Spring Cleaning Your PC by Jason Levine

Congratulations, you're halfway to a clean PC. Now we move on to the next step: Removing viruses. Like Trojans and spyware, viruses are unwelcome guests. They infect your system, impair its functionality, and can destroy your data. Your PC isn't safe unless it's protected.

The first step to being protected is to obtain an anti-virus scanner. If you don't already have one, I'd recommend AVG AntiVirus. AVG is freeware virus scanner that holds its own with the big named virus scanners Norton and McAfee. Like Ad Aware, make sure you update AVG once it's downloaded and installed. Simply double-click on the AVG system tray icon, select the Update manager tab, and click Update Now.

Once you update AVG, make sure to run a complete system scan. To do this, right-click on the AVG system tray icon and choose "Run AVG Anti-Virus." Then click on "Run Complete Test." AVG will prompt you if any actions need to be taken. Once you're done, you'll be ready to move on to the next cleaning step.

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