Rootkits can be a pain to spot and remove. Today, this seems to apply even if the only antivirus software you run is Microsoft’s Windows Defender. That includes my wife’s machines, and she has no interest in becoming a computer expert.Īssuming you run antivirus software and have a firewall turned on, you can generally avoid Windows malware by keeping all your software up to date – which I do – and by not making any silly mistakes. It’s well over a decade since malware affected any of the PCs in our house. Of course, it’s better to avoid having the problem. It’s also the best option if you are going to sell a laptop, or give it away. I recommend the nuclear option for bad virus infections and for laptops that only have 32GB of built-in storage. In this case, you can either use Windows 10’s built-in reset system or take the nuclear option of reinstalling Windows 10 from scratch. If you don’t have a lot of programs and data to restore, then a reset could be quicker. This can take quite a long time, but you don’t have to re-install all your programs and data.

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