KEEPING A HEALTHY WINDOWS COMPUTER (continued)

With Hackers and Viruses under control with programs that are always running we must switch to a slightly different strategy of a maintenance routine to take care of other potential problems.

MAINTENANCE ROUTINE
Regardless of your situation all computers should be subjected to maintenance procedures on a regular basis. If you do it yourself or if you have an administrator that does it for you, it must be done. If you don't use your computer very much, a monthly routine may be sufficient. If you use your computer for hours each day I would recommend a weekly routine.

THE ROUTINE
The required processes for keeping a healthy computer are fairly standard to any given operating system. First we get rid of the bad stuff, then we add the good stuff, then we optimize all the stuff, and finally we backup the important stuff.

STEP 1 - GET RID OF THE BAD STUFF

SpyWare/AdWare: Your firewall must allow enough access for you to get on the internet and that opening is enough for spyware to get in. Spyware is software that is downloaded to you computer without your knowledge much like cookies are. Unlike most cookies this software has some mischievous goal or it wouldn't be addressed in a derogatory manor or need removal. Usually spyware just slows your computer down and wastes your precious bandwidth by sending statistical information back to its home base that can be used for marketing purposes. If that isn't bad enough there are others that can bring your computer to its knees. In some respects Spyware is a lot like a virus but anti-virus software does not address this problem. A spyware removal utility is required to get this stuff off of your computer. Microsoft now provides a utility named Windows Defender. I've been using this since 6/1/05 and find it works as well as any other utility. One of the benefits of Windows Defender is it will run in the background all of the time like an anti-virus program. Though this provides a level of protection all of the time, you should periodically run a full scan of your computer with Windows Defender.

Spyware is a relatively new problem and we must give credit to Patrick M. Kolla who developed the first spyware removal utility, Spybot Search & Destroy. Spybot is still one of the best removal utilities available and Patrick provides it FREE of charge with donations accepted. Another popular FREE utility is Ad-Aware from Lavasoft. Some people believe that you should run more then one spyware utility because one may find spyware that the other doesn't. If you decide to run a program other then Microsoft Defender, either of these free utilities should keep the spyware on your computer under control.

I can also recommend a commercial spyware utility I previously used named Spy Sweeper by Webroot. Spy Sweeper does a good job and also runs in the background all of the time like an anti-virus program, allowing you to omit spyware removal from your maintenance routine.

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