Another Day With My PC

It’s difficult having an obsessive-compulsive disorder. People who have this tend to repeat things needlessly or be overly cautious about something. One of the things that you’ll immediately notice in a person who has this is his penchant to always clean things. Now imagine what suspicious looking pop ups or notices could do to that person.

It’s not only obsessive-compulsive or OC persons who always feel the need to meticulously check his computer for unwanted applications. I won’t be surprised if you run your antivirus or registry cleaner once or twice daily, especially if your PC’s hard drive practically holds everything that is dear to you.

Already Taken Cared Of

Although I’m quite particular about PC cleanliness, both in and out, I don’t feel the compulsion of having to scan through my whole system everyday for viruses. For one thing, antivirus programs already do this, albeit silently in the background. Every activity in your computer is already being monitored by your security suite. You’ll most likely be prompted if the software detects any attempt to change the entries in your Windows registry or modify your other system files.

Don’t get me wrong, though. I’m not saying that you don’t need to get directly involved in keeping your PC safe from unwanted software. All I’m saying is that you don’t need to get jumpy everytime something suspicious transpires in your computer.

Good and Bad Bacteria

Not all pop ups are caused by spyware. Although pop ups are the necessary consequence of spyware or adware infection, this is not always the case. There are some who come from legitimate applications or Web sites. It may be that the manufacturer of your operating system or other program is reminding you to update or renew its license. Reminders are often in the form of pop ups, especially if they’re urgent.

Before you press the panic button, carefully scrutinize the pop up first. Check if it’s a notice for an update. If it is, then see if you really have the software that is stated in the message. If you have that program installed, then the pop up is a legitimate notice. You don’t need to run an antivirus for that as it will most likely go away after a few appearances.

The Sign

If the notice or pop ups get too annoying for comfort, such as when it appears every minute or every hour without telling you what to do, then chances are is that your PC is infected with a spyware or adware. This is especially true of the pop up is advertising something. In this case, you’d better run a full system scan.

While PC users need to be very careful and vigilant against malicious programs, they need not be too OC about it. Running an antivirus to check on every pop up is overkill, especially if the notice is not persistent or appears to be coming from a legitimate source. Check the pop up first. A minute of scrutiny could save you from hours of needless scanning.

Do you ever wonder why your hard drive sometimes spins like crazy even if you’re not doing anything with your computer? Halloween is still 9 months away so don’t suspect that this is another ghost story. However, the reason behind that mindless spinning can be equally terrifying.

We all know that malware usually works behind the scenes. No self-respecting virus author would expose his work to any third-rate anti-virus software. So in order to increase the life span of his creation, he would develop it in such a way that it could run without being noticed.

Fortunately, no bad deed goes unnoticed. There are many ways by which you could detect the presence of unwanted applications without resorting to a laborious full-system scan.

If your hard drive is working overtime without you demanding anything from it, then chances are is that it’s working for somebody or something else. A virus or a malicious code may have been inserted in your registry which instructs your system to do needless loops, or worse, perform destructive functions.

Be very observant when you’re using your PC. If it slows down, try rebooting. If it still runs at a laggard pace, then run your anti-virus and check if your system is clean.

• Jan 6 : Close All Apps Before Running a Registry Scan
• Jan 3 : Ways to Rid Your Hard Drive of Malware
• Jan 2 : A-DATA Releases XPG Dual SSD RAID Enclosure
• Dec 30 : Is it Wise to Download and Use Free Software?
• Dec 29 : Acer Unleashes Quad-core w/ Blu-ray Aspire 8930G Laptop