Posts Tagged ‘MalwareBytes’
Six Software Tools To Clean up a Slow PC and Increase the Performance
Posted by kglee | Filed under Software Fixes
Clients complain of the virus or slow computer performance. They say their computer crashes, or will not boot up. I get many jobs for my computer repair business due to this. The best thing to do would be a Windows reinstall, but that is the plan B. Usually it is only necessary to clean the PC to get it running smoothly. If the computer will at least boot into safemode, these items can be applied to get the machine up and running. These are the tools I normally use, to get the system running good enough to continue the PC software repair process.
Step 1: Uninstall all unnecessary programs
1. Uninstall all browser toolbars, as well as shareware spy-ware removers.
2. Uninstall all anti-virus and replace it with AVG free download, or AVIRA Free download
3. Uninstall unneeded programs
Use Revo Uninstaller. It gets rid of unnecessary stuff left over from removed programs, along with uninstalling normally.
Step 2: Make sure there is nothing unnecessary starting up with your account login or windows startup
This, by far, is the greatest cause of slow PC’s, in my opinion. Totally unnecessary items such as Adobe Acrobat have startup programs which do nothing useful.
Watch how many processes are running in the back ground as the unnecessary ones will degrade performance – Right click the system tray, click the task manager, press the processes tab, do a search in Google to see what they do. To disable them type in run box type msconfig click on startup tab, and uncheck said ones to disable on next boot.
A more advanced software for doing just this is Autoruns from Sysinternals download
Step 3: Delete all unnecessary files
An extremely handy software that will help you with this is CCleaner – an accredited software endorsed by many reputable sources. download
Try this tool to find what is on your hard drive – Windirstat
Step 4: Do a scan with Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware scanner download
Scan with your virus scanner, see above:
Step 5: Update your drivers with Device Doctor download
Step 6: Update Windows security patches
turn on your windows firewall, turn off automatic windows updates
Additional Advanced steps to speed up the PC
Add More Memory Crucial
Run a Hard Disk File Defragger or the one that comes with Windows
How to remove Antivirus 2009 from your computer
Posted by admin | Filed under Software Fixes
I’d love to say that I spend all of my time playing games on the computer, on a tabletop, reading SF/F and enjoying my family. However all but the last are simply hobbies for the time being and I support myself with a day job working with computers.
Which means that when friends have problems with computers, I generally get a call. Which leads me to an article detailing a few ways to remove the Antivirus 2009 piece of crap that infested a friends machine. Generally speaking I won’t post to many technical articles on this site. But this piece of malware sucks and can seriously impede the ability of someone to use their computer for anything – productive or gaming related. So here’s what I found out and what I did to remove it. If you have further suggestions or techniques that work, please feel free to mention them in the comments.
Malware like Antivirus2009 and others of similar names are becoming more prevalent and harder to remove from Windows systems. They actively disable antivirus/antimalware programs, redirect requests to get to anti-malware and anti-virus websites and install themselves as hidden virtual hardware to both work in safe mode and reinstall themselves if the ‘software’ is removed from the system.
These things masquerade as windows updates, or free online tools that tell users they’re infected by something and offer to fix it – often in the form of a pop up from the task bar. To the uninitiated they look pretty much like a windows notification and can be mistaken as valid.
This particular POS (on an XP SP3 machine) was bundled with a hidden process named “TDSSserv.sys” It’s a service that re-directs all software updates (and requests to Symantec’s website among others) to 127.0.0.1 (your own computer) so that nothing will update. It also prevents Malwarebytes, Spybot, Adaware and Hijack This! and more from installing or running. On your machine it appears as a piece of hidden hardware. (more…)