Keep Your Computer Free from Viruses, Trojans and Spyware!
When they first started becoming common over 30 years ago, viruses and worms were simple programs that- at best- copied themselves and at worst damaged some of your data. Nowdays, they’re far cleverer and more dangerous.
One of the signs of these various infections is that your computer runs slowly. That’s annoying, but even if you can live with that, remember that it’s just a side effect. The main problem is that your personal data may be destroyed or worse, stolen and used by criminals.
If you suspect that you have viruses, trojans or spyware on your computer, let us check it for you. We can remove almost any such infection and restore your computer to safety. Prices are very reasonable, and this service is available for both desktop and laptop computers. For more information on these subjects, why not see Wikipedia’s articles on viruses, trojans, worms, malware, adware and spyware?
Fast Virus, Spyware and Malware Removal- Located in Dundee City Centre
Remember that we’re conveniently based at 16 Union Street in Dundee City Centre, just off the Nethergate and a minute’s walk from the Overgate Centre. (Or you may prefer the “Disc Depot St Andrews” store, located just beside the West Port at 1 City Road). It’s quick and easy to hand your computer in to us, and we’ll have it back and working in no time- even faster if you choose our Rapid Repair service! Call us on (01382) 22 66 26 or email us via our contact form for more details on our Dundee virus removal and antivirus installation services.
See Our Virus Removal Service for Real
If you’d like to see a typical example of our virus and malware removal service in action, take a look here to see us cleaning up a customer’s computer.
Antivirus Installation – Prevention is Better than Cure!
Free Antivirus
For customers seeking free antivirus software, we normally recommend the free version of Avast antivirus. The basic version of Avast software itself is free, and costs nothing if you download and install it yourself– there’s no purchase fee nor ongoing subscription cost for the basic version. (If you’d like us to install it on your behalf, there’s a modest charge for the service).
How do they make their money? Well, you have to pay to activate some of the extra features- which you might or might not find useful- but these are optional. (They also sometimes use it to promote their paid VPN service).
Apart from being affordable- well, we generally find free to be affordable!- Avast has the benefit of not bloating and slowing down your computer anywhere near as much as some better-known commercial packages.
Paid Antivirus and Internet Security
We don’t currently recommend any paid antivirus or security software packages.
Let’s just say- without naming names- that of two of the best-known and longest-established brands, we wouldn’t personally let them near our computers with a bargepole. Among IT professionals- and those in the know- they’re infamous for being horribly bloated resource hogs that slow down and degrade computer performance almost as much as the viruses they’re meant to stop!
While they built their reputation upon efficient and well-written early products, both have suffered massively since being taken over by large corporations- to the extent that the eponymous creator of one is well-known for openly and publicly rubbishing the product his name still appeared on(!) as of 2019.
Needless to say, we wouldn’t personally recommend paying for either of these two packages to our customers. However, we can fix or reinstall these packages if you require them for any particular reason, or we can replace it with another package (including the ones mentioned above) if you so wish. (Note that you should only have one antivirus running on your computer at a time. If you have more than one, they can- and will- conflict and cause problems.)
If you really want to run them- and you have a newish computer with processing power to burn anyway- versions of them are often given away for free by ISPs anyway.
Regardless, we’re not saying that all other commercial antiviruses have this problem- in fact, there are some very good ones out there. Let’s just say that two of the best-known aren’t so great, however! If you’re not sure what’s best for you, feel free to ask our friendly staff.
Spyware Disguised as Fake Antivirus Software
Fake antivirus software was a major problem a while back. While some of the details of the scam have evolved in recent years, it’s still around to an extent.
Quite simply, this is malware that disguises itself as antivirus or Internet security software in order to con users into installing it on their systems. Three typical examples of the older-style fake antivirus packages can be seen at the right. However, there are countless others out there and new ones appearing even today.
There are many ways of getting such fake antivirus packages on your computer including via:-
- Malicious browser plug-ins and toolbars
- Email attachments
- Multimedia codecs required to play video clips
- Software shared on peer-to-peer networks
- Fake offers of a “security scan” advertised on various websites
- …and a whole lot more
For more details, you may be interested in the Wikipedia “Rogue security software” article.
Can we remove them? Yes- since they’re just viruses or malware in disguise, we treat them as any other. See our virus removal services above for more details.
Contact Us
For antivirus removal and any other security concerns you need dealt with on your laptop, desktop PC, tablet or phone, contact us, telephone 01382 22 66 26 or visit 16 Union Street, Dundee or 1 City Road, St Andrews, and ask our friendly staff for advice.
