Protecting Your Computer for Free!
Can Defragging and using Virus Scans protect you from Malicious Malware and Spyware Infestations?

Protecting Your Computer for Free!

There is so much spyware, spybots, and unwanted pop-ups that reduce your Computer's Speed. We can keep control over these issues with the few steps listed below. Now, I realize we don't want to do these things weekly or even daily if necessary. We have enough things to do. But if you don't do these tasks below, not only will you have a very slow computer, but it might, over time, stop working completely. Malware can mess up software and hardware.

We all learn how to clean our houses. Now, we have to learn how to clean our computers. These devices give access to your most intimate life details. Please learn how to protect your family from malicious malware and infestations. I hope that I have made these ideas simple and step by step. If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment or question, so that I can reply.

This is the task of setting-up antivirus, antispybot, antiworm programs, and defragmentation. Check disk (or scan disc) and disc cleanup is performed through Windows Explorer (not Windows Internet Explorer). This will keep you free (no money and more time freed up) from going to the local hardware computer fix it person. This person will probably do the same thing we are doing here, but will not leave any of these maintenance programs installed. And of course charge you hundreds of dollars which you could have been done freely. (God gives us a voice, ask questions!)

There are numerous well documented improvements to system performance and reliability when an automated disk defragmentation program is used. Applications load faster and the computer boots to a usable state in less time. Backups require less time to transfer data. The purpose of this paper is to narrow the focus and address the tangible benefit of disk defragmentation to hardware and laptop client security. But if your program for defragmentation is not automatic, you must make settings to ensure this is done, or perform manually the operation of defragmentation.

This is a letter to help people!

Get protection for your computers for FREE!
I will go through how to get the software, how to install it and how to use it!(simple, you like?)

It is recommended that you contact these vendor's websites once per week for the latest protection updates (download and scan everyday if used heavily by an active family). These updates will download and install with only a few keystrokes from you to make it happen. We will go through these processes as well; very simple, nothing to it! But you have to do these updates otherwise your software can't do its job of protecting you and your computer. Please let it be known that some types of malware can do physical damage to you computer. I won't try to explain it here, but it is real and it happens.

Here is how to download the required software programs that are designed to keep invaders out of your computers for FREE!!!

No catches; no gimmicks; just honest people giving us honest software. They have joined the Great Give-A-Way!

Please be aware that this website, like many others, is trying to get you to buy software from them. While this is not bad, it's not why we are here; we're here for the free stuff (you're welcome to buy what ever you want). My point here is watch out for which box you click on. If you click on the wrong box, you might end up buying something you didn't start out to buy.

Description: This one site has all three downloads for your clicking pleasure:
http://www.download.com/

These programs can be installed in any order, not necessarily in the order I have presented here.

• Change Action: AVG Free is the first piece of software to download: http://free.avg.com/

-Action: Look for a box that says, “Free basic protection” and “AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition” and click on the “Get it Now” button. The AVG website will take you to another page where they offer you software to buy. At the bottom of the left column (the Free column) click on the “Download” button. They take you to another page that prompts you to “Download AVG Free 8.5.” Click on that button and they take you to yet another page; which is http://www.download.com. Click on “Download Now (47.68MB)”; the file name (at the moment) is something like "avg_free_stf_en_85_169a1359.exe.” Download will start. But wait, there's more!
Hopefully you computer will prompt you to “Save file.” See Note 1.

You want to save it to a folder where you can find it again!

Change Action:

-Action: Close all programs. Make sure you are connected to Internet access.

-Action: In Windows, they offer a “Downloads” folder under “My Documents”. You get to the “Downloads” folder by clicking on “My Documents” button and then double-clicking on “Downloads.”

-Action: Create an AVG folder and save the AVG Free software to that AVG folder.

-Action: Close all programs you are not using.

-Action: Find the downloaded program and double-click the file. It will start the installation process.

-Action: Let's use AVG Free: Double-click on the “AVG Free 8.5” icon on your desktop. When the program appears on the computer screen, it will be on the “Overview” page. This view will tell you the status of the different Components (or functions) the program handles for you.

-Action: After you do an “Update” all of the 7 components should have a green check-mark and say “Active.”
-Action: If you double-click on the “Update Manager” it will take you to a window that will allow you to set-up when and how you want your update to occur. Look carefully through this window. Make your choices about how and when you want these functions to occur.

-Action: Click the tab on the left side of the screen, “Update Now.” It will connect to the Internet (providing you're on-line) and a box will prompt you to “Update.”

-Action: Click on the button to continue. After the update has finished, a message is displayed, “Update was finished successfully.”

-Action: Next we'll click on the tab “Computer Scanner.” Click on the tab and it will give you two choices, “Scan whole computer” or “Scan specific files and folders.” The length of time required to scan the entire computer will vary from computer to computer. It could take hours and can slow down your computer during the scan. Most people will start the scan and then minimize the window to work on something else. When the scan is complete, you'll be alerted. By default, the program will do all actions to infections and warnings automatically. All you have to do is acknowledge and close the program.

• Change Action: Spybot Search and Destroy is the next program to install.

-Action: Please go to http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10122137.html You will notice that it is the same website that we used for the AVG Free, cnet.com. They are a trusted site.

-Action: Click on the “Download Now (14.38MB)” button. A box will open prompting you to save
the file. We'll do as in the previous example of saving a download file to its own folder. The
file name is “spybotsd162.exe.”

-Action: Save it to Downloads, create a new folder named “Spybot Search and Destroy.”

-Action: After the download is complete, go back to the folder and double-click on the file “spybotsd162.exe.” Follow the prompts to install.

• Change Action: The last and not the least is Spyware Blaster. Please go to
“http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/sbdownload.html” and select on of the choices to
download:
> Download SpywareBlaster 4.1 from Download.com
> Download SpywareBlaster 4.1 from MajorGeeks (USA and other locations)
> Download SpywareBlaster 4.1 through the Coral Distribution Network
Let's use the first one from Download.com since we used it for the first two program
downloads.

-Action: Click on the “Download Now (2.74MB)” button. A box will open prompting you to save
the file.

-Action: We'll do as in the previous example of saving a download file to its own folder.

-Action: The file name to download will be “spywareblastersetup42.exe.” (you have to do this ahead in Explorer again not Microsoft Internet Explorer!

-Action: Save it to Downloads, make a new folder named “SpywareBlaster.”

-Action: After the download is complete, go back to the folder and double-click on the file
“spywareblastersetup42.exe.”

-Action: Follow the prompts to install.

I will reiterate: This software is no good unless you keep up-to-date for the latest protection. These software vendors will have updates on a regular basis; so, you have to revisit to get the latest protection or set up your program to do this automatically.

Note 1: If your computer does not prompt you to save a file to a specific location you can change it under 'Tools' then 'Options' in the Firefox browser or for Microsoft Internet Explorer, under 'Tools' then 'Internet Options.'

-Action: Look for something regarding “downloads.” Select “Always ask me where to save files.”

-Action: You might also need to select “Show the Downloads window when downloading a file” and maybe deselect “Close it when all downloads are finished.”

-Action: By doing these two check boxes, you will be prompted where to save a file and also, when the download is finished, you will be prompted to “Open” the file, which will start the execution of the downloaded file and hence start the installation.

Note (added 5-15,2009): The nice folks at Safer Networking, Inc. have informed us that we need to close our Firefox browser (and some others), before performing an “Immune” function. This is important because the memory used for the web-page data on your browser can become corrupted. Therefore, before running an Immune function, be sure to close your browsers first! Google Chrome browser does not seem to be infected by this problem.

What is Defrag and Scan Disk?

1.Change Action: Description: Defragmentation – Files get stored all over the place on the hard drive. Why? I don't know. It seems to me that if you store a file on the hard drive, it would all go to one place; but this is not so. One defragmentation program I tried displayed the number of fragments of different files. It was amazing: one file had over 2000 fragments! That's nuts! In order for a file to run, the hard drive has to make many moves to get all of the parts of the program. No wonder computers start running slow! The hard drive is busy running around gathering parts of the program. We want the programs on the hard drive to be contiguous, which means, “Connecting without a break.” So, when we run the defragmentation program, it puts all of the files together so that they are contiguous. If you are very busy at the computer, is advised to run defragmentation once per week even daily if you are slowing down. If the computer is hardly touched, maybe once or twice per month. Now, let's do it!

-Action: The program is accessed by clicking on this sequence: on the front page double-click on My Computer (upper left corner or in the Start menu). Single-click on the drive desired (usually C: ). Right-click on Properties, click on the Tools tab and then select from mid-screen: Defragmentation.

-Action: Click on “Defragment Now.”

-Action: Select the C: drive and then click on Defragment.”

2. Change Action: Description: Disk Cleanup – The program is accessed by clicking on this sequence: on the front page double-click on My Computer (upper left corner or in the Start menu).

-Action: Single-click on the drive desired (usually C: ).

-Action: Right-click on Properties,

-Action: on the General tab, click on Disk Cleanup. Clicking on Disk Cleanup it will scan the hard drive for Temporary Internet Files, Recycle Bin, Temporary files and others. This scan can take a few minutes.

-Action: After the scan, you can look over what the scan found and then click OK at the bottom of the box. As you learn more about your computer, you ca look at some of the other option in Disk Cleanup.

3.Change Action: Description: Check disk (old name:Scan disk) – a program which checks and repairs file systems and bad clusters on the hard drive. It usually has two options 1) Automatically fix file system errors or 2) Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors. You access the program in the same way as the previous steps.

-Action: Disk Cleanup: except you click on the Tools tab

-Action:and then Error Checking is at the top.

-Action: Click on Check Now. On Windows XP, you will get another box for selecting “Automatically fix file system errors” and/or “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.” Usually you only need to check the “Automatically fix file system errors” and a couple of times per year, you should also check the scan and recovery of bad sectors.” On Windows 98, it will go into the routine of error-checking.

-Action: Another box pops up asking if you want to scan disk next time you turn on your computer; please click on yes.

-Action: So, the next time you turn on your computer, you will see a blue screen with white text informing you of its progress. Check disk will take only a few minutes and then will continue to bootup your computer.

Please allow me to recommend a defragmentation program that I've been using for a couple of years now. This URL will take you to JK Defrag: http://www.kessels.com/Jkdefrag/. One of the reasons I like this program is because it can be used very simply or you can read the website and learn how to get it to do more for you.

For heavy users (and this includes a computer-active family), I'm very adamant about doing defrag on a daily basis. In the long run, it will save time, reduce hard drive wear and tear, and reduce user wear and tear.

Most of us will download the first selection: "JkDefrag-3.36.zip" Put it in a folder that you can easily find.

Please take the time to read and learn what Mr. Kessels has on his web pages. Besides defragmentation, he also educates us on doing a page-file defragmentation (also known as: swap file or virtual memory space allocation). He has pictures of his family, cats, etc. He's a real person writing software for us to use for free (I love that word).

Installing the program is very simple, but if you need help, let me know, I'll help you. Right now I want to spend more time on teaching how to put it an automatic mode.

So here we go: Click Start, Control Panel, Scheduled Task.

The first item in the pane is Add Scheduled Task. Double left click on it and the Scheduled Task Wizard comes up. Read what it says and then click Next. The next window shows a list of programs for you to select from or you can find your program by clicking Browse. Find the file jkdefrag.exe, select it and click Next. The next window of the wizard should show the title of the program JkDefrag and below it offers the choice of how often to run the task, click on Daily and click Next. The next window prompts you to select what time to run the program. Select Every Day, then enter today's date or tomorrow's date and click Next. The next window requires a Administrative password, do so and click Next. The next window has a check box prompting you to enter Advanced Setttings; click to fill the check box. And click Finished. The Advanced Setttings window will appear. On the first tab Task, locate the Run box and change the value from C:\JkDefrag.exe to C:\JkDefrag.exe -a3. Be sure to enter a space between .exe and -a3. Just to be safe, click Apply. Click on the Settings tab. Click to fill the check box: Stop the task if it runs for:. Enter 2 hours and 0 minutes and click on Apply and click on OK. This keeps the defrag program from running forever if something goes wrong.

When you click on OK, another little box will prompt for your password.

Congratulations, you have created defragmentation as a scheduled task.

Website URLs are included for reference and more information.
We have different things that infest our computers:

1. Viruses – A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user. Please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus

2. Malware – any software designed to create havoc on your computer and anyone else you communicate with. Please see: http://cybercoyote.org/security/malware.shtml

2. Spybot Worm - The Spybot worm is a large family of computer worms of varying characteristics. Please see:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spybot_worm

3. rootkits - A rootkit is a computer virus which is comprised of a program (or combination of several programs) designed to take fundamental control of a computer system, without knowledge or authorization by the system's owners. Please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootkits. I have found that friendly rootkits can be installed on one's computer. Please be careful when running rootkit diagnostic programs. Look at the report carefully before deleting anything. Use your own judgment when deciding which items to be deleted from the list.

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