12 Days to a Healthy PC is designed to help you quickly make your computer faster, more responsive and healthier. We have listed steps beginning with Day 1 in order of importance. The view them all, begin here.
Day 1
Scan For Spyware
On Day 1 we will perform a spyware scan. Granted, spyware and adware are a major cause of computer problems, but they are not always the problem when a system begins to act up. We will need to eliminate spyware, however, before we can proceed to call our system “healthy”.
There is the theory that running at least two anti-spyware programs on your system is beneficial because each program has different spyware definitions that are updated at different times. Our theory is to run one live and have another program installed on your machine that you can use sporadically to audit the results of the first. We will list a few of our favorites, a couple of which provide real-time protection to prevent spyware, while a couple serve as spyware removers.
Ewido – Fast, efficient Anti-spyware software that protects your system by running in the background to block infection. It’s also a very thorough scanner and remover of spyware and adware. One of our top picks.
Spybot Search and Destroy – Spybot is certainly one of the oldest and most popular anti-spyware tools that is constantly updated and very good at what it does.
Microsoft'sWindows Defender (Beta 2) – Microsoft’s software solution that provides real-time protection, anti-spyware and pop-up detection.
Adaware – Another of the older programs that allows for fast updates and is great for removing spyware and adware other programs have missed.
Lastly, if your system is so infected by spyware and is sluggish and unresponsive, you should try Hijack This, a great program that attacks spyware at the root.
Whatever you decide to run, you may also want to try using web browsers that add additional protection, such as Firefox.
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