How to Stop Spyware from Infecting your System Written by Ray Bonneau
Spyware is becoming more and more of a problem. When I visit a cusomters site and inspect computers I always find some kind of spyware on system. I know that many people have been unaware of spyware, but hopefully now that word is spreading that people will be more aware of problem and setup a good defense. I get a get calls or questions to effect of "Why is my computer running so slow? I just bought computer recently". Most of time this is because of spyware. Spyware programs will load on boot up and take up your computer memory that will reduce your performance. I will go over my typical setup to prevent and battle spyware. This system works if all of current spyware has been removed properly. I will leave that to another article.Spyware is loaded on a computer over Internet without user knowing. It is loaded in background through holes in a user's computer setup. Internet Explorer has been very vulnerable to spyware and is a major reason why so many people are getting infected. Spyware ranges from more benign programs to more extreme programs that will hijack your browser's startup page or cause pop ups to occur relentlessly. The following is defense system that I use, and I strongly suggest that you use. 1. Download and install all of latest updates to your software. Once a week you should be checking for software updates to install. This will help protect you against latest threats. 2. Use a firewall. Many people have a direct connection Internet and do not setup and run a personal firewall. This can potentially be very dangerous. Firewalls should be running for protection against many potential problems including hackers, spyware, and data protection. Windows XP has a built in firewall. Make sure you have updated your system to Service Pack 2 (SP2) if you have Windows XP. Microsoft has added many security features and fixed bugs in this update and should be updated as soon as possible. Sygate Personal Firewall is a free personal edition firewall that works pretty well. You can download it at http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm 3. Install and run Spybot Search & Destroy. Spybot is a great spyware detection and removal tool. This is a free tool that should be run often to make sure spyware has not been loaded onto your system. Every time that Spybot is used make sure that all of latest updates are downloaded first. Updating to latest Spybot files will allow detection and removal of latest spyware programs. You can download Spybot at http://www.safer-networking.org.
| | Working With the RegistryWritten by Stephen Bucaro
---------------------------------------------------------- Permission is granted for below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and byline, copyright, and resource box below is included. ----------------------------------------------------------Working With Registry By Stephen Bucaro The Registry is central database for everything about your computer. It stores configuration information about operating system, hardware, software, and types of files on computer. The registry database consists of "keys" and "values". A key is a "place" to store a value. A key may store many values, or it may have subkeys, each which store values. The Windows 2000 registry has five top level keys as listed below. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEHardware configurations HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIGOperating system settings HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTFiles types and software objects HKEY_USERSAll users configurations HKEY_CURRENT_USERCurrently logged in user configurations The Registry is normally modified through Administrative or Control Panel utilities, but it is possible to edit Registry directly. Making an incorrect modification to Registry can cause your computer to fail to start, so it's wise to backup Registry before making any changes. To backup registry, you can export it to an ASCII file with .reg extension. You can export Whole Registry or just a branch of Registry. First select or create a folder where you would like to save exported registry. To export Registry, open Registry Editor program by selecting Start | Run and typing regedit in Run dialog box. In Registry Editor programs "Registry" menu, select "Export Registry File..." In The "Export Registry File" dialog box, navigate to folder where you would like to save exported registry. Then enter a name for exported registry file (for example reg_date). Make sure "Save as type:" drop down list has "Registration Files" selected. This will automatically add .reg extension to file. In "Export Range" section, set "All" radio button. Then click on "Save" button.
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