Education
Free Stuff
Do you realize nothing on the Internet is truly free? Some sites provide useful information, but in order to do so they must sell space to advertisers. But the sites that advertise something for nothing, free screensavers, free mouse cursors, or wallpapers, these are the sites most likely to infect your computer with spyware. A search of items like free ringtones or free games pay good money to get their sites listed at the top of search engine results so they can steal as many identities as possible. There are some tools you can use to remove check and remove spyware if you think you have been infected.
Malwarebytes.org
Malwarebytes is free software that can help you remove spyware once you are infected. The reason Malwarebytes is free is because they have a version that is paid for that will stop spyware from installing, much the same way antivirus software stops viruses from installing on your computer. Malwarebytes is easy to use and does a good job of removing spyware.
Download Malwarebytes version 1.50.1.1100
Combofix
Combofix also does a good job of removing spyware. Combofix is harder to use, and also has an "evil twin" that pretends to be Combofix but is actually spyware. Never download Combofix from anywhere but www.bleepingcomputer.com. Please read the usage guide before deciding whether or not to use Combofix.
Blue Screens of Death
A Windows stop error known as the Blue Screen of Death is usually indicative of 2 things, either a hardware error or a hard drive error. Before any other action is taken, try this measure first. If you have your original Windows installation disk, boot your computer to that disk. Somewhere during this process, you should get an option to run a Windows repair, known as the Recovery Console. From the Recovery Console, you can run what is known as CHKDSK, a hard drive error checking tool. Logon to the Recovery Console using the Administrator password, then run CHKDSK /F or CHKDSK /R at the prompt - you will have to type the command, case does not matter but you have to make sure to use the forward slash (/) and not the backslash (\) before the F or R. This will not always cure a BSOD, but if it does fix the error you will be glad you tried this before spending money on new hardware, or having a technician charge you to back up your files, reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows and all of your programs, then restore the data.
