PC Running Slow? Get Rid of and Block Malicious Software NOW!

Over half the computers I am given from the staff where I work to look at are running slow and that is their only complaint. I work for a health care company with just over 100 employees and have offered to fix staff PC's, for free, as a benefit of working for the practice. I hate to see PC's thrown away because it will cost more to fix than just either a reformat or tweak to get the PC better again.

Especially in the last 2 or 3 years more and more PCs come in with slow down problems, pop ups or Virus checkers just relentlessly indicating there is a virus or spyware detected. I have researched and tried all sorts of software and methods of cleaning the registry etc... to get rid of what I have read coined as MALWARE, Malicious Software. For example you may have seen a pop up in Windows XP that states you have spyware click here to get software to clean it? I have researched cleaning this Malware out, and many other variants, and come across a two-fold approach the staff here in my office have told me works and I wish I could tell the whole world about.

1st go to the web site that posts a file called the Hosts file that, as they put it, "blocks unwanted parasites", from your PC. The concept behind this is that when a web site that does download malware is discovered the folks at mvps.org update a file which you can download periodically, for free, to your PC. This Hosts file, leftover from the early days of the internet, gets in between the request and your PC so that when your PC's browser, Internet Explorer/Firefox, goes to one of these sites, it will not come up. The Hosts file redirects the request to an address on the your local PC, the browser does not find anything and will not load the 'bad' page, therefor not letting you download the malware in the first place. Associated Content. URL: (http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm). There are instructions on their web site for downloading and placing the file in the appropriate folder, replacing the old empty file that is there. I have found this method to be a sure one to not only block malware but to stop most malicious popups altogether.

2nd if you have already have a problem with, for example, a system tray balloon message or a slow PC, there is a great on-line scanning web site that will delete all traces of these malware installations on your PC for free. Also, if you do not have any virus protection these folks also offer a free version of their virus protection. ALso, by default , they will force you to download an updated virus pattern as new PC viruses are coming out every day as well as new Malware schemes. When you go to this web site, Associated Content. URL: (http://www.ewido.com), click the Scan button on the left side. It takes some time but will scan your PC, click Remove Infections button when it is finished scanning and reboot your PC right away. I have cured many unwanted system tray balloons (system tray in Windows XP in where your clock is in bottom right of screen normally), and it always finds other malware to remove. Happy Malware cleanup!

Florida Fred