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I need some tips on using Windows XP

“My Computers broken”…the phrase every IT/IS support person loves to hear. Well, usually, its because you have “broken” it. Yup. It didnt “break” itself because it didnt like you, it has “broken” because you “broke” it. If you are concered you have programs running which may be dangerous or you may think are “spyware/ adware/ malware/ virii/ worm/ trojans” etc, then you can use the following tips to try and remove it/them.

Keep it clean

The less applications you have installed and running in the background - the faster your machine will run. Its simple. If you have 35 processes running in the background (average home users PC), that is 35 things kept in memory that (might be) occasionally using CPU time. You also reduce the risk of one of those processes being dodgy.

If you had, say, 20 processes running (fairly clean install with Windows XP Pro & SP2) - you have nearly halved the amount of applications running and you will no doubt improve the overall performance of your machine. Keep it clean - the leaner the machine, the meaner the machine!

Remember

Any malware or virus you think you may have is a program at the end of the day. Programs can be removed. I admit - some of these programs are very clever, but in the end they can only hide. All you have to do is find them.

Quick tools built into Windows XP

• Start> Run> type “msconfig”> Startup tab - very useful utility to select which programs run when you boot into Windows
• Start> Run> type “regedit” - Edit registry keys
• Start> Run> type “services.msc” - Select which services run at startup
• System tray> Right click> Task manager - view and/or kill running processes

The easiest way i have found is to use the “msconfig” utility to see what programs are running when you boot into Windows. Simply write down the name of the applications that are listed, tap them into Google and see what comes up. If its listed as a known piece of malware, uncheck the box next to it. It wont start on boot any more.

Useful links

• Comodo Firewall - Excellent, completely free professional firewall.
• Grisoft - The link is a little hard to find, but a good free AV solution.
• ZoneLabs - Get Zonealarm for a decent, free, user friendly firewall.
• Lavasoft - AdAware is good for Ad/Spy/Malware removal and is free.