - if you have Javascript switched on and aren't up to date with Flash plugins, you are exploitable.

7. Use passwords that are not dictionary words. Work out a system for passwords - you need more than one. Mix words, numbers and symbols.

8. The best protection is the user. Be wary in what you click. Safe surfing practices are the best protection.

9. If you use Facebook, be VERY F*CKING CAREFUL about applications. Personally, i don't use any or allow any to access my account. They are a breeding ground for virus's and privacy invasion... and then phishing and so on:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/what_facebook_quizzes_know_about_you.php

10. Never keep any usernames or passwords on a piece pf paper near you computer. Common sense will tell you why!

Wise words and instructions to be heeded! Many thanks for that.

I use Kaspersky security. It seems to be effective and not intrusive but I think it slows things down. Is it a good choice, please?

Many thanks PaulWirral - just the sort of info I needed

It seems to be one of the best around at the moment. Norton seems to take over the machine too much and certainly slows it down a lot more then others.

I rather an anti-virus prog slowed me down then miss anything that could harm my machine.

Great advice Paul, can't wait for my lad, my son in law and my daughters to come round and show them that. I keep telling them but it is like talking to the wall but I have to go round now and again to speed things up for them and it takes me bloody hours. They might take someone else's advice if not mine.

Thanks. That's what I'd heard so I'll stick with it.
Bri

thanks for this Paul. i'm shit when it comes to computers.
i have tho always used mozilla firefox but thanks for the other links

A useful tip to stop you getting bogged down in multiple passwords is this.
Pick a password that is tricky to guess but easy for you to remember. Replace some of the letters with numbers and throw a capital letter or two in the middle. Now so that you have multiple passwords stick the standard password into the middle of the site name.
You should end up with something that looks a bit like this....
Wikki0p3N535aM3wirral
And the only bit that you should have to remember is 0peN535aM3.

And no that's not my password


Just in case you're still wondering what it says, it's opensesame

Do not use internet explorer?

What a load of shit. Next you will be telling us not to use Windows!! And yes, Linux has viruses galore, I know, I work with it every day, as does OSX now.

I have used IE as my primary browser, since time began, and guess what, never had an issue with it. Only time in the last few years I have had a virus or malware, was as a result of me purposely downloading it.

Fookin hate Firefox fanbois, they moan about IE and it's failings, and them SPAM every fookin forum telling people to use it.

Fyi, Opera is the best browser on the Windows platform, bar none, not even Safari for Windows can compare, so why limit the choice to Firefox?

Why would anyone want to delete their cookies, unless they were desperately worried about security, cookies are extremely useful to have and to keep, telling people to delete them is nothing short of stupidity.

NTFS does not suffer fragmentation issues as FAT16/32 used to, so defragmentation should only be carried out one every 12 - 24 months at most - the performance gain of >1% does not warrant your PC being wanked for several hours at a time.

Never heard of "The Cleaner" on any techy forums, and if it is scanning for trojans's, it is not needed so long as you have a GOOD antivirus (ie. Kaspersky or NOD, nothing else comes close).

Why turn JS off? Plenty of sites still use JS even though its dying out and there is nothing wrong with using it; there are many exploits, but there you really should not have a net connection if you are worried about exploits online.

Gmail Vs Hotmail... errr, Gmail spam filters are OK, and so are hotmail. Neither are particuarly impressive, and both ban subnets rather than domains and isolated IP's or hostnames. Not the most advanced way of doing things, there is much better out there. Please stop trying to slate Microsoft and their services at every opportunity. I find this amusing, people expect others to change their email account etc every time something "rumored" to be better comes along, most people don't want to.

If you want to avoid spam, a few things... DONT GIVE YOUR PRIMARY EMAIL ADDRESS OUT TO ANYONE OTHER THAN COMPANIES AND PEOPLE YOU TRUST. DON'T POST IT ANYWHERE ONLINE.

Also, get a second email account and use it as a spam email account, anything you suspect may lead to spam, refer it to that email address instead. Within Hotmail/Windows Live Mail, you can link multiple accounts, so you could have 2 or 3 accounts if you wanted and use one for your important stuff, and the other two for less important stuff/companies you are not sure of. Always look for tickboxes that remove you from 3rd party mailing lists etc, also read them carefully as some of them will be for you to opt-in rather than out.

And whatever you do, don't ever click a link to unsubscribe or reply to any email that you do not know the sender is safe, and don't bother with autoresponders, turn them off.

Using a spam-filter, regardless of how good it is, is a fix not a cure; get to the root of the problem by avoiding and preventing spam altogether.

As much as I defend MS, don't ever use any of their add-on security tools - Microsoft are not a security company.

I have not used Avast, so won't comment on that, have heard it is okay for a freebie though, but AVG.. don't be funny, it is utter wank, even the likes of Norton are ahead of it nowadays. It was the defacto freebie to use, but that was about 5 years ago, nowadays its about as much use as a chocolate firguard against all but the most basic and known of viruses.

The key to online security (and keeping your PC clean, therefore leading to optimum performance) is vigilance, and remembering that your computer is a tool, just like a chainsaw, use it in a safe, controlled and correct manner, and it will serve you well, if you are reckless with it and expect it to look after you, then prepare to lose fingers.

Half of what you have posted is good, half is bullshit to be honest, go back to the drawing board and re-evaluate it, and then post a refined and corrected (and preferably not an anti-IE brigrade) version.



People, PLEASE DO NOT take the above information as gospel... it is far from it. No amount of defragging will improve overall performance, as someone who understands how filesystems work and the difference between muyltiple systems, NTFS is extremely resiliant to fragmentation, and it does not offer anything for security. Defragging every two weeks, to be quite frank, is the funniest thing I have heard all year. Even someone like myself, who uses their system constantly, and it is constantly full, would gain little from doing so.

I wonder why I have clients with Windows 2003 servers that see more I/O load in a day than your PC would see in a year, whose systems get defragged maybe once or twice a year?? I am also still wondering why my laptop runs as new, why it never has any non-self inflicted issues or viruses on it, and why it has not screwed up, because I am running IE 95% of the time, with Opera, Safari and Firefox 5% of the time. Btw, Firefox is actually quite a resource hog once you have a few tabs open, its get "very" heavy with regards its memory footprint, and it was, until the most recent update, for many months, starting funny on the odd-occasion and running slow, requiring a closedown and restart of it before it would work correctly. Never had this problem in Opera or IE.

IE's biggest advanatage, is it displays 99.9% of websites as the coder intended. Firefox's biggest problem, is it more W3C (though not totally - look to Opera for that) compliant and will not always display websites correctly if the coder has been a bit messy or lazy. Upto you, but personally id rather see the websites as they are supposed to be seen rather than how a bunch of self-righteous morons at the web consortium say I am allowed to view it. The internet is about freedom and expression, not about restrictions and regulations. If the web consortium had their own way, the internet would simply be a boring, black and white walled garden.

Also, I won't run IE8 for the reason, it is heavier than IE7, it basically bloatware and itself is moving towards W3C compliance, which is wrecking the viewing of websites - it does have the compatibility mode for websites not displaying correctly, but that does not always work perfectly. It is also known to have a few bugs.

thanks for that too scoops

A good tip for passwords would also be use some non alpha numeric digits as well, such as + and = etc...

So have like...

by8=PPls##55rOm\\V

My server passwords are like this, but approx 40 - 80 characters long... even though I have a photographic memory it is impossible to remember them, so I have another secure way to keep them (not going to divulge this for obvious reasons - almost as important as my life!!), however my general passwords tend to be about 10 - 20 characters long.

Dependent on how much you use each password, you eventually get to know it. You should really change your passwords every month or two, incase of keyloggers etc, however I know we are all lazy and don't except on the most vital of things. Therefore, it is doubly important to have as secure a password as possible.

I don't use the "in between words" technique, however it is a great idea, because the more characters in a password, generally the better.

Really is quite scary this thread re passwords+ facebook- i hate them stupid facebook apps 'social interview', 'xxx has opened a cafe-taste her chips' etc fook off- i have enuff difficulty remaining in reality as it is. Lol

The problem with non alpha numeric characters is that some login scripts won't accept them.

Blah blah has seen a squirral
Blah blah has reached level 4
Blah blah now owns an elephant
Blah blah -horoscope
Blah blah- ideal partner
Blah blah-look a like is
Blah blah blah blah blah. FOOOOK OFF!! I Dont Care!!

Great post Paul a lot of info in there.
I use Virgins security comes with the XL broadband packege.
not had a prob with it

CCleaner is commonest program for cleaning, few hiccups in the past but generally good these days.

Opera is THE browser except when IE compatibility needed, in which case IE is the only real option.

AVG has never let me down except when all the other AV programs also failed. Updates to failures have usually happened within 48 hours, except for one Trojan that was easily contained by Zonealarm.

For defragging I suggest Defraggler much faster than Windows defrag. There are better out there but it is a nice friendly program that seems to do the job.

A good registry cleaner has been Eusing, however I suspect there may be a compatibility issue in the current release so I wouldn't use it unless you know someone that has had no problems with a similar setup to yours. The registry cleaner built into CCleaner is worth using.

I also use a registry defreg program (called "Free Registry Defrag") which gives me some fringe benefits. However this could be considered overkill and taking an unnecessary risk for little benefit.

Windows firewall is crap, Microsoft's policy lets alsorts through it, Zonealarm hasn't failed me apart from some earlier versions where their tech guys gave up on some problems I raised with them concerning Ping replies. All other problems I have had with Zonealarm have been my own stupid fault, trying to be too clever. Sadly, any (internal) firewall is going to be slower than Microsoft's.

From a programmer that has written multi-tasking operating systems and disk operating systems in assembly language ....

Defragmenting is worth doing to improve boot-up times, this is not particularly to do with NTFS, but more to do with the STUPID quantity of files that Windows throws around unnecessarily.

Defragmenting also helps the cache systems built into hard drives, if you are hammering the hard drives the cache systems do have limits and need a helping hand.

I still laugh at XP's claim that it is/was the fastest booting Windows to date - wrong, in its pure vanilla freshly installed form possibly true, as soon as you add decent drivers and necessary security it is appalling.

I disable all auto-updates, if you are using a wireless network to access the Internet, the excessive load of numerous updates just after network connections have been made, seems to leave them unstable. I have seen many drop-outs about 10 to 15 minutes after boot, this has stopped entirely when changed to manual updates (for AVG, Spybot, Zonealarm, Java and Windows) even if I do them very shortly after boot.

are all these defraggers free???

Strongly agree with the turning automatic updates off, Microsoft simply "cannot" be trusted when it comes to updates unfortunately. This is the same with a lot of software vendors, but Microsoft seem to get it wrong more than most.

Strongly disagree. When I got my PC it had a month's trial copy of Norton on it and it didn't find a thing wrong. When the trial ran out I put AVG Free on and it immediately found about a dozen infected files. Norton is a complete con imo. We use AVG at work too and we've not had a single virus get into our network for years.

On a personal note, I've dumped both IE and Firefox and gone over to Google Chrome. This is good for removing rubbish from your PC btw: http://www.ccleaner.com/features

Whatever you do... avoid McAfee like the plague!!!


Thats if you dont want your computer running 2mph

The sad demise of McAfee, IMHO they were market leader for yonks, just got too cocky I suppose, you can't run on reputation indefinitely, you have to come up with the goods.

yes it is built into your PC.

Defraggler is free ...

http://www.piriform.com/defraggler

That probbly says more about the quality of AVG, than anyone could ever say. Of course it depends entirely on what sort of network you are talking about, but if its a general internet access network, with multiple users using it, AVG will be finding viruses.

If you had 12 viruses on your computer, within 30 days of buying it, it also says a lot about yourself. You must be doing something severely wrong/have no idea about avoiding viruses to get that many.

ESET/Nod32 and Kaspersky are lightyears ahead of all other AV software in just about every aspect.

I have not used Chrome as yet, basically because I am sick of Google trying their hand at everything lol. I will do one day, but for me im still using IE, though I tend to find for all people moans about it, Opera answers everything (personally, I don't like or agree with W3C compliance however).

I don't get why people use freebies, just pay £30 and get ESET Smart Security, and if you really don't want to pay it, just get it for free, be careful though, cos the warez versions may contain viruses!! AVG used to be amazing, but it has lost a lot of respect in recent years, and it seems a lot of people tend to go for Avast nowadays. As for Norton, would never touch that with a bargepole as long as I live. I noticed in the newest release, they were raving how it was lighter load on your system etc... well, most decent AV software does not and never really has taken over your PC like Norton and McAffee do lol.

Wooo NOD all the way

I use Eset Nod virus killer, and CCleaner.

I think your computer is only as dirty as the type of sites you visit!

Ever since ive updates my AVG Antivirus to number 9 my PC has been running like a bag shite.. Ive uninstalled this know and im using NOD and it flies like a concorde.. My new recommendation is know NOD!!!

I am a NOD32 proud user.

One of the cornerstones of the W3C is that internet should be available to anyone. Compliant sites makes it much easier for 'enabling software', like screen readers, to function properly. Hence the increasing prevelance of jump-to-content links at the top of pages (even if they are hidden using CSS), especially on news websites.

Also with the release of IE8 several high profile sites have stopped supporting earlier versions of IE, for example take a look at wikipedia in IE6.

Updated AVG to version 9 last night, been holding off since Oct 2009 because therewere problems .... THERE STILL ARE problems, AVG9 brought both Opera and IE to a standstill.

Having been a staunch supporter of AVG, I am annoyed that they haven't sorted out these problems in the last 4 months.

Will go back to AVG 8 until I decide what to do.

I've been using AVG for many years, mainly because I'm a skinflint, and I have never had a virus get through. I upgraded to v9 ages ago and it works as well as it ever did, i.e.brilliantly.
I also am a staunch advocate of I.E., tried Firefox, Chrome et al, rubbish in comparison IMO.

I started using Avast (which is also free) after I had problems with AVG - computer runs a lot better now.

Avast is only good if you switch on that funny mode it has (forgotten name in case you didn't guess) but if you switch that on then the computer runs like a dog.

Avira is the one for me. Blows AVG and Avast out the water, laptop runs a hell of alot quicker and had no virus's since i've been running it.

It's also free aswell.

Just about decided to have a look at that and then spotted your recommend.

http://www.free-av.com/

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

these are the 2 I use, do a full proper scan. Takes around 30mins for the 1st scan.

Avira takes about 11 hours to do the standard scan on my computer.

But that may be because I have 118,264 files in 15,870 folders.

Miss AVG's email scanner, other than that Avira looks ok.

I use AVG. Should I uninstall AVG before installing Avira? Sometime these programmes conflict with each other?
x

Yes, definitely uninstal AVG before installing Avira, as long as you don't download anything else, your computer is safe whilst you do this process.

THANKS DD

I
After reading on this thread about AVG 9 causing problems it set me thinking. I downloaded it about two weeks ago and have had nothing but trouble opening web-pages since. I never really tied the two together though.
Uninstalled AVG 9, Downloaded Avira, computer's working like clockwork again!
I was so close to putting my coffee mug through my screen sooooo many times waiting for pages to load and it was AVG 9 all along.
Thanks for the tip-off everyone.

@Stegga

I was the same mate, broke the golden rule of not doing two updates at once, my Three Dongle updated at the same time I went to AVG9 - I assumed it was the dongle update that went wrong, then I tried a Vodaphone Dongle and it was the same.

This problem with AVG9 has been running since they brought it out in October last year, they blame it on ZoneAlarm and reckon Zonealarm have promised a fix - but I removed ZoneAlarm and still had the same problem.

AVG have built up a good reputation which is now in shatters, noticed that Avira had 50% more downloads on DOWNLOAD.COM, this could be the end of AVG. McAfee got complacent a few years ago, when they were market leader and have never recovered.

AVG8.5 was an excellent product, AVG9 is the pits, what a shame.

Everyone has always had different views on AV and guess it will always be that way.

I currently use AVG9 Free and it works perfectly for me on Windows 7 32 Bit with 2GB RAM anyway. I've used AVG for a long time after I got sick of Norton getting so bloated. After a while hearing so many people say how great Avira was and I was doing a reinstall of Windows anyway i thought i would give it a try. A few weeks in and I had the first virus problem I had experienced in many years. Back to AVG for me and fine ever since.

I have installed 8 and 8.5 on XP machines and a couple of Vista for friends and relatives and one thing I have never been called up for is a Virus problem.

You do need to put on a few extra switches with Avira.

I've left AVG because there are loads of people having problems and they have ignored it for months. As with most things, when it works its great when it doesn't its cr@p not so good.

I use AVG9 Proffesional, and have no problems with it. yes you have to buy it. But my view is you get Nothing for Nothing

That is not the way the companies see it, they are giving you something for something. You get a free copy for home use which they hope will swing their sales to business, assuming it is popular and a good product.

Microsoft have bought up the rights (or in some cases sole-right licenses) to many pieces of free or cheap software because they were getting popular. A good quality freeware is a goldmine.

The classic example of this is google, google search is free to use, many other bits of google software are free, but the company is worth a fortune. Its not only the product that matters, its the marketing strategy and good business sense, they are both elements that make use of the popularity of freeware.

You don't get nothing for nothing, but in the Internet world, popularity is success, success is money, freeware a key into that world.

That's exactly how it works dd

I say you wont get anything great for free! You wont know you have a problem with these free internet security packages until it's too late. Best stick to Kaspersky internet security 2010.

I agree. I've just renewed my Kaspersky for another 2 trouble-free peace-of-mind years.