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So, you have spyware? Maybe a virus? Follow these instructions to completely clean your computer. (For Windows 98, 98SE, ME, 2000, and XP) Don't forget your best protection against spyware at the bottom!! |
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| Download | Special Tool #1 | |||
| First, download the following programs to your desktop.
Don't worry, they are all free to download. If you have problems access
the internet you'll have to get them from a friend's computer. 1. Ad-Aware - Used for removing adware, duh! 2. Spybot Search & Destroy - Used to remove spyware. 3. AntiVir Anti-Virus - Used to remove viruses, again, duh! 4. SmitRem.exe - Tool used to remove specific types of spyware. 5. SmitFraudFix - Another tool used to remove specific spyware. |
Finally, after removing the viruse(s), spyware and adware you should find SmitRem on your desktop and double-click it to extract the files to a folder. Then find the folder it just made on your desktop (called SmitRem) and open it. Inside, you should double-click a program called "Run This", and then follow the instructions it gives (you don't have to read everything, just let it do its thing). The program will search through a bunch of files, don't get scared it's supposed to do that! | |||
| Installation | ||||
| Special Tool #2 | ||||
| Next, install Ad-Aware, Spybot Search & Destroy and AntiVir by double-clicking and running the programs that you have just downloaded. Upon installation of each you will need to update them via the internet. (This is VERY IMPORTANT, each must be updated!) | Afterwards, find SmitFraudFix on your desktop and double-click it to extract the files to a folder called SmitFraudFix (duh!, again). The file is in a .zip format, so each person may use a different program to open it. Windows XP has a built in zip extraction utility. Simply right-click the folder and select "extract", then follow the instructions. (Hopefully you'll find your way!) Once the folder is on the desktop, open a file called smitfraudfix.cmd that is located inside of the aforementioned folder. A window should pop up, press enter, then it will give you a window with five options. Select 2 and hit enter. The program will go through some predesigned actions. After a while you will be prompted: "Do you want to clean the registry?", answer Y (yes) and hit Enter. The tool will now check if wininet.dll is infected. You may be prompted to replace the infected file (if found): "Replace infected file?" answer Y (yes) and hit Enter to restore a clean file (only if prompted to do so). Just keep following its instructions until the windows have closed. That's it! You're done! | |||
| Safe Mode | ||||
| After all the programs are updated you will need to boot into "Safe Mode". Do this by shutting down your computer, then, as soon as you turn the power back on, begin tapping the F8 key located at the top of your keyboard. After 5 seconds, or so, you should see a list of boot options. Use the arrow key up or down to highlight the "Safe Mode" option, and then hit "Enter". Don't worry, Safe Mode will look a little different than what you're used to. If given the option, select your usual login name not "Administrator", otherwise the programs you downloaded to your desktop will not show up and we'll have to hunt them down (we really don't want to do that). | ||||
| Run Scans | ||||
| Once in Safe Mode open AntiVir, and run a scan of your hard drive(s). After you removed any viruses run both Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy to remove all adware and spyware (it's OK, you can run them both at the same time, although you may not want to if you have a slow computer). It is important to not reboot between any of these scans. | Complete | |||
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Once that's all complete go ahead and reboot normally into Windows. Hopefully you will notice that whatever you had is now gone! If, for some reason it's back then reboot back into Safe Mode and try running SmitRem and SmitFraud one more time. Then, of course boot back into Windows normally and see if it is gone yet. Hopefully it is. Of course if it isn't then you have a big problem and you should seek professional help (for the computer!) |
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"You
will never do anything in this world |
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Don't forget your best protection against
spyware!
2006 ezcomputertips.info