According to Webroot, a whopping 55% of consumer PCs are infected with spyware or adware. I thought of offering a low-cost removal service (either via a site visit, or using some form of remote control software) to do a basic clean-up. If the problem is more involved, then I’ll charge more to fix it. It’s hardly a new idea, but the sheer numbers involved ought to make it lucrative. I know at least two people who have actually bought a new PC, rather than tackle a seemingly unsolvable spyware/virus infestation. The question is, do I have time to take this on?…. errrr no.
If you think you have some nasty software installed on your Windows PC (and there’s a better than 50/50 chance that you do) you should find some sort of guide to removing it, or ask someone techie to help.
A high percentage of home users don’t have any anti-virus software installed either, so if you think you may be affected, the first thing you should do is get a virus scan (there are some free online ones here). There really is no excuse, there is even a free AV scanner you can download if you don’t fancy paying for one.
If you’re not sure if you have AV software or not, you could test by trying to download this test file - it should be flagged as a virus in your software (even though it is actually harmless - see this explanation)
BTW, it may be worth pointing out that I’ve never personally had a virus and I’ve been using PCs for over a decade. I put this down to being careful!
