How To Take Care of Your Computer

for Little or No Money

Ted Whittemore

The Working Computers Blog & Kinnelon Computers

www.kinneloncomputers.com

3 Part Series

Part 1 – How To Disinfect Your Computer – How To Surf Safely

– Question and Answer Session

Who is Ted Whittemore?

• Owner of Working Computers and the Working Computers Blog

• Has worked in computer services industry since 1987 building, servicing, and selling computer systems, software and maintenance

What’s the Plan for today?

• Discuss disinfecting your computer and how to be prepared ahead of time

• Show you how to surf safely and download safely

• Answer questions and solve problems

• All of the subjects covered are also in articles in the Working Computers Blog, @ www.kinneloncomputers.com

Before We Deal With These Issues

• Feel free to ask specific questions about the topic we are covering

• Please save general questions for the end

Disinfecting Your Computer

• Plan Ahead of Time for a Course of Action

• What Programs Will You Use?

• Who Will Do the Cleanup? You?

• If it’s you – have the software you need installed and know how to use it

• If it’s someone else – know what it will cost, where you have to go, or if/when they will come to you

Disinfection Software

• We recommend Malwarebytes and Spybot

• Both are free and Malwarebytes can be run even when the infection prevents program execution

• What are they? They are Scanning and Repair Programs -- They Remove the Malware & Repair the Registry Entries That Allow It To Hijack Your PC

How To Get It

1. Malwarebytes free, version 1.6, with Chameleon

2. Spybot, the free version is the only version

3. Install the software so that it is ready to go

4. Run both programs from time to time to check for malware in addition to your AV program’s scans

5. You can download them at www.kinneloncomputers.com

6. Make sure you are familiar with and know how to use System Recovery Restore, from the F8 Boot Menu. Practice getting there. Make sure you have Restore Points.

Running Malwarebytes

• If you suspect you are infected, run the Malwarebytes Quick Scan and delete any detected malware.– If the infection prevents Malwarebytes from running,

run Chameleon Link – you can place a link to it on your DeskTop

• It should then run with no problem.• After deleting malware, run Malwarebytes Scan

again, until no malware is detected, then do the same with Full Scans.

Running Spybot

• Spybot will check for updates when you run it and you should accept any updates and then install them and close Spybot and then run it and scan– Spybot can take a long time to complete and

should be run repeatedly until no infection is found.

• We run both MB and SB to be sure no additional infection is present.

Rebooting Your PC

• Both MB and SB will ask you to reboot your computer after infections are deleted since they will have updated corrupted Registry entries, and you Must Do This

• The Registry is the main point of entry for infection, since the registry is the master list for control of all hardware and software in a Windows PC

How Do Computers Get Infected?Or Safe Surfing and Downloading

Most infections are Permission Based – Your Permission

That means you:

1) Download Something You Shouldn’t

2) You Visit a Bad Website with and Click on Various Buttons, and then …

3) You Click on that Email Attachment your friend sent you with the Smiley Face Program, and then …

If You Download Something You Are Worried About

• Navigate Away From the Website

• Immediately Run Malwarebytes Quick Scan

How Do I Avoid Getting Infected?

Just Say No! & 1) Don’t Surf with older Browsers – Make Sure

you are using the latest versions of IE, Chrome, or Firefox …

2) If you are going to go to a “bad neighborhood” make sure you have the Best Protection, – e.g., Norton 360 v5, which protects against backdoor

firewall attacks, and does realtime download inspection.

3) Pay attention to the addresses you enter

What is the First Thing I Should Do?• Run Malwarebytes Quick Scan and continue Scans Until No More

Infections are Reported and Deleted, then Switch to Full Scans

• Run SpyBot Scans until it, too, Finds No More Infected Files

• You May Be Asked to Reboot Your PC after these Scans

What if This Fails or There is a Problem?• Do a Boot System Restore to an Earlier Restore Point

• Hit F8 Before the Maker Logo displays and Select the Repair Opt.

What if This Fails or There is still a Problem?• Time to Call a Pro! Unless …

If My PC is Infected..

You Have a Backup

• The best Backup is a Bootable Backup– A Backup that is an exact Image of Your Boot Drive– And One that is Recent

• We will talk more on this subject in Part 2 of Taking Care of Your Computer on Feb.16

• In the meantime for those of you who are curious, check out– Working Computers Blog Articles in Clone or

Mirror Backup• If you have a Recent Uninfected Backup, you

can just Restore to Your Boot Drive

Recovery and Restore

• System Restore in XP, Vista and 7– Available from a Boot

Menu, – Available when

Windows is Fully Booted

• Always Use the Boot Menu in Case of Infection

Anti-Virus & Internet Security Software

• You need to have it!• It needs to be up-to-date• Four makers of free software to choose from

– AVG – my personal preference– Avast– Avira– Microsoft

• All 4 choices are good• Microsoft: least intrusive & updates automatically

with OS once installed

Px installation MS security essentialsGo online

MSE -- http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security_essentials/default.aspx

Update Your Operating System

• Why?– Correct OS vulnerabilities to attack– Fix software and coding errors– Enhance compatibility, both hardware and

software– Support the latest AV and IS software

How To Update Your Operating System?

• Navigate to Windows Update– Make sure settings allow for automatic

updating at a time when computer will be on, or

– Have it ask you to install updates at time of your choosing

• If asked, when updating, switch from Windows update to Microsoft update to allow for Microsoft application updates as well

Screen for windows update

Pay Attention to Your Computer

• Weird Popups:– Demands for Money!!!– Warnings That Your Computer is Infected– Programs not working

• Don’t let this stuff go -- deal with these problems Quickly or have someone do so– See article “How to deal with an infected computer”

on the Working Computers Blog

• Vista and Windows 7 users: – Install Gadgets which display CPU hogging programs,

processor temperatures, etc.

Screen shots of -Malware bytes-Spybot-Norton bootable recovery tools-Gadgets

Using Task Manager to Show a Malware Process

• Start Task Manager– Hit CTL/ALT/DEL– Place the Mouse Cursor on the Taskbar and

Right Click for a Menu that shows Tas Manager

• Look for Process that Use a Lot of CPU– You may not recognize them, but

Russian/Cyrillic names are a dead giveaway!

Gadgets

Further On Paying Too Much:

• Here is a screen shot of the Norton landing page for the search, “Norton 360 cheap”

Further On Paying Too Much:

• And here is a screen shot of the Norton page by going to www.symantec.com

Summary

• This Presentation and all links will be up on the Working Computers Blog shortly – you do not need to take notes if you don’t want to.

• These Topics and a lot more are covered on the Working Computers site, along with links to software and sites for easy downloading.

• Remember, it’s all at www.kinneloncomputers.com

Questions??

Please Assess Seminar

• There are Assessment Sheets for this talk available on the table – Please take a moment to tell us what you think and give us any suggestions you may have.

• Thanks!

Contact Information

• Ted Whittemore– Working Computers in Kinnelon, NJ– http://www.KinnelonComputers.com – 973-838-2368– Ted@amgpi.com