BOOT TO SAFE MODE
Most computers will boot to save mode by pressing F8 when Windows starts to load. When the advanced menu appears you will have choices of how to boot your computer. Choose “Safe Mode.” Allow your computer to boot in Safe Mode, and if you have purchased Norton or McAfee insert their software disk then hit enter. At this point the menu should give choices, choose install the software. Even though you are booting in Safe Mode you will still be given choices so choose to register your software. When the software has been installed, run a scan of your computer to find hidden viruses. As I explained in the earlier blog, you will not be able to access the internet at this time; however, when you reboot later you will be able to complete the registration and download all updates for your anti-virus software. Complete the updates and rerun the software searching for more viruses hidden in your computer.
When the software completes its scan it should display a window showing any unwanted programs it has found. Sometimes there will be programs you purposely downloaded and may want to keep, but your anti-virus program recognizes the program as potentially dangerous. My choice would be to delete the program. In most cases your software will be better informed than you. My wife and I personally have a website we visit but every time we go to that site it has a pop under for Netflix. To eliminate this problem I downloaded Mozilla Firefox browser and then downloaded an add-on to the program. Now we are no longer bothered with this pop under. The web site is a very popular news station.
Sometimes your anti-virus software may not be able to remove a virus program or it may leave portions behind. When this happens it may leave a message on your screen about some type of error. Unless you are a power user this can be hard to repair or remove. In this case you will have to click on the start button and depending on your operating system get into “msconfig” and into the registry. I am not going to explain this because my blog is not intended for power users. If you are a power user you will already know where to go from here. I don’t want to take a chance on you messing up your computer by changing things when you do not know how. You should also run disk cleanup to delete temporary internet files. When finished, don’t forget to empty the recycle bin.
I am going to insert one location for power users. Be sure you really know what you are doing before using this web but if you are a true power user it can be very useful. The site is: www.sysinternals.com. This site will display your registry locations. If you have deleted viruses and parts of the programs have been left in the registry, this site will show you where they are. I will caution you again to not use this program unless you are a power user because when you start removing things from the registry you can end with a computer that will not work or boot.
