How to Improve Computer Performance Through Extremely Easy Step by Step Do-It-Yourself Spyware Removal

The story is all too familiar. Someone buys a new computer and within a few months it's performance has degraded so severely that, rather than making your life easier, it creates heaps of unneeded stress to the point where you're just about ready to throw it out the window.

Between the endless popups-even when you aren't online-and the considerable amount of time you have to wait for your email or browser to load, your computer is far from the shiny and fast new machine it was when you bought it only a few months earlier. Luckily for you, all is not lost. Your computer itself is likely just fine, only you've been infected with one or more of the numerous types of spyware roaming freely in every corner of the world wide web.

As a certified computer technician myself, I can personally attest that the majority of my business is spent removing spyware from my customer's computers. Luckily for you, there is freeware available to private users that allow you to do the same very easily without having to send your computer away or even open your wallet.

You've likely scoured the internet for how-to guides in an effort to do your own personal maintenance, but what's a computer illiterate person to do when they don't understand the difference between facebook and firefox? How can a complete novice defragment their hard drive if they don't know what defragment means or even how to open the disk defrag program? How are you going to find any free tools if you don't know where to look? And if you do manage do download the free anti-spyware tools, how are you going to learn to use them without any instructions?

Well there's no need to worry. I've created a step-by-step guide with so much detail that anyone who is capable of turning a computer on can follow along. So before you do anything drastic like throw that expensive computer in the garbage and buy a new one, or you spend a small fortune having a certified computer technician repair your PC, try these few simple steps and prepare to be amazed at the tremendous increase in performance you can achieve without spending a dime.

First, open your browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera, i.e.). In the address box where you would normally type the address (URL) to your favorite websites, type "http://www.download.com" after deleting all the text currently in that box. When you arrive at this website, you will see a white search box in the upper right hand corner that has the words "Search CNET" written in gray. In this search box you are going to search for two different programs.

• Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
  
• Spybot - Search & Destroy

I've also included links to each of these search results in the bottom right hand corner of this page in an effort to make this guide as user-friendly as possible. Also, keep in mind that these programs are free, but they are for PERSONAL use only.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

Once you get to the page after either searching for Malwarebytes or clicking on the link provided in the bottom right hand corner of the page, you are going to need to click the green button that says "Download Now." Do not worry if any warning pops up on your computer. This program is completely safe. After clicking this button, you should notice a window popup on your screen asking you what to do with the file. At this point you want to click the option that says "Save File."

Your file should download in less than a couple of minutes depending on your connection speed, but once it's done you need to open the file by double-clicking on the file with a name resembling "mbam-setup-1.51.2.1300.exe." When a window titled "Open File - Security Warning" appears you need to click the button that says "run." From here you just follow the on screen instructions for selecting a language, agreeing to the End-User License, and clicking "next" as you go through each screen. There's no need to change any of the options during this process as the program will automatically install itself in the standard location. When you get to the screen with two checked boxes titled "Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware" and "Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware" simply hit the finish button.

The program will now go through the remainder of the setup process by connecting to a server and updating definitions. After this is completed simply click the "OK" button.

When the program opens you have a choice to either "Decline" or "Start Trial." Unless you want to pay for the premium version of the program, you need to click the "Decline" button. Next, be sure to select the option that says "perform quick scan" and select the "scan" button. This process will take anywhere from a few minutes to several minutes depending upon the speed and resources of your computer.

After the program finishes scanning, click "OK" in the window where it tells you that the scan completed successfully. You can also close the Notepad window that opened up where it saved the log file. At this point you just need to follow the on screen instructions and remove the infected files.

Don't be alarmed if you find hundreds of instances of spyware on your computer. This is quite common. The good news is that your computer is about to start performing much faster and more efficiently.

Spybot - Search & Destroy

Using the exact same method as before with "Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware," you can now search for "Spybot - Search & Destroy" or simply click on the link at the bottom right hand corner of this tutorial. Once again you are going to click the green button that says "Download Now." Do not worry if any warning pops up on your computer. This program is completely safe. After clicking this button, you should notice a window popup on your screen asking you what to do with the file. At this point you want to click the option that says "Save File" just like you did with the previous program.

Following the same method as you did before, wait for your file to download and open it by double-clicking the file with a name resembling "spybotsd162.exe." When a window titled "Open File - Security Warning" appears you need to click the button that says "run." From here you just follow the on screen instructions for selecting a language, agreeing to the End-User License, and clicking "next" as you go through each screen. There's no need to change any of the options during this process as the program will automatically install itself in the standard location. When you get to the screen with the check box titled "Run SpybotSD.exe" simply hit the finish button.

When this program opens, follow the onscreen instructions and BE SURE TO CREATE A BACKUP OF YOUR REGISTRY. Click next through the next series of screens until you get to step 7 of 7 where you want to click the button "start using the program." From here simply click "check for problems" and hit "ok" when asked if you would like to delete temporary files. This scanning process can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on the speed of your computer and its resources.

After the scanning is complete, be sure that all the spyware that is found is selected and click the button entitled "Fix Selected Problems." If after this process is completed, the program tells you that some items could not be removed, be sure to follow the on-screen instructions and allow Spybot to run again the next time you boot up your computer.

Booting into Safe Mode

After completing these few easy steps and running these two programs, your computer should be running close to as well as it was when you originally bought it. If these methods are unable to resolve all of your problems there is one more process to try before giving up. Actually, I would recommend going through this process regardless of the level of success achieved using the previous two programs.

You need to boot your computer into safe mode. Restart your computer as you normally would, except as soon as the computer begins to boot back up, immediately begin to tap the F8 key repeatedly until your computer takes you to a screen with a variety of options including Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Safe Mode with Command Prompt, Last Known Good Configuration and Start Windows Normally. Be sure to select "SAFE MODE." Once in safe mode select "OK" when Windows informs you that your are currently working in safe mode. Run each of these programs again in the exact same way as before just to make sure that all of your problems have been corrected. After they are completed, restart your computer as normal.

That my friends should successfully remove any but the most viscous of all spyware and malware on your computer. Now you can finally get back to using your computer in the efficient manner that it was intended to function.

Happy Computing!!