Cleaning Your Computer Tutorial by Wayne D

[YourFriendWayneD]

To contribute to Ptech Forum I have made a tutorial to better clean your computer without having to do the format process, which in the long run will save you headaches and learning how to do my method… But, what if you have a lot of stuff you need to save and don’t have that Maxtor external HD sitting in front of you that you can just slide your saved junk there…. So as followed Im going to write my first tutorial ever and I hope its clear.

Process One – The Cleaning Brothers

There are to spyware brothers that will work as a 1-2 punch that will in turn help you will most of your unwanted pop ups or casino ads or w/e you might be having pop up on you.

The first brothers name is “Spybot Search & Destroy” which is the left punch of your spyware troubles! As soon as you download it run an update on it to get all the definitions current! Your best bet is to do the scanning in safe mode with all the products listed because most of the process’s running will just comeback in regular windows mode! (If you have any spyware removal programs please take them off because these are probably the best and most legit ones out on the market)

(DOWNLOAD BELOW)




Click the logo or go to http://fileforum.betanews.com/sendfile/1043809773/1/spybotsd14.exe to get your copy of Spybot....

The second brothers name is "Lavasoft's Ad-Aware" which is your right punch to block out spyware, it works the same way as spybot but gets what it misses (if it does miss) You need to run an update to update the definitions and get it scanning in safe mode exactly like spybot (run these after each other, never together...)



Click the button up above to be sent to the download.com linkage system or click the url below...
http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10045910.html?part=dl-ad-aware&subj=dl&tag=top5

---So? Still got crap popping up everywhere?!? It looks like your computer is the main station for an ad service? Well don't be down because I have some secret weapons to get people back on track!

-The Daddy of Process Killing!-

The next program is my favorite in the fact it allows a user to find what processes are running on the local computer and let the user stop and delete the process so that it wont use the resources of the computer. Its name "HijackThis." Its a small application that you need to update, and once updating will be your best friend :)



Download HijackThis by click the thumbnail or going to this url
HiJackThis 1.99(exe) from here

Many people download and run HijackThis after visiting a Computer Tech Help Forum. This section is designed to help you produce a log, post the log at that Forum and finally remove the items as directed by the Member helping you. This involves no analysis of the list contents by you. That will be done by the Help Forum Staff. It is a Quick Start.



If you have run and fixed anything with Spybot Search and Destroy or AdAware, please reboot before scanning.

Also, make sure that you actually extract HijackThis to its own folder. DO NOT run it from within a zip manager (Winzip), as no backups will be saved.



You do not have to change any settings at this point.

Notice the empty section in the middle. This is where the scan results will be listed later.




Examine the two sets of buttons. To start the scan, Click the Scan button on the left.

HijackThis after the scan.

The Scan Button has a new Caption. Save Log. Click the Save Log button to create a file named Hijackthis.log. A dialog box will pop up. Use it to select the location where you will save the log. Close the program. Return to the Forum and reply to your original post. Open the Log in Notepad. Highlight the entire contents. Copy and paste the contents of the HijackThis log into your post. Wait for help.

Once you have received advice on what should be removed, reopen HijackThis. Scan again. You have changed nothing and this scan result will be the same as the first. Place a checkmark in the box in front of each item you plan to remove. In this example, there are three items marked for removal.
Click the Fix checked button. A confirmation box will appear. Click Yes. HijackThis will now remove the checked items.
The next section will cover another tool which has been integrated into HijackThis. This tool is Startuplist. Look at the Buttons on the right. Click the Config... button to go to the next Screen.

StartupList is a utility which creates a list of everything which starts up when you boot your computer plus a few other items. When run, it creates a file named StartupList.txt and immediately opens this text file in Notepad. A StartupList will not be needed with every forum posting, but if it is needed it will be asked for, so please refrain from posting one unless asked.

Clicking the Config... button on the Opening Screen takes you to the Screen shown on the left. This is the Main Page. Looking at the top, you will find four buttons. Click the Misc Tools button at the far right.



You are now at the Page shown on the right. Notice the three buttons in the middle area of the window. Click the Generate StartupList log button. A confirmation box will pop up. Click Yes.
The Startup list text file will now be generated and opened on the screen. If you are posting at a Forum, please highlight all, and then copy and paste the contents into your Reply in the same post where you originally asked your question.

Please send all logs to the special forum made for it Called HIJACK LOGZ!

::::Well if your still getting something messing up ,your best bet in that case is to reformat which sounds super hard to do but any ace out there can do it :) I have just given you the info to maybe clean or prevent in an outbreak, or just to save your butt... I hope some of this helps you in your struggle... Any further tech ?'s ill be glad to lend my help on...Thanx

:D Wayne D :D

[elboriyorker]

nice job D Great tutorial and useful...props given

[jtudor]

Nice post D...Looks good.

[UnderTaker666]

greatr tutorial never thought of it that way will try it...

[YourFriendWayneD]

it works guys :) i been doin it for like 2 years savin my butt, just gotta know what to look for...but like every so on i put my stuff on the external and then reformat and bring it back :) now thats my best solution