There can be one process for a home computer that can be guaranteed. As some stage you will have a problem with the computer. The first thing to do is NOT panic. With some basic and useful tools, once can assess what is going on with the computer and how to alleviate and remove the nature of the problem to get your computer back on its feet.
Usually, for most of us technicians, when we are in front of a clients computer, we are looking for problems and we need to find them fast. With the right tools, we can usually find out in about ten minutes what the problem is.
Now having said that, this is a guide only, sometimes problems are obvious to us, sometimes they involve deeper research involving a longer time to resolve.
Here are some diagnostic tools I carry inside a Memory Stick that is handy to have with me so I can plug in into a computer and start using my tools.
Anti - Virus and Anti - Spyware
A trio of tools here, these three are the first to put onto a computer if they are not there already. Spybot is great for finding alot of Trojans, Internet browser Toolbars, Hijackers. Adaware is complementary in use with Spybot and is great for Deep scans of files for nasties, removal of registry entries left over by removal of nasties. AVG is one of the most popular free Virus removal programs at the moment, whilst not as broad as a paid for Antivirus program, it still does a very good job.
Spybot Search and Destroy
Adaware Free Edition
AVG Free Edition
Clean and Removal Tools
After removing nasties, you will end up with left over short cuts, broken files lurking in different places and incomplete registry entries. Here I use a couple of tools to to help clean up the garbage left over. CCleaner is a great tool for removing temporary files, Internet cache, cookies, Internet history and also has a great Registry removal tool. One word of caution though, it is a very powerful program and you can easily go overboard and remove too much. The Windows Installer Cleanup tool is a useful tool for cleaning up a program that was either installed incorrectly or for some reason the uninstall information is missing and you can not remove it via add/remove programs. The MSI tool will only list and remove those programs that were installed using the Windows Installer and is also not recommended for removing Office 2007.
ccleaner
MSI removal tool found just under the MORE INFORMATION heading
More Specific Programs To Remove Targeted Nasties
There are on occasion a particularly new nasty that will appear from time to time that can initially be removed using traditional removal tools will re-appear after restarting a computer. Some of these are self - replicating trojans, Web page Hijackers, Cool Web Toolbars and Root kits.
Some trojans have so many files lying around that when they are removed they create instructions to self replicate when a computer is rebooted. Hijack this is a useful tool to help find and remove these start up entries. This also goes hand in hand with manual removal of some of these nasties. Please be extremely careful using Hijack This, it is an extremely powerful tool and used incorrectly can stop your computer from even starting up.
Web page Hijackers are items that appear when they create a new homepage when you start your Internet browser, when you attempt to navigate away from that page after a few seconds it will reload the new homepage. Also these nasties may 'hijack' your desktop wallpaper with a message saying you have been infected with spyware. Third, you may see down the bottom right a windows message in a continual pop up claiming windows has detected spyware. The message will read you need to click the message to download software to remove the nasties. All this does is make a connection over the internet and attempt to obtain more spyware to download to your computer. Again manual removal and used in conjunction with Hijack This can alleviate the issue.
Coolwebs are another form of Trojan that install themselves into your Internet browser without your permission. CWShredder is a one click tool to remove these types of trojans.
Rootkits are highly targeted files that install and integrate themselves into the system base of Windows. These are extremely difficult items to remove as they integrate themselves into specific core files and become a part of Windows and on occasion, the only way to remove them is a complete system restore. Rootkit removal tools are like Hijack this, be extremely careful in their use otherwise you may stop your computer from functioning normally. I will not list any specific root kits here, as research is required to obtain the right removal tool for the right rootkit.
Hijack This
CWShredder
One can use Google or Yahoo and various Anti-virus company websites for information on rootkits and their removal.
Driver Updates
Drivers are the software on your computer that exchange information and controls for your hardware to be interpreted for use on Windows. So essentially its the go-between for information exchange between various hardware and Windows.
Sisoft SANDRA is a great diagnostic tool for finding out key information on specific hardware inside the computer. This tool I have found to be useful when an older computer is lacking a specific driver and I do not have any other information (like motherboard manuals) to tell me what specific driver is required for that particular hardware. If the incorrect driver is installed for the wrong hardware, the hardware will just simply not be able to work and function normally.
Sisoft SANDRA
So there we have a group of tools that can assist in diagnosing general and specifically targeted issues and ways to help resolve them.
No comments:
Post a Comment