As the internet becomes more diversified, and the cyber-criminals engage in malicious activities to weed out our confidential data by feeding malware into our systems, we need to keep ourselves secure. Malware, short for malicious software, is any software used to disrupt computer operations, gather sensitive information or gain access to private computer systems. It can take the shape of posing as legitimate security applications and infect our computers in the process. Malware can be tricky to remove and causes massive damage to even a computer user who is adept at dealing with such situations. In order to avoid being infected by malware, we have to take some safety precautions. There are free tools available to remove malware, spyware and Trojans. These are mentioned below:

It’s not just computer viruses you have to worry about

1) Hitman Pro

A very speedy and popular tool available to weed out malware. It offers unlimited scanning and a 30-day trial to remove detected malware. There are separate installers for 32bit and 64bit Windows. It can be downloaded from this link:

http://www.surfright.nl/en/hitmanpro

Step I — After opening the above given link, click on the installer for your version of Windows. Click on the download now button and save the file onto the desktop or anywhere you feel like.

Step 2 — Once the file is downloaded, double click on the HitmanPro_32.exe file to run the program. After clicking on the Windows Security dialogue and saying yes to the option you will be greeted with this screenshot:

Once the scan completes which will be done within a span of a few minutes if no malware is detected you will see this window:

2) MalwareBytes AntiMalware

This popular antimalware can be downloaded from this link: https://www.malwarebytes.org/mwb-download/

Click on 'download now' tab in the link once you open it and save the file onto your desktop or in any folder of your choice. Once downloaded, install the program to your preferred directory. After installation, run the program by double clicking on the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.exe shortcut on your desktop.

Once you click on the scan now button above the scanning will start:

Once the malware is removed, Malwarebytes Antimalware may require you to reboot your PC to fully disinfect your PC. And you can regularly scan your PC by following these instructions.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, September 7th, 2014