As a computer consultant, I get to see common problems that your average user faces when using their computers.  One that I hear frequently is;  "I was browsing the net last night and now I keep getting all sorts of popups and spyware warnings.  I don't know what I did.  How can I fix this?" 

First, you probably didn't do anything to cause this problem!  And, if you did, the software should have informed you prior to allowing the nasty issue to occur.  One of my pet peeves is that some of the computer industry has people blaming themselves for buggy or insecure software!  Don't fix it, blame the user! I digress.  Back to the question.

First, to get rid of your problems, you can go to http://www.antivirus.com/ and use their free online spyware and virus scan.  Hopefully this will clean-up your current problem. The second thing to do is go get a good virus scanner.  Grisoft is one of the few companies left that provide a "free for personal use" version that actually updates the virus definitions automatically.  You can get this software at http://free.grisoft.com/. 

The next question is; how do I stop this from happening in the future?  Well, one way to help, is to remove the Microsoft Java engine from Internet Explorer.  Why? Because Microsoft's Java engine is not all that secure, so, it lets things happen to your computer that it shouldn't.  Don't I need a Java engine?  Well, you do need a Java engine, just not Microsoft's.  You're better off using Sun's engine, especially since they are the people who invented Java.  What is a Java engine?  It's the engine that allows programs/software to be embedded in web pages thereby enabling a lot of the fancy stuff you see on the net. 

To remove Microsoft's Java engine, you just need to run this little program.  Remember to read the warning message as it states that once you remove Microsoft's Jave engine, you won't get support from Microsoft and you probably won't be able to install it again.  But, did you ever get support from Microsoft and why would you want to re-install insecure software anyway?

Next, you need to get Sun's Java.  You actually may want to do this step before removing your current Java Engine.  You can download Sun's engine at http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp.  Just follow the instructions and all should go well. 

This is what I do to my systems, but, you should proceed at your own risk.  As in life, there are no guarantees :).  If you do have any problems, please feel free to email me at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

Brett Johnson
http://www.hypertronic.com/
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