Adam Webster's Blog

The people at Sun/Java have recently published the newest version of their completely free MS Office alternative, OpenOffice. This program is compatible with MS Office and completely free, offering a great alternative for those who are dissatisfied with MS Office ‘07 or can’t afford Office software. Unlike many freeware programs, the licensing is much less restrictive for this program and many organizations and businesses can use it. Please see their licensing faq for more details.

Check it out at:

http://www.openoffice.org/

One of the most common questions I get as an IT professional is: “How do I clean viruses and spyware off of my home PC?”. To address this question I have created the following quick guide to cleaning malware (a shorter way of saying “viruses and spyware”) off of your windows-based home computer absolutely FREE!*

*(Please note, this guide is for HOME USE ONLY! These applications are only free for home users, the professional versions are available for download at a reasonable cost on their respective websites.)

In order to clean malware off your home PC download, install, update and scan with the following programs in order:

Step 1: CCleaner http://www.ccleaner.com/

Cleaning malware off your computer requires a scan of every file, this application allows you to easily clean temporary files from your PC, drastically reducing scan times.

Step 2: Spybot Search and Destroy http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html

One of the best free spyware cleaning applications available. Some features include “immunization”, which prevents spyware infections in your browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.) and “tea timer”, an application which alerts you about system startup changes.

Step 3: AVG Free Edition http://free.avg.com/

The free version (for personal use only) of my preferred antivirus solution, AVG. AVG is a lightweight, unobtrusive antivirus that does exactly what I want out of an antivirus: cleaning and protecting my system without bogging it down too much.

These 3 steps should be enough to clean and protect most home PC’s. Also, although these free programs do work very well they are not as powerful as the paid version of the application. If you are looking for a single paid application that will take care of all your internet security needs I recommend AVG Internet Security: http://www.avg.com/product-avg-internet-security

If you are dealing with a particularly stubborn infection, need further information or need help in purchasing the professional versions of these products feel free to email me at adam@ielmcc.com