So many of my clients think that because they have antivirus protection, that they are protected against spyware. This is so far from the case I can’t even tell you about the horror stories I have seen in the past few months.
The truth is that standard Antivirus programs often fail to prevent spyware from being installed on your computer. Worse yet, I’ve been reading reports that some free antivirus software is actually being packaged WITH spyware when you install them!
Emsisoft Antimalware DOES protect against Spyware and other potentially unwanted programs. It’s a great place to start for protecting your PC, but it’s even better to avoid situations where Spyware can come into contact with your system to begin with.
I recommend that you learn how to not get the spyware in the first place. Here are a few tips I took off Microsoft’s site and will add my own on…
- The best defence against spyware and other unwanted software is to not download it in the first place. Here are a few helpful tips that can protect you from downloading software you don’t want:
- Only download programs from Web sites you trust. If you’re not sure whether to trust a program you are considering downloading, ask a knowledgeable friend or enter the name of the program into your favourite search engine to see if anyone else has reported that it contains spyware.
- Read all security warnings, license agreements, and privacy statements associated with any software you download.
- Never click “agree” or “OK” to close a window. Instead, click the red “x” in the corner of the window or press the Alt + F4 buttons on your keyboard to close a window.
- Be wary of popular “free” music and movie file-sharing programs, and be sure you clearly understand all of the software packaged with those programs.
- If you get a pop-up window that is asking you to pay for removal of spyware and tells you that you have spyware…that is spyware! If you get that window, I would do the Alt+F4 and restart your computer. That is the easiest way to avoid having to touch that window. For the more experienced users, go to task manager and stop all the internet browser windows running. That will close that window too.
- It would be wise to go over these guidelines with your children or anyone else that has access to your PC.
- Whenever possible use a standard user account instead of an Administrator Account.
Remember to consider calling Y-Not Tech Services if you notice your computer is running slow…more than likely it needs a computer cleaning/spyware clean up and we will get it blazing fast again! Book an appointment to get up to speed:
