While prevention is by far the best method for keeping malware from damaging your computer, it’s a fact that sometimes it will happen anyway. In this case, you’ll have to remove the malware in a safe fashion. There are a few different ways that you can do this.

Manual Removal

For some undesired programs that install on your computer without your permission, you can simply remove the program manually. This method won’t work with all malware programs, especially the ones that are more tricky and won’t allow to just remove them the easy way. But it will work in some cases.

First, try to find the name of the program in question that’s give you trouble. One way to do this is to access your task manager by holding down CTRL, ALT and DELETE on your keyboard in Windows and looking at the programs there. If any of them aren’t programs you recognize, or if they look fishy in any way, you should write down the name of the program.

Another way to identify the program is if you’re getting popup advertisements on your computer that advocate certain programs. If you look at which programs those are, or the name of the site they are advocating, you might get a clue as to what program they are coming from.

Then, all you have to do is click on the “Start” menu in Windows and select “Control Panel.” Open up “Add or Remove programs.” Find the name of the program that want to remove and click on the button to remove it. In some cases, it can be this easy.

-Anti-malware Programs

Another effective way to remove programs that are damaging your computer is to use software that manually removes these programs for you. These programs are called “antimalware,” or “antispyware” programs. It’s important that you always download these programs from reputable sources like Cnet or some other site that you have good reason to trust.

Examples of programs-Spybot, Malwarebytes, Avira.

There are a few exceptions, but for the most part the free antispyware programs are by far the best. Those that produce them do so often, at least partially, for non-commercial reasons. It also certainly helps to indicate that the program sin’t a scam if you aren’t paying any money.

That’s one good rule of thumb to keep in mind to avoid malware scams- never pay any money.

–Steps for Removing Malware with a Program

First, after installing the program, open it up and immediately update it. There is usually a convenient “Update” button somewhere in the program’s menu screen. This one download all the information that you need to look for malware programs. It’s a fact that malware programs and viruses (which are essentially only different in name) are constantly being updated. New versions of these dangerous programs come out every day.

That’s why you need to constantly update your prevention program to make sure that you have all the information needed to stop and delete the new versions of these programs. Otherwise, your antispyware tool may not be able to detect the latest version of a virus that may be infecting your computer.

Secondly, click the “Scan” button to scan your computer for these problems. It’s a good idea to first shut down all other programs running in order to get the cleanest and quickest scan possible.

Finally, click the removal button to get rid of the programs.