 | By Ryan Russell Whether you’re cleaning the machine of a friend or family member — or battening the hatches of your own PC — it’s handy to use security tools that do the job quickly and simply. One tip I’ve learned: before running any antispyware or antivirus apps, clean out temp files to make your subsequent scans faster. |
Dump temp files before scanning for malware
Joe Montgomery wrote in to tell me about a great security time-saver:
- “As someone who cleans computers as a retirement hobby and pocket-money earner, the first thing I always do is clear all temp files from the computer.”
As Joe explained, malware often hides in temp directories. Cleaning out these folders beforehand significantly reduces the scan time for your antivirus and antispyware tools. Let me mention two caveats about using this particular tool:
- It requires Java 6 to run.
- The utility’s aggressive default settings delete patch-uninstall files and system-restore points. Deleting these files won’t break anything but will prevent you from uninstalling the patches or going back to those restore points. If these settings concern you, you can turn them off in the program’s options.
I’ve received many reader recommendations for an antispyware tool I’d never heard of before: SUPERAntiSpyware.
With a name like that, I assumed that the program had to be bogus. But it is, in fact, a legitimate antispyware program, despite the exuberant name.
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