Just in case you are one of those people who are through, or you don’t trust your anti-Spyware applications. Or if you are afraid that a new strain of malicious software has decided to invade your computer and no application can identify it. This is the article for you.
First of all it is not recommended to take matters into your own hands, because you might delete system files by accident. This will cause your computer to malfunction, or to shut down completely in some cases. Your best bet is a free anti-Spyware, but if you really know your malicious software, you can delve into the world of system files.
Monitoring your computer
To fully understand what is happening to your computer, you need to watch it work for a while. This ensures no accidents happen. First of all, open the processes log of the operating system, or the task manager. Monitor all processes, including names, time, CPU usage, etc…
Try to open and close some programs to understand who the processes work make sure that some of the programs require huge processing power. Usually, graphics or movie editing programs require most CPU usage.
Another thing you can do is reboot the computer in safe mode and open the processes log; this will ensure that only the main processes are running. Take a piece of paper and write those processes down, include all details. Beware of stopping system processes, since this will cause the computer to shut down and reboot automatically. It’s also a good habit to back up your system and if your operating system offers a restoration point, set one to a preferred state.
There are some programs on the market which supplies detailed info about the active processes on your computer.
Recognizing danger
After monitoring your computer, comes the time to peer into the processes’ log; scouring for intruders. You’re mainly looking for processes that seem out of place, have a weird name (for instance gator (Life), and is running on low CPU usage. Always check the command path; meaning the path way to the file. Once you get to the file, check if it’s a weird place for its existence. Open its properties and see when it was created and modified. If your computer has been clean for a large amount of time, it should be created fairly recent.
A ground rule is that if you don’t recognize the file, don’t know what it does or its normal place on your hard disk. Yet, at the same time, you can’t really identify it as malicious software, do not delete it. First do some more research; there are a number of websites that state normal processes and abnormal processes. If all else fails, quarantine the file using an anti- Spyware and see if it has a negative or positive impact on your computer.
Those under the radar
Sometimes, you will find some applications running on your computer, but they don’t appear on the system’s uninstall list. This is probably because they have altered the system’s registry and now the computer doesn’t know it exists. It will only appear through your computer processes.
It’s never recommended that you poke around in your registry, but if you must, please consult someone first. This person can be a friend, a blogger or even a forum participant. Gather some opinions on whether the file is harmful and whether you should delete the file or not. Do not be hasty, take your time and do your research.
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