If you just “want” to spend money, buy some Distilled water, Isopropyl 99% Alcohol and a microfiber cloth.  You may want to just look around the house.  You probably already have what you need lying around somewhere.

Microfiber clothes are often included with eye glass repair or cleaning kits.  Or look in your automotive section for a microfiber cloth or two.  Just make sure it is as clean as possible.  Any rough or rigid protrusion will scratch your LCD screen.

To clean your LCD, first use just the microfiber cloth to lightly remove all the dust and particles from the screen.  Normally the cloth alone will not remove the smudges and smears.  But you want to remove as much as the “large dust” from the screen as possible.

Next, combine equal parts of your distilled water and alcohol together to create a cleaning solution.  Use only a very small amount on your cloth.  Do NOT spray your LCD screen directly.  Your cloth should be slightly less than damp.

Clean with small circular motions and light touch to the screen.  You can apply slightly more force to the difficult areas, but it is important to keep your touch as light as possible to complete the job.

You can finish by cleaning the outside casing.  You can apply extra force on the outside case along with more solutions than you used for the screen itself.  But you should not spray any liquid on any part of the monitor.

Monitor should be off and unplugged
Lay the monitor down on a hard flat surface
Apply a very small amount of cleaning solution (less than damp)
Use small circular motions during cleaning
Apply light pressure, only increasing slightly for difficult areas

NEVER SPRAY OR DOWSE LIQUID ON YOUR LCD

Every process in your computer takes a fraction of time. The more processes it has to do, the more the time adds up. If your computer is not cleaned of all the extra junk and little demons that run around, it will soon start to slow down. There are many ways that extra software gets into your computer, but most of them are a result of your everyday use.

Let’s get some ideas on what to avoid.

1. Toolbars

Probably one of the primary uses on the computer is internet or internet based solutions. Whether it be a Google or Yahoo search, a cloud based documents share, or intranet portal. You face some of the same issues. Google has a toolbar, Yahoo has one, MSN, Dogpile, Ask, Ebay, MapQuest… I could list for days the toolbars out there. And if there is not one out there already, there are just as many ways to create your own custom toolbars. We will not even touch on the junkware toolbars lurking around to turn your day into a nightmare. If you have ever been on the internet, chances are you have been tempted to install a toolbar. The idea is simple: save time, save effort, quick and easy, save money.

Don’t do it! Or more yet, ask yourself a few questions before you actually install it. Do you really need that toolbar? Is it really going to save you time? You have been doing without it this long, why do you need it now. Do you have other toolbars already? If you are going to use another toolbar, will it replace one you already use?

Most people that I deal with, never use their toolbars. They don’t need them. They only take up space on the browser and add just one more round of ticks on the clock during processing time. There are good uses for specific toolbars, but that is an entirely different topic. Unless you really see a true benefit, avoid the toolbars.

2. Registry Cleaners

It has to be going through your mind right now. Hey, to keep my computer clean I need to clean the registry. Everyone tells me that.

And that is true. Everyone does tell you that. But it is not necessarily the best solution to have multiple registry cleaners. Some may even argue that is not a good idea to have any. My question to you is this. Do you really need a registry cleaner running all day, every day, taking up process time? For what? If you are going to use a registry cleaner, it certainly does not have to run all the time. Pick one, run it occasionally. Avoid the blot of multiple cleaners and full time registry scanners.

3. Messengers

Do you really have that many people that use messaging services that you just have to have every service out there? IMs are almost as abundant as toolbars. Yahoo, AOL, MSN, whoever, all have messengers and all want to run in your tray, even when you do not have them on. (Thanks Microsoft) I don’t need your chat software running non stop. Just another piece of junkware most of the time. If you use IM, pick one. Stick to it. Many allow you to chat with other users on other services. So you don’t have to have multiple IM programs running all the time, even if you chat on them all.

Also check the preferences, options and tools sections in the IM software. See if you can remove them from starting up automatically. Have a shortcut on your desktop. Run it when you need it. If you must have one, only use one messenger and avoid running it in the system tray when it is not in use.

4. Streaming Audio/Video

Okay. If you are the only person in your office, or your house, you pay the bills–use it all you want. If not, if you are in an office environment with several users. Use your MP3 player of choice. Connect to a power source (not your office computer.) You can get MP3 docking stations for cheap. They allow you to listen to your music without streaming it over the company internet. Remember, every process takes a little time. Many processes take much more time. Avoid streaming non work related media to your company workstation.

There are several people that will tell you that the free antivirus programs are not as good as the paid versions. That is just another opinion and it is up to you to decide the answer to that question.

The best protection again viruses is education, know what to look for. Educate your employees on how to prevent infections from fakes, don’t download unknown software. If in doubt–ask. If you don’t have an education program in place, contact me.

One of the most popular free antivirus for Windows right now is Microsoft Security Essentials which you can get at www.microsoft.com/security_essentials. It is good (and free) for home users or small business clients up to 10 users. If you have more than 10 users, Microsoft wants you to look into their paid Frontline Endpoint Protection. But as far as free, Security Essentials is about as good as you can get for Windows. Their only requirement is your Windows must pass Validation.

Another free antivirus is ClamWin. ClamWin is open source software. Unlike most antivirus software, ClamWin does not have an Active Real-Time scanning engine. You must run it manually. I would not normally recommend this for your average, every day user. I would however recommend it for more advanced users or as a manual scan option. Combining Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) and ClamWin can add to your protection. MSE has the active engine running. ClamWin can manually be ran on a time schedule.

AVG Free version is a fairly well known free version software. It is a scaled down version of their full product. The definitions are limited in the free version as are the features. It is meant to be a very basic antivirus with limited protection. If you plan to use AVG Free, I would recommend a second malware application as well to cover the limitations. You could use the free on-access scanning for AVG and a manual ClamWin scan on a schedule to better protect yourself.

My last suggestion would be Comodo Antivirus. I do not know much about Comodo other than they have a free version of their software available. It appears to be, in much that same what as AVG, a scaled-down version of their original. As with AVG I would suggest a secondary protection software as well.

Again, there are hundreds of antivirus products on the market promising to keep your computer safe. If you are going to use these products and spend sometimes hundreds of dollars to protect your computers, do your research. There may be free options out there that are just as useful. Often the investment in money that you save requires an investment in time. Since Time Is Money, you may want to weigh your options.

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If you are a home user or a small business with up to 10 users, you may want to look at using the free Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus found at http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials. It is free. You must be running genuine Microsoft products. You probably want to take a look at the user agreement here also. It basically says the same as all others. You agree to the terms, not to misuse or make money off their free product. If your business has more than 10 users, you will have to look for a paid product.

Before we get started, remember you should always backup prior to any changes to your system. This is in additional to the normal everyday backups that you do. Make a backup now, before you start doing anything else. If you want to know more about backups read more at How Important Is Your Data.

If you are looking for a quick way to backup your data before you continue, visit Idrive and sign up free for online backups.

Now that you have a good feeling about your backup situation, you will need to download Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) from the Microsoft site at http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials. Save it to your desktop so it will be easy to find later.

Perhaps before your are completely finished with the MSE download you could start making a list of the programs that you will need to uninstalling before you can finish installing MSE. First you will want to uninstall any antivirus that may already be installed. Having two antivirus running real time scans together can cause a real mess and slow your system to a crawl. Second you will want to uninstall any firewall or malware product that is installed. Basically anything that it appears MSE will replace needs to be uninstalled before you install MSE.

Now you can start uninstalling your antivirus and malware software. If you get to the point that you must restart your computer, make sure that the download for MSE has completed and you know where to find it. Then restart your computer and finish any needed uninstall instructions. For more information on uninstalling your unneeded antivirus software see Uninstall Unwanted Antivirus.

After all your previous antivirus and malware software has been removed, you are ready to install MSE. The install is fairly straight forward.

1. Run the setup that you downloaded and saved on your desktop earlier
2. Click Next at the Welcome Screen
3. Read the License Agreement, Check the Agree Box, and Click Validate
4. Click Install
5. Click Finish (let it scan the first time)

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There are so many antivirus and other malware software applications out there it is near to impossible to keep up with them all. Many if not all have removal tools to use in case their normal uninstall process fails.

Here are a couple of links with some instructions to get started on uninstalling your antivirus.

Comprehensive List of Uninstallers or Removal Tools for Antivirus Software

and

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/forum/protect_start/list-of-anti-malware-program-cleanupuninstall

both links are getting a little aged, so take a look. If you have trouble getting specific uninstalls to function, let me know and I will try to do a write up specifically for it.

As you may have seen several times many antivirus packages out there love to install, but hate to uninstall themselves. There are some very big ones other there that almost always fail to uninstall completely. Many of them have created their own little uninstall utility program to finish the job. But you have to wonder, if their software uninstall option did not work, how can I trust their uninstall utility to succeed?

Here is the solution. One app to kill them all. AppRemover by OPSWAT is an utility that will remove all of your most common (and some not so command) antivirus, antispyware, and several other security packages. Download it at AppRemover, it is free for personal and non-commercial use.

AppRemover is a well formed utility. It does not require an installer (which is great). Running the remover simply asks if you want to uninstall a security package or clean up a failed uninstall. You select what you would like to do and let it scan. After it finishes the scan, click next and select what you would like to remove.

At well over 100+ applications that it can removed, I will not attempt to list them all. But here are a few that I have seen that could be very useful: Avast, AVG, Avira, CA, Eset, F-Secure, GData, Kaspersky, Lavasoft, McAfee, MSE, Norton, Panda, PC Tools, Trend Micro, and 100+ more.

The little images that you sometimes see associated with websites are called favicons or favorite icons. They are the icons displayed on the top address bar, on the browser tabs, or on favorite or bookmark list. If you want to create your own favicon go to favicon.cc to build one of your own. There are also several that have already been created and published on the site under the Creative Commons license.

While it is true that you will need software on your computer to help you keep it clean, it is still ultimately a process of understanding that will help the most. Because adding more software does not help your computer, unless it is the right software and properly used. There are just as many ways to clean up a computer as there are software to use. This is only one way.

DISCLAIMER: JUST TO BE CLEAR, SOME ACTIONS HERE CAN MAKE YOUR COMPUTER WORSE NOT BETTER. I MAKE A LOT OF ASSUMPTIONS AS POINTED OUT IN THE ARTICAL. IF YOU REALLY NEED IT CLEANED UP FAST–GO TO YOUR LOCAL COMPUTER REPAIR SHOP. AND ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR DATA.

Now, that you are ready to start. Stop. Back up your data. If you already have a backup, that is okay. Back it up again. Any time you start cleaning your system with free third party tools, you take a chance that something will go wrong.

So you feel safe to continue with how to clean your computer. You have your backups all ready just in case. It is usually a good idea to have your tools gathered together. If you are infected with a virus, it is best to stay off the internet as much as possible. So grab a clean USB drive (DO NOT USE A DRIVE WITH IMPORTANT DATA.. WE WILL BE PLACING IT IN THE INFECTED MACHINE). Go to another computer and download some tools.

Depending on the level of infection you may need these tools to start:
Microsoft Security Essentials
Hitman Pro Trial version
Spybot
Malwarebytes
Ccleaner
Combofix

Onces you have the files on the drive. Move on over to the infected computer and we can finally get started. (Wait.. You have your backups right..Okay).

Each of the following may be possible on your computer and many may not work. If one fails, go to the next.  Then rerun whichever process did not work at the end.  There are a lot of assumptions. Your computer is Windows XP, Vista or Win 7. All the hardware is working correctly. You either have an infection or some other problem causing your computer to run slow. You have access to the internet. You may have pop ups or unwanted material or search results when surfing the internet.

Let’s go ahead and assume it will be easy. Copy all your tools from the USB drive to the desktop. Install Malwarebytes, updating the definitions when asked. If it installs without any problem, start a full scan. Scan everything including your USB Drive. This may take a while depending on your drive size.

Go head and install Ccleaner and Spybot. Get all the updates, but do not start the scans yet. If you do not have any antivirus on your computer, run the Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) install and update it as far as you can. If you have any problems such as being asked by spybot or MSE to restart the computer. Wait. Let Malwarebytes finish. May have to get coffee.

Malwarebytes is finished. If it found infections follow the instructions from Malwarebytes to clean the infections. It will most likely ask you to restart. If not, go ahead and restart anyway.  When you get back, install Hit Man Pro. Do the same for Hit Man. Let it scan, have it clean whatever it can clean. Then restart the computer.

Run Ccleaner, running the Cleaner to remove temp files.  You may also want to run a Registry Cleanup in Ccleaner at this point also.  After Ccleaner has ran go ahead start your Spybot scan.  Let it run a full scan.  Will probably take about an hour or so.  If it finds problems, let it clean them.

After restarting from Spybot start a MSE full scan.  This will take a while. Restart and rerun Malwarebytes, Spybot and Hitman Pro to make sure all is cleaned up. If there are still problems, go for ComboFix. After running Combofix, restart you computer again. Then start the process over at the top. Your computer should be all cleaned up and free of viruses now.

If not, please consult you nearest professional technician or standard teenage geek.