Image gallery: Protect a PC against spyware

We’ve created a link to the AVG Anti-Spyware download page at www.computeractive.co.uk/2171355, so type this into the Address or Location bar of your web browser and hit Enter. When our website appears, click the AVG Anti-Spyware to transfer to the developer’s download page. When AVG’s website appears, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the first link under the heading ‘AVG Anti-Spyware Free for Windows installation files’ and opt to save the file to the Windows Desktop. When the download is complete, double-click the file to start the installation process. Program documentation is available as a separate PDF download.

After selecting the installation language, click OK followed by Next to continue. Agree to the licence agreement, and click Next followed by Install. Once installation is complete, make sure that the box labelled ‘Run AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5’ is ticked and click Finish. The main program interface will automatically appear, and will warn that your computer is at risk because a scan has not been performed. First of all, click the Update Now link to download the latest spyware definitions. Once this is done, click the Status button at the top of the window to return to the main screen.

AVG Anti-Spyware will automatically check online for any future updates which are needed and install them accordingly. Now that the program is fully up to date, perform a scan to ensure that there is no malicious software already installed. Click the Scan Now link and notice that there are a number of scanning options available. For at least the first scan, it is a good idea to be as thorough as possible so click the Complete System Scan link and sit back and wait while the scan is performed.

When the scan is complete, a list of any suspicious objects will be listed. Depending on the type of the threat they represent, the program will suggest what should be done with the files in the Action column (usually Delete). However, if you are unsure about a particular item, or feel that something has been incorrectly identified as spyware, click within the Action column and select either Quarantine (which allows the files to be recovered), Ignore Once to leave the file in place for now, or Add To Exceptions to prevent it from being detected in the future. Now click Apply All Actions.

It is a good idea to set up a scanning schedule so that AVG Anti-Spyware can periodically check for problem. Click the Scanner button and move to the Scheduler tab before clicking the ‘Click here to create a custom scan profile’ link. Click Add Profile, enter a name and then use the three Add buttons to the right of the screen to indicate what should be scanned by this scheduled task. Now click Schedule This Profile and choose when the scan should be run – either ever at a fixed time, or a certain time after Windows has started up.

Click the Tools button at the top of the screen and you can access a number of additional security options. On the Antispy tab, it is possible to disable features such as Windows Media Player’s usage tracking, disable unnecessary system services and turn off the autoplay feature of CDs and DVDs. Moving to the Shredder tab, you can completely erase sensitive files by first deleting them and then overwriting them with random data up to ten times. This is sufficient to prevent all but professional--level recovery tools from retrieving deleted data.

Click the Tools button at the top of the screen and you can access a number of additional security options. On the Antispy tab, it is possible to disable features such as Windows Media Player’s usage tracking, disable unnecessary system services and turn off the autoplay feature of CDs and DVDs. Moving to the Shredder tab, you can completely erase sensitive files by first deleting them and then overwriting them with random data up to ten times. This is sufficient to prevent all but professional--level recovery tools from retrieving deleted data.