Important Steps to Help Prevent Malware Infection
While running and regularly scanning with an anti-virus program is a good practice, no anti-virus or anti-malware program can assure 100%, 24/7 effectiveness. You should also adopt a good malware prevention and handling policy to help prevent future malware attacks. The following steps provide some guidelines for your consideration.
Prevention Step #1
Update Your OS, Browsers & Other Software
Many malware objects attempt to exploit unpatched loopholes in systems, including the Windows operating system, and older web browser versions to attempt to infect your computer without your knowledge. To help minimize the chances of this occurring, you should take proactive steps to ensure that you are running the most up-to-date version of your operating system and preferred web browsers.
Microsoft Windows operating system: Microsoft regularly provides security patches and other updates via its Windows Update service. Windows Update, at your choice, can be configured to download and apply new updates automatically. You should visit support.microsoft.com for details.
Web browsers: Many web browsers are configured by default to update automatically. Nevertheless, these settings may have been modified by malware or even by other users. You should check each web browser that you use and make sure that it is up-to-date and that automatic updates are enabled, if available. You may also want to increase the security settings on your browser. Please visit the developers' websites for further information.
Other software: Malware may also attempt to exploit vulnerabilities in other software programs. SpyHunter 5 includes a Vulnerability scanner to help identify outdated programs installed on your system that may have been reported to contain vulnerabilities. These programs should be updated. Please visit the developers' websites for further information.
Prevention Step #2
Uninstall Unwanted Programs
Many programs (especially "free" software) may come bundled with potentially unwanted programs (PUPs), adware and possibly malware. As a good practice, you should determine whether any of the programs on your system are, in your view, unwanted programs and uninstall them.
You can uninstall unwanted programs through the Windows "Control Panel."
If you experience any difficulties uninstalling an unwanted program, and are a SpyHunter 5 subscriber, we encourage you to contact our technical support team via the SpyHunter 5 Spyware HelpDesk for assistance.
Prevention Step #3:
Run SpyHunter 5 Regularly
It is also a good practice to regularly scan your computer for malware and other objects. Although SpyHunter 5's System Guard can block many objects before they can run on your system, we encourage you to regularly scan your system with SpyHunter 5 for added protection. You can schedule automatic scans with SpyHunter 5's "Scheduling" feature.