Well, the big gift-giving holiday of the year is complete and many people were lucky enough to get new computers. The new laptops and desktop computers are being shipped with Windows 7 installed. Windows 7 is a way nicer than Vista. The themes, background pictures, and settings in general allow for an aesthetically pleasing user experience.
I had the pleasure of running through the set-up process for several customers that were giving or receiving new laptops as Christmas gifts. When I run through a PC set-up for someone I optimize the whole system as well as create the system recovery, repair, and back-up discs. I get rid of “bloat-ware” or “crap-ware”, install desired programs, and make sure there is a good anti-virus program activated and ready to go.
Windows 7 comes packaged with some pretty cool themes but if you want more to choose from you can click on the link within your Control Panel that will take you to a page on the Microsoft website to browse and download additional Windows 7 themes.
That sounds like a safe and great option doesn’t it? Well, things are not always what they seem. We even need to be cautious with a Microsoft website that most people would believe to be “safe”. I have downloaded additional themes and background pictures right from the Microsoft website only to have Trojans included with every download.
These did not seem to be isolated incidents. I have been using Windows 7 since it came out. I have run through many PC set-ups in the past few months. I have downloaded extra themes for several customers and each time found Trojans after installing those themes right from the Microsoft website!
After downloading and installing anything it is good practice to scan your computer with Anti-virus software. I am a little paranoid and will often use 3 different virus scanners to make sure everything is safe. It is important to understand that a Windows based PC should only run one active Anti-virus engine. It is possible to run other virus scanners though. It’s the active Anti-virus protection engines that will conflict with each other if installed on the same machine. Active AV programs aim to prevent viruses from entering your computer in the first place. They will also provide alerts if they detect threats already on your machine. They will run scans at scheduled times and automatically update it’s virus definitions. A regular scanner does nothing until you interact with it to tell it to scan or update.
A good free Trojan remover to use is Malwarebytes. You can download it for here. The free version will scan for and even allow you to remove threats found.
Another free virus scanner is the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool. It is not something I solely rely on but in combination with other tools and Trojan, or virus removal skills, you can be pretty certain that your system is squeaky clean.
The premium Anti-virus program that I prefer to use is Bit Defender. I often will keep several pieces of BitDefender and Malwarebytes stocked in my online store.
The most important thing to know is that you must use caution even when using a trusted website! Whenever downloading files, your computer is immediately vulnerable to malware. This is another example of how important it is to become an intelligent PC user and practice safe computing.
