How to Clean Viruses, Trojans, Spybots and Malware Off a PC
Over the course of your computer's working lifespan, you will inevitably pick up viruses, spyware and other forms of malware from browsing the Internet. Damage from malware can range from annoying to catastrophic: you could lose your entire hard drive's contents. Cleaning viruses and other malware from your system consists of four main steps that should be taken regularly.
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Instructions
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Malware Removal
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1
Disconnect your computer from the Internet. This prevents any new viruses or malware from downloading and running.
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2
Run Disk Cleanup by clicking on "My Computer," right-clicking the drive, selecting "Tools," and choosing "Disk Cleanup." Disk Cleanup will remove all temporary files, Internet cookies, Web history and browsing history.
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3
Create a System Restore Point by clicking "Start," typing "System Restore" in the Run dialog box and following the instructions.
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4
Run an anti-malware utility. Although you may be tempted to run two or more different programs in case one misses a file, don't. Some anti-malware programs can conflict with one another and cause system instability, according to Smart Computing.
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5
Restart your computer. This finalizes the uninstall and removal of most types of malware.
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6
Run the registry cleaning software to remove empty registry key values from any programs the malware cleaner deleted.
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References
- Photo Credit virus alert image by Pontus Edenberg from Fotolia.com
