Home Office Organization–21st Century Style

How to Combat Stubborn Spyware

Friday, April 4th, 2008

A slow computer means a massive lack of productivity in your home office, and when you work your home business part-time, that’s just not acceptable no matter how you slice it.

This week I experienced a sudden and severe internet slow-down. I was cruising along one session and when I came back later it took 10 minutes just for my email page to load, let alone allow me to read a message. Then I started getting Internet Explorer pop-up windows while I was running Firefox. That means some very malicious spyware was running on my computer and wreaking havoc.

I tried running the anti-spyware programs SpyBot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware, and they found both critical and non-critical spyware. I deleted the spyware and thought my problem was solved, but my internet browsing speed didn’t go back up and I was still getting pop-ups.

I called my trusty computer shop and they suggested the following solution, which worked wonders:

Run the anti-spyware programs and anti-virus program in safe mode.

That way the executable install file of the spyware is deleted along with the spyware itself.

Procedure

Many spyware programs can be easily deleted while running Windows normally, but if that doesn’t work do the following to removed the malicious spyware from your computer:

Download at least two anti-spyware programs in normal mode: I used SpyBot Search & Destroy and Windows Defender. Ad-Aware wouldn’t run in safe-mode because it won’t operate with the screen settings safe-mode uses on my computer. It may work for you, however, so I’d try it and if it doesn’t work use Windows Defender. Or download all three. They’re free.
Move all anti-spyware and anti-virus programs to the farthest left start menu pop-up box or to the far left of your desktop. You may not be able to scroll right in safe mode to find the programs if you have a lot loaded on your computer.
Update each program’s definitions database.
Restart your computer. When the initial settings screen appears before windows starts to load, press and hold F8 until you get a screen with several safe mode and other start-up options.
Arrow up or down to “safe mode” and press “enter”.
Your computer will start up in safe mode. It will look really funky, but it’s supposed to because Windows is only loading essential components of the operating system so you can run diagnostic and repair software.
Click on one of the programs and start it running. I would suggest SpyBot Search & Destroy first because it runs quickly. Delete anything found.
Then run Ad-Aware if you can. If you can’t, run Windows Defender. Delete anything found.
Then run Windows Defender optionally if Ad-Aware ran successfully. Delete any problems found.
Lastly and optionally, run your anti-virus program and delete or quarantine any viruses. I would do this if I was having significant problems, and I was, so I ran AVG 7.5 free version as well as the anti-spyware programs.
You can also run disk defragmenter in safe mode if you’d like and your disk needs it.
Vaccinate your computer against the spyware if that option is available to you.
After all programs have run and you have dealt with the spyware and viruses found, restart your computer normally.

Everything should be fixed. If not, you may have to reload Windows because a critical system file may have been corrupted. I would take the computer to the shop for this. I’m not savvy enough to trust myself to reinstall Windows XP Service Pack 2 when I have the Windows XP SP 1 edition on CD. If you’re confident about doing this, go ahead by all means.

In safe mode, SpyBot Search & Destroy didn’t find any problems, but Windows Defender found a critical item and a non-critical item. I deleted them and everything is running like new again. AVG didn’t detect any viruses.

If you’re getting strange pop-ups, especially from a browser you’re not running, or your computer slows to a painful crawl for no apparent reason, you probably have spyware and possibly other issues. If running your anti-spyware and anti-virus programs in normal mode doesn’t fix the problem, try running them in safe mode before you give up and take the machine to the shop or wipe the hard drive or reinstall Windows.

Sherri Joubert
Happily computing again!

Technorati Tags: anti-spyware, computer maintenance, malicious spyware, safe mode, Stubborn spyware