NDSPOWER

by Chris Photinopoulos

Warning!!! First I just want to say that this article is made to give people options when dealing with computer viruses and I hold no responsibility for anything that might happen to your computer or data. It’s up to you to decide if it is right solution for you to try.

Viruses and Spy-ware are rampant throughout the internet today. They are in our websites, our e-mails, files we share and even well know publishers like Sony Music have been lacing our computer with these malicious programs.

Sony copy protection scandal

If you are ever surfing the internet and you start getting pop-ups or “something” automatically install itself then you might be the victim of a malicious program. Typically e-mails and website prompting you to download an active-x control are good ways to infect yourself and it’s frustrating to know that something is messing with your computer and you have no way to remove it. I mentioned all of this because it is important to identify when you have a problem, that you have been infected and that your computer is defiantly running slower or you are getting funny pop-ups that you have never seen before.

I also find that spy-ware and virus removal tools are wretched and just do not work the way they are suppose to. In fact, I would rather not have internet security than run a security program that will bog my computers down to the point that you may as well have a virus anyways. So as a general tip I do not run full security applications, typically I only run an Anti-Virus application and have piece of mind knowing that any 50 dollar router is more effective than a software firewall application.

The one method of effective virus removal that I will walk you through is very simple to apply. The Windows feature we are going to talk about today is called “System Restore”.

System restore is a utility that keeps a backup of key files that most Viruses and Spy-ware exploit to stay on your computer. These files are called the “registry” and there are a total of 5 of these files. They contain all the information on your computers setup and how windows loads and runs services and applications. So when a virus installs it usually need to implant code in the registry in order to turn itself back on the next time you reboot your computer. If you delete the registry and replace it with an old one the virus will fail to turn on when the computer boots and will just be left as dormant code on your computer. So I will guide you through three steps in order to protect your computer.

Step One: For this to work System Restore must be turned on. You can also make a manual backup of the registry but we simplicity we will just turn on System Restore.

Click on “Start” then Right click “My Computer” and then Click on “Properties”. Choose the tab at the top that says “System Restore”. You will see a check box that says “turn off System Restore” make sure this is unchecked then click “OK”.

You are done for now, just do your own thing until you get a virus or pop-up and your computer slows down. You can run your anti-virus and it may uninstall the virus which is good. Sometimes anti-virus programs don’t work. When this happens you do steps two and three.

Step Two: Boot your computer into Safe mode. Safe mode is a special mode that allows your computer to run with just the bare minimum of software. It is a must to restore a computer in safe mode because a lot of viruses will disable system restore in normal mode.

To access safe mode you will have to reboot your computer. As the computer is rebooting just tap the “F8” key a bunch of times and it will give you a menu that looks something like this…
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Windows Advanced Options Menu
Please select an option:
Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt
Enable Boot Logging
Enable VGA mode
Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)
Directory Services Restore Mode (Windows domain controllers only)
Debugging Mode
Start Windows Normally
Reboot
Return to OS Choices Menu
Use the up and down arrow keys to move the highlight to your choice.
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Choose safe mode and you will enter what looks like an ugly version of windows. Don’t worry, that is normal.

Step Three: Run the System Restore to restore the computer to an earlier date. The goal is to choose a date before you had the virus issues.

Click “Start” then “All Programs” then “Accessories” then “System Tools”. Select “System Restore” and you will get a menu that will ask you to choose a restore point. Choose a date before the problem. Your computer will reboot and you will see a restore progress bar. When it is complete you should be back inside windows without the Virus issues. Although this method is not 100% effective it is much better than what most anti-virus programs will do once you are infected. The best part is that it costs you nothing.

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Computers, Software Computers, Security, virus remove