Tuesday, February 17, 2009

AntiVirus 2009 or 360

Several people I know have had a version of the SpyWare "AntiVirus" on their computer. The two main types that I have encountered lately is "AntiVirus 2009" and "AntiVirus 360."

While several websites have methods to remove this program from your computer, there are some manual instructions also out there on how to do it. This website, http://www.xp-vista.com/spyware-removal/antivirus-360-antivirus360-removal-instructions, is one that I found that I was pretty impressed with the information on the page that I wanted.

Notice how the website encouraged you to download and install a piece of software in order to fully remove the program? However in addition to this, the website also gave manual instructions on uninstalling the software. I would recommend that you follow the manual instructions. Usually those will do the trick. If they don't, I would personally recommend trying the following three free programs instead of downloading their product. All of the programs are free to home users, and the combination of the three work remarkably well.

Windows Defender - Yes I know that it's a windows product but in my experience it works pretty good.
SpyBot Search & Destroy - will ask you to donate money, but you don't have to if you don't want to. Haven't used this too much, but know from other people that it's a quality product.
Ad-Aware - also has versions that you can purchase but the free home version is good enough for me, so it should be good enough for you.

These three programs are also good to keep on your computer and run from time to time. You mind find that you have other malicious software/files on your computer that need to be cleaned off.

Finally before you call the computer clean, I would strongly recommend that you run a virus scan on your computer. Better safe than sorry in my opinion.

Hope this helps keep your computer clean, safe, and free from malicious software/files.