Mary Harboe
04.02.08

Computer Woe Saga

  1. Computer down to a crawl.  Think there is something running in background i.e. spy war. Took a minute to open a program, not exaggerating, and could barely type.
  2. Ran all security scans i.e. AVG, Spybot search and destroy, ad-aware, spyware doctor ,no success 
  3. Day 2 – Still same problem could not work on Computer at all. Seems all the memory was being used by another application.
  4. Called IT fellow, out of town until Monday (today is Tuesday)
  5. Called IT repair centre, back up queue for a week can’t take it until following Monday.
  6. I then went and bought an external hard drive. 380 gbs. for 70 euros, backed up my entire my documents and all my email folders .  click HERE to see info explaining how to backup Outlook Express Files.
  7. Used Kaspersky.  www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner  An anti virus program that does one of the deepest scans around. (Takes time) Found 16 viruses plus 59 infected objects.  Thought then I would download the free trial of Kaspersky to clean out the problems. While downloading it said I had to disable Spyware Doctor, which I proceeded to do.  Then as I continued it also said I had to disable AVG (of course you can’t have two anti virus programs running simultaneously but you can have more than one anti spy ware, it is recommended to have more than one.)
  8. After disabling Spyware Doctor my computer went back to normal!! It was perfect!!  My conclusion, since I have clients using Spyware Doctor which is recommended by Google and they are not having problems, I can only think that there was a corrupted file within the program that was causing the problem, and consuming nearly all the memory or there was a conflict between AVG my anti virus program and Spyware Doctor.        

  
As with any problem we must come away with what was learned.  Most important have your computer backed up!!!  There will eventually be a problem with the hard drive, either by malware or just by use and age.  A hard drive will not last forever!  It is a mechanical device that not can but will have problems just like a car. 

Have enough protection in your computer i.e. two or three anti-spyware programs and of course ONE antivirus program. But they are not working to their potential unless you update them regularly.  Some have automatic updating.

Suggested sites:

Kaspersky Antivirus: www.kaspersky.com   free deep scan of hard drive.
Kaspersky highest rated anti virus program

Windows Defender:  Anti malware free from Microsoft. You must have a Genuine Copy of the Microsoft Operating System. 
www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

Spyware Terminator:  http://www.spywareterminator.com/download/download.aspx  

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Spyware Terminator is a full-feature adware and spyware scanner with real-time protection that can remove or quarantine spyware, adware, Trojans, keyloggers, home page hijackers and other malware threats. The scan behavior can be customized based on your level of experience, ranging from automatic interception to complete user control over how to handle any potential threats. Spyware Terminator offers manual and scheduled scans as well as real-time protection for your browser settings, HOSTS file, startup entries and other system areas. The program can optionally use ClamAV for additional virus protection. Other features include a file analysis tool, system restore, Locked File Removal, integrated spyware reporting, automatic updates and more.