Using Spybot S&D - Tutorial included

Spybot - Search and Destroy is an adware and Spyware detection and removal tool.
It includes removal of certain advertising components,which may gather statistics as well as detecting various keylogging and other spy utilities.

It securely removes PC and Internet usage tracks, including your browser history, temporary pages, cookies (giving you the option to keep selected cookies) and more.The program interface is easy to use and multi-lingual.

SpyBot-S&D allows you to exclude selected cookies, programs or extensions from being reported, allowing you to prevent false positive messages for items that you dont want to be alerted of every time.

It can even scan your download directory for files that have been downloaded, but not yet installed, allowing you to detect unwanted programs before you even install them.

SpyBot produces a detailed and easy to understand report before it deletes any files and allows you to deselect any item that you do not want to be processed.

It also incorporates a recovery feature allows you to restore your settings if you need to which can be very useful.

The site is multi-lingual and I recommend that you look at:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/tutorial/index.html

Spybot S&D can be downloaded from:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html
Simply select your language and download from one of thesites provided.


Media Player Tutorial:
http://www.a1-ebooks.co.uk/tutorials/Spybot.wmv

Browser Cache Size and Using CCleaner

Browsers cache settings give your pc the ability to store
frequently visited web pages and also checks for newer web
pages when you navigate to those sites.

Most computers cache setting is left at the default
setting, which can be anything from 250MB to over 1024MB,
which generally speaking is far too high. You can safely
reduce this to as little as 10 - 20MB. You may find that
you frequently download large files, for example a file of
50MB, so you would need to adjust you cache size to 60MB so
that if the download is interrupted it will pick up from
where it left off using the cache memory rather than
starting over again.

To adjust the IE cache size:
Start Internet Explorer
Select Tools Internet Options General tab
Under Temporary Internet Files click the Settings button.
In the box for the amount of disk space to use, enter a
value between 25 and 50 megabytes.
Click OK to accept the changes.

To adjust the Netscape Navigator cache size:
Start Netscape Navigator
Select Edit Preferences Advanced Cache.
In the box for Disk Cache, enter a value between 5120 and
51200 kilobytes.
Click OK to accept the changes.

By making this simple adjustment, you will save lots of
hard drive space for better uses and it will improve the
overall performance of Internet Explorer.

If you want to have a large cache size, then I recommend
that you clean your cache out regularly. I do a lot of
browsing and clean mine several times a day, but rather
than go through Internet Properties and start clicking on
various buttons I use ccleaner available for free from
http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy
tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing
Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk
space by automatically cleaning the cache when run. It also
cleans traces of your online activities such as your
Internet history. It also only takes a few seconds to run
and remove these unwanted files from your pc.

There have been over 55 million downloads of this program

Internet Explorer
Temporary files, URL history, cookies, Autocomplete form
history, index.dat.

Firefox
Temporary files, URL history, cookies, download history.

Opera
Temporary files, URL history, cookies.

Windows
Recycle Bin, Recent Documents, Temporary files and Log
files.

Registry cleaner
Advanced features to remove unused and old entries,
including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs,
ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files,
Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts and more...
also comes with a comprehensive backup feature

Third-party applications
Removes temp files and recent file lists (MRUs) from many
apps including Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar,
Netscape, MS Office, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce,
WinZip and many more...

This software does NOT contain any Spyware, Adware or
Viruses.

I set mine up as follows:
Click on the Cleaner Tab on the left and under Windows I
tick all boxes in Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer and
System. Under Advanced tick only the first 2 boxes. Then
click on the Applications tab and tick all.

Issues tab:
Unless you are competent at dealing with the registry then
leave this one alone and DO NOT run it.

Tools tab:
Here you will find a list of Uninstall options to remove
programs from your pc, use with caution. I prefer to use
the Add/Remove function or the programs own uninstaller.

Startup:
Lists all programs that are set to run when you boot up,
if you are unsure about deleting any of these then leave it
as it is.

Options tab:
Settings - Choose your language, untick Run CCleaner when
the computer starts, tick the next 3 boxes, then look at
the Secure Deletion, tick the radio button 'Secure file
deletion (Slower) and set it to NSA (7 passes)

Cookies - entirely up to the individual, but I don't save
any cookies.

Custom - You can drag and drop files or folders into the
window or browse for them and on the next run they will be
securely deleted.

Advanced - Untick boxes 1-3 tick all others.

Finally click on the Cleaner tab on the left and you have
the option to Analyze or Run Cleaner. When you are
comfortable using this program you won't use Analyze, but
initially do use it to see what can be deleted and the
approximate size of files to be deleted.

Important
This will remove any saved passwords and usernames that
you have, so make sure that you have a copy of them all
before proceeding to clean.

Open a text document, enter the URL, username and
password, save this to floppy, external drive or print it
off. Do NOT save this text file to your hard drive.

There is an excellent program for saving your passwords
etc available from http://www.roboform.com/
I will cover this in more detail another time.

As always, back-up your system or create a restore point
before making any changes.

To your safety and security online
cotojo

MRU-Blaster Guide

MRU-Blaster is a program that does one large task - detect and clean the MRU (most recently used) lists on your computer.

This program is Freeware, although donations are accepted

goto: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/mrublaster.html

Download this program, I suggest that you place a NewFolder on your Desktop and rename it 'Downloads'. You can then download the various programs that I pass on to you in one central location, and always make back up copies.

The additional plug-ins are described below and allow you to clean out your Temporary Internet Files and Cookies. MRU-Blaster enhances the protection of your privacy!

MRU-Blaster setup: Take care setting this up.

When installed go to Settings and tick boxes1,3,4,6,7,8,9, & 10 on the left hand side.
Tick boxes 3,5,6, 7 & 8 on right hand side, then Save Setting.

Click on 'Go To Plugins' then click cookie blaster. Do not save any cookies as they are used to monitor your internet activity.

Click on 'IE Temporary Internet File Cleaner', tick EnableSecure Deletion of Files and click radio button 'Specify a custom number of passes and set to 7. Then save Settings & Run Now.
Using this program frequently only takes a few seconds and removes traces of the Most Recently Used (MRU) lists on your PC. These lists contain details of the name/locations of the files you have accessed. Traces of these are left scattered through your registry and unless removed are there for all to find.

One very important thing - do NOT save your passwords on your hard drive and do NOT tick the boxes asking to remember your login details.
Open any text document and type in the URL, Username and Password for each site that you have a password for, save this to either a floppy disc, flash drive, or other removable media, Do NOT save this text file on your hard drive।

I will cover another program for using secure passwords in the near future.

goto: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/mrublaster.html

Safe surfing everyone
cotojo