Get Rid Malware

Computer users frequently happen upon sites with malicious intentions and ensnaring links, and most have no idea until symptoms of existing malware occur. One day, such a user might open their internet browser only to be plagued by a continuous and periodic stream of pop-up ads, and of course, a slowness in performance, all of which can be extremely frustrating. This article discusses methods useful to get rid of malware, a task unknown to many of the less experienced and more naive computer users.

Malware can arrive at one's computer through various means, including clicking untrustworthy links, streaming videos and other material, clicking the flashy side ads and games that appear frequently, and other such methods, most of which are all caused by the computer user's actions. When the host computer is infected, the user may see symptoms immediately following the infection, or sometimes many weeks after. These symptoms include frequent pop-ups when connected to the internet, poor computer performance in the form of slow start up and shut down as well as slow loading of websites, and of course computer crashes.

To get rid of malware, the problem must first be assessed, determining what manner of infection is causing the undesired computer symptoms. One must distinguish whether or not a computer problem is a result of a more serious virus or a simple case of adware. All important data should first be backed up while the user is able, as computer crashes might end up destroying valuable information saved. The first step should always involve running a virus scanner, if available. If one is not available on a computer, it should be procured for current and future use. Examples are McAfee Antivirus, Norton, or even free services such as Symatec. This scanning process can potentially detect and remove the malware, thus completely solving the problem. Having an active antivirus program (usually not free) such as the aforementioned McAfee and Norton can easily prevent future infections, as they constantly run and even provide site advisers to notify users when they are entering sites known to cause problems.

Another possible solution is to simply download spyware detection programs such as spybot or those available on Lava Soft's website (such as Ad-Aware). These programs are especially useful for getting rid of nasty ads derived from internet cookies.

Another brute force method, sometimes used by more dedicated and experienced computer users, is to hunt for undesired processes in the computer's task manager, which normally requires looking up the details of every process appearing there.

To conclude, computer users have many means to remove malware such as installing virus scanners, using free scanning services online, installing spyware detection, and using the computer task manager. All of these methods are known to both remove and prevent malware, a problem that occurs with many of the less wary computer users.