Hello, all

I discussed this subject with Kevin, and he made a good point.

"Its good advice, but only the regulars will read this...it's not going to help the new people"

I whole-heartedly agree. So I decided to use a different approach. Rather than hoping that newcomers who need help read this, I decided to instead direct it at the people that will be helping them.

In other words, the Regulars.

I see many users come on and post that they have tried Ad-Aware, SpyBot, etc…etc…

I ALMOST NEVER SEE THEM SAY THEY HAVE UPDATED IT BEFORE USING IT

As you talented Regulars know, UPDATING IS IMPORTANT! But many of the newcomers who need help don't even know this often over-looked step exists. Or, they are under the impression that if they downloaded
it today, then its current and up-to-date.

This is a suggestion to the Regulars, because without you folks, many troubled users would go insane.

BE POLITE, BE KIND (for many of The New know not what they do), but it wouldn't hurt to suggest to those folks that say they have used SpyBot, Ad-Aware, etc... THAT THEY MAKE SURE THEIR PROGRAMS ARE UP-TO-DATE.

Most of these commonly used programs have built-in update utilities. If for some reason they cannot use the automatic update (and there are plenty of good reasons) then the updates can be done manually as well. If they were able to download the program from somewhere, then they can download the updates too.

I fear that many newcomers have not even considered updating before they try to fix their woes.

Up-to-date detection and removal tools will save them a lot of headaches (and all of you from a lot of Hijack Logs)

If those of us who are on here regularly remind them, it just might catch on.

You never know.

GOOD LUCK, ALL

KEEP UP THE OUTSTANDING WORK!

Computing.net people, are good people.

AOSCLAY

Rodger...all understood

AOSCLAY:

Your point is excellent. In addition, some of these same folks don't realize that they also need to install the latest updates from Microsoft for their particular operating system.

Long ago, KTTD made a point of reminding Computing.net members who recommended cleaning utilities (e.g., Spybot, Ad-Aware, et al) to also emphasize that these programs, once downloaded and installed, needed to be updated. Some members remembered; others did not.

You wrote: "Computing.net people, are good people."

No argument. 8-)

I might add, a lot of us also have infinite patience when it comes to helping those in need.

Sincerely, Solarian

Report Offensive Follow Up For Removal

Well said, gentlemen!

Just a teenager learning (been viewing here a while now) but another point about running these scanners and updated A/Vs "when something weird is starting", is to run these utilities from Safe Mode. There are more and more things that have the ability to hide in Windows normal mode.

I've been here for quite a few months now and I don't ever remember anyone saying to run Adaware or Spybot, ect. in safe mode. I didn't know these programs could be ran in safe mode. I did know that Nortons Antivirus was able to do this,
Thanks for the info.

Yes, Tammy1949

It can be beneficial to run your scanning and removal utilities in safe mode. They work just the same in safe mode as they do in normal mode.

The benefit comes in the form of some hard to remove spyware components not being loaded and running at system start-up, making them more easily removed.

SpyBot and Ad-Aware will often report that not all items could be removed / deleted. Often, these are running processes and the scanner could not terminate them, or remove them while they were in use. Running the scans in Safe Mode knocks this down a bit.

However, remember this. When you scan in Normal Mode, even when you cannot remove everything, you very often remove enough components of spyware programs to effectively break their back. The remnants you couldn't remove, that were running in Normal Mode, will very often not be able to restart when you reboot. The result: your next scan, even in Normal Mode will often remove the remainder.

So, yes, Scanning in Safe Mode is good, but not necessary. Scanning in Safe Mode is definately recommended when a user has spyware pests that they simply cannot remove.

Scan in Safe Mode = Good

Update = MUST DO

good points, everybody

AOSCLAY

Hello All,
As I am a beginner with my PC and I want to keep it working properly I do a lot of reading. Before I download anything I gather as much information as possible on that program and then follow the directions. I have found this keeps me from getting myself into a lot of problems, even as a beginner I know to keep my programs updated and all auto updates on and what I can't update in auto I do so in manual at least every couple days. I also do a complete system scan about once a week. I don't see any need to download a program and not use it as it was ment to be used, that to me is a waste of time.So my advice to other new people is do a LOT of reading.
Larry