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Printing Troubleshooting Guide
With most printers, over 50% of all problems are customer fixable. This guide was created to help bail you out when you get stuck on tough printing problems. NOTE: If you need specific information or help with a particular printer, please contact...
Setting Up a Linux Modem
---------------------------------------------------------- Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are...
The Seven Deadly Habits of a DBA... and how to cure them
Calling widespread bad habits in database administration "deadly" may seem extreme. However, when you consider the critical nature of most data, and just how damaging data loss or corruption can be to a corporation, "deadly" seems pretty dead-on. ...
The Spyware Who Loved Me
Don’t ever let anybody tell you otherwise, the Internet is not a safe place to take your computer systems without adequate protection. It wasn’t too long ago that anti-virus and firewall software could provide your systems with more than enough...
What's in a Name?
Have you ever visited a website (possibly one you saw advertised in an email or through a link on another site) that did not have its own Domain Name? For instance, was the address of the site something along the lines of.... ...
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Remove Rogue Desktop Icons Created By Spyware
If you have used a Windows machine for a while, whether it's Windows XP, Windows 2000, or Windows 98, you're sure to have noticed desktop icons appearing from out of nowhere. How can icons mysteriously emerge on your Windows desktop?
1. When you buy a computer, many vendors place icons to selected products and services on your desktop, such as links to high-speed Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or add-on services vendors think you may need.
2. As you install software on your Windows machine, icons may appear, either to start the application or link to the manufacturer's website. Installing just one program could add three or more icons to your desktop!
3. It's easy to accidentally drag a Favorite, bookmark, text file, or other icon to your desktop, creating an icon.
Normally, it's easy to delete Windows desktop icons. Just place your mouse pointer on the offending icon, then right-click it and choose "Delete", clicking "Yes" to confirm if prompted.
However, what if the rogue icons are for adult websites, unfamiliar search engines, or other websites you don't recall visiting? You may try removing these icons but get an error, or after removal they still reappear again and again and again!
If so, then more than likely spyware, adware, or other malware has infected your machine. It may have been through file trading software, an inadvertent "yes" click when a popup window asked you to install software, 'freeware' that included adware, or other means. To remove the rogue icons, you need to remove the malware creating these icons.
Removing spyware and adware can be a time-consuming process, fraught with potential disaster as it is possible to accidentally remove files that render your operating system unusable. However, the following software products can help with this process as long as you read the instructions carefully, make backups, and get expert advice
if you're not completely sure about removing what they ask you to do:
* Ad-Aware: http://www.lavasoft.com/
* Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/
* Pest Patrol: http://www.pestpatrol.com/
* Spybot Search and Destroy: http://safer-networking.org/
* Spy Sweeper: http://www.webroot.com/
So, how can you prevent these icons from appearing in the first place? Practice safe computing.
* Backup your machine. If it does get infected to the point of being unusable, at least you won't lose all your important files.
* Install security-related operating system updates so spyware and adware cannot enter your system through well-known exploits.
* Download or buy a virus scanner, and keep it updated! Virus scanners cannot detect all spyware, but it doesn't hurt to have one. Check online or visit your local computer software store.
* Purchase a hardware or software firewall, and keep it updated! Firewalls help protect your computer from common exploits that spyware or adware can use to infect your machine.
* Consider using a different web browser. Though it is not perfect, Mozilla Firefox at http://www.mozilla.org is currently less susceptible to spyware than Internet Explorer, mainly because it lacks certain technology (such as ActiveX) that is often exploited by malware writers. Note that depending on your web use, certain websites may not work correctly with other web browsers.
By practicing safe computing and using spyware-removal software, you can help remove rogue desktop icons from your desktop and keep others from appearing.
About the Author
Andrew Malek is the owner of the MalekTips computer and technology help site at http://www.malektips.com . Visit his anti-spyware page at http://malektips.com/spyware/ for more advice on removing adware, spyware, and other malware.
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| Tom's Hardware |
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| Computer hardware - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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| en.wikipedia.org |
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| en.wikipedia.org |
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| InformationWeek HardwareTech Center |
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| What is hardware? - A Word Definition From the Webopedia Computer ... |
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| Google Directory - Computers > Hardware |
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| Reg Hardware: Product News and Gadget Reviews from The Register |
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