Some easy ways to avoid malware on your computer. What's going on on rich Demiro? This is rich on tech. If your computer is acting kind of strange, it might be infected with malware. This is software that shows you pop up ads, It hijacks your searches, and it slows your computer down to a crawl. So you often wonder, well, how did it get there? Well, you probably installed it on your computer by accident. Often it's included with free
downloads when you download one software program. A lot of times, the way they pay for that is by having these other programs kind of bundled in, and you don't even realize because you just kind of click through all the menus. Next thing you know, your browser is different, your browser search is different. There's pop up ads in your computer and stuff that you don't necessarily want or need. So
how do you avoid this stuff? I'll tell you about four programs that can help, and if you're on a Mac, I'll tell you about a program that can help you as well. Let's start first off with the malware Bites browser extension. This one comes from the same folks who make the popular desktop app malware Bytes, but this is an extension for Chrome and Firefox that actually protects you
as you browse the web. So this will block visits to malicious websites, and it also makes it so scam artists can't hijack your browser or lock it up with a tech support scam. I'm getting so many emails and texts and tweets about these tech support scams, So if this can help protect you against it, that is a good thing. Malware Bites browser extension also blocks third party
ad trackers to protect your privacy. This means that when you search for something on one website, you won't see ads for that same item following you around the entire Internet. So again, this one is called the malware Bites browser extension. All right. Next up you have Windows Defender browser protection. So if you have Windows ten, you've got something built in called Windows Defender. Well, this is a browser extension that does a lot of the same things that that
program does, but it's mainly for your browser. Its main purpose is to protect you from malicious links that try to trick you into installing bad software on your computer. So as you click links on the web, their check for security in real time. So, for instance, if you stumble upon a website that's wanting to steal your personal information like your bank account info, your login, or your password.
You are going to see a big red warning screen that says this website has been reported as unsafe and the Windows Defender Browser protection will get you back to safety. Now, if you're running Chrome as your web browser on your computer, which I highly recommend you do, there's actually a little built in tool that can help you remove malware on your computer. But they don't ever tell you about this,
and it's really kind of tough to find. So to find it, open up the Chrome web browser on your PC and click the three little dots in the upper right hand corner to bring up the menu. This is to the right of your address bar. Once you're in there, select settings and then scroll all the way down to the bottom of the screen and click where it says Advanced. Then you have to scroll all the way down one more time and look for the section labeled reset and
clean Up. In here, you'll see an option called clean up Computer. Click there and Chrome will automatic start checking for quote harmful software and then present the results it finds. You can also hit the fine button to look for unwanted software. If it doesn't automatically start doing that process, and this will find anything that hogs up your processor, injects adds into your web browsing, and any other annoyances
that these little software programs generate. If Chrome finds any of them, you can use a few more clicks to clear out those programs. Just keep in mind that you'll probably have to restart your computer once the Chrome Software Removal tool is done doing its thing. But that's a really simple and fast way to clean up your computer. All right. One more thing that I really like. It's this little app for Windows called Should I Remove It?
This is a great little free app you can use to scan your computer for programs that you might not need. What I love about this is it uses the wisdom of the crowds to help you determine if you really need that program on your computer. Because think about it, if you're a software developer and you're trying to make malware,
what are you gonna do. You're gonna give your programs some sort of weird name that the average person is gonna think sounds really important, right, So when they see it on their computer and they go to uninstalled, they're like, oh, shoot, I don't know if I should really uninstall that. This app Should I Remove It helps you cut through the clutter by telling you what an app does and how
many people have safely removed it from their computer. It also explains what these programs do so you can better understand why they're on your computer and why you may or may not need them on there. And I think this is a great little app, so again, Should I Remove It? Is a really good one for helping you figure out what you need and what you don't need
on your Windows computer. So now you're saying, hey, Rich, what about me, I'm on a Mac Well number one Max don't have as much malware based on their architecture, just the way the system is set up, so you don't really have to worry about malware as much, but it can still happen. So what I recommend for you is an app called Should I Remove It? And they just came out with a new version. I will have much more on that in a future podcast, so be on the lookout for that. All right until next time.
If you want links to everything I talk about here, just go to my website rich on tech dot tv or check the show notes for all these apps that can help you avoid and remove malware. Yer Old, thanks so much for listening. I'll talk to you real soon mhm.