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Keeping your Windows PC safe and running smoothly

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In the course of helping fix and maintain Windows computers I've come up with some common tips and links that should be useful to any Windows user. I'll share them here. My goal is to help beginner and intermediate Windows users, so I'm not including registry editing or anything risky or complicated.

Fixing Spyware/Adware/Virus Problems

If your computer starts acting a little weird, by slowing down, or showing random popup windows with ads, or anything else out of the ordinary, try following these steps.

Update Windows Defender and run it to scan for problems.
Make sure your antivirus program is up to date, and then scan for viruses.
Donwload, install, and update Adaware, but don't run a scan just yet.
Restart your computer, and when it's starting up (before you see the Windows logo) press and hold F8 to bring up the startup options. Select safe mode.
Windows will start up and look a little weird. That's because safe mode is Windows loading without all the extras. Hopefully this will keep the spyware from starting up. You'll also have no Internet connection, so that may temporarily keep popups from showing up. That is also why I said to update Adaware before getting to safe mode.
Perform a scan with Adaware. It should be able to remove almost any spyware while in safe mode.
Restart your computer. Windows will start like normal and hopefully your computer will be back to normal as well.
If that doesn't work, try downloading, installing, and updating Spybot. Then restart in safe mode, scan with Spybot, then scan with Adaware again to be on the safe side. What usually happens is one scanning program will catch something but won't get rid of everything, so when you restart Windows normally, the remaining spyware reinstalls the old spyware. So you have to get rid of all the spyware in safe mode and hope that it doesn't get reinstalled.

Software Tips

If you're a student at a university, you may be able to get Windows, Office, and an antivirus program for a discounted price, so keep that in mind if you need to get any of those. At my university, they sell Windows XP Professional and Office 2003 at discounted prices, and an antivirus program is available to students and faculty for free. Your Internet Service Provider may also provide free antivirus software.
If you're using Windows 2000 or Windows ME or Windows 98, or anything older, you need to upgrade to Windows XP. Microsoft no longer supports or releases updates for those versions, so you're just leaving yourself vulnerable to security risks by not upgrading.
Use an antivirus program and make sure you have an up to date version with recent definition files. You may have to pay for a subscription service in order to get updates every month. I think this usually costs around $20 a year.
Use legitimate software. Microsoft now has a tool to check if you're using a real version of Windows. If you're running a pirated version, you won't be able to use Windows Defender and some other extra software available on the Microsoft web site.

Maintenance Tips

Check Windows Update at least monthly. Go to start, all programs, and Windows Update will be at the top of the list.
Run chkdsk monthly. This will scan your hard drive for errors. Go to My Computer, right click on your hard drive, click on Properties, then go to the tools tab. Click check now in the error checking section. Check both of the options and click start. Windows will then tell you that it can't scan now but you can schedule the scan to happen on the next restart. Click yes. Restart your computer and let the scan run. When it's done Windows will start up. If you have more than one hard drive, you'll need to run chkdsk for each of them, but the drives without Windows on them don't require a restart. If chkdsk finds errors on a drive, it may indicate that the drive is potentially going bad.
Run defragment monthly. This will just speed up your computer slightly so it doesn't really fix or prevent anything. Go to My Computer, right click on your hard drive, go to the tools tab, and click defragment now. Then click Analyze and Windows will tell you if you should deframent.
Update your antivirus software. This varies depending on the software. Try looking for the icon in your system tray for your antivirus program. Then right click on it to bring up a menu, and look for an update option.

Links

Microsoft Windows Update: Windows Update includes security fixes and updates to Windows. It is very important to check this site at least monthly. You can set Automatic Updates in your control panel to download updates, but if you've already missed a few important updates, then your computer will stop telling you about new updates. The most important update you need is Service Pack 2. It provides a major security improvement, and if you don't get it you won't be able to use newer updates. Service Pack 2 is a huge download and a long install process, but you need to do it.
Windows Defender home: AntiSpyware Software from Microsoft. It's in beta, but it seems stable to me. It is always running and protects you from spyware and programs trying to modify system settings. I think it defaults to a nightly automatic scan, so you may want to change this to weekly, and set it to a time when you'll leave your computer on but not use it. I highly suggest installing this. Before you can download it, you must confirm that you're running a legitimate (not pirated) version of Windows.
Ad-Aware SE Personal: This is one of the most popular spyware scanners. It's free for individual non-commercial use. Always check for updates before scanning with Adaware, because there's usually an update at least weekly. Sometimes Adaware will report issues that may not be dangerous to your computer, such as recently used lists and tracking cookies. These are privacy issues and aren't major.
Spybot: I think a lot of people may suggest using Spybot to scan for spyware in addition to Adaware. I think its settings are a little advanced and it has some overlapping features with Windows Defender. So I suggest using Windows Defender instead, but if you have a really nasty problem that nothing else can remove, try running Spybot (after checking for updates) in safe mode after running Adaware. Spybot performs a different type of scan than Adaware. Spybot searches for specific spyware, while Adaware scans for symptoms of spyware. Spybot also has realtime prevention measures, which overlap with the Windows Defender realtime prevention features. So you have to make sure you don't enable the same protections on both programs. I personally don't have Spybot on my computer, but I've sometimes used it on other people's computers just to clean up some really bad problems.

Windows XP

If you're running less than Windows XP, you should upgrade. Windows XP is much more stable, and with Service Pack 2, much more secure than any previous version of Windows. You can get the cheaper Upgrade version if you have the CD of your previous version of Windows. Unless you're a power user, you probably only need Windows XP Home Edition. You may want to get a computer expert to do the upgrade for you, but it's not too difficult. I've done about two upgrades and about three or four full installs and haven't had any major problems that I can remember. You'll need at least a few hours to complete the entire upgrade and get settled in. One warning though: Some really old programs and really old hardware may no longer work in Windows XP. In one instance when I helped with an upgrade, the printer and scanner stopped working. Since there were no new drivers for them and Windows wasn't detecting them, we just had to get new hardware. But the printer/scanner all in one machines are only about $100 now.

LIke I said earlier, if you're a student or faculty member of a university, take a look at the prices at their technology store and compare them to these prices.