One of my readers wrote me a while back about a problem she was having with pop up ads and all sorts of problems with her computer.  I suggested that she run her anti-virus software to scan her computer for issues and also any of the anti spyware & malware programs she had as something was definitely wrong.

It turned out that she had a Zlob Trojan called, “Advanced Antivirus 2009″ which is an extremely evil entity.  This Trojan is also known as, “Advanced Antivirus”, “Advanced Antivirus 2008″ or a generic video codec that MS supposedly needs you to install and many others.  This beauty first started showing up in late 2005 and has continued on to the present day.

The way Advance Antivirus works is that it will pop up on a website advertising a free virus scan for your computer.  Once you run it you will receive notice that you have many infections that your own antivirus software couldn’t find or remove.  The software and the viruses are all fakes and you most likely have none of those viruses.

It will then convince you that you must download and install AA- DO NOT do it!  If you choose to download Advanced Antivirus the program will continually warn you of numerous problems that don’t exist in reality.  It will continually try to persuade you purchase the pro version of this and other programs.  It will tell you to install more anti spyware programs which are fake and harmful.  Once you fall into the trap your computer will have all sorts of security concerns.

You should react quickly if you feel that your computer is infected with Advanced Antivirus.  Basically you will be continually nagged by pop ups.  However, your passwords could be at large in the world; you could be sending all of your browser history or possibly each keystroke you type to strangers.  The list could be never ending depending on how big a grip this program has on your system.

If you are a very advanced computer user and not worried about editing your Registry you may try to remove AA yourself.  However, the removal process is said to be fraught with dangers so be extremely careful.  To learn how to remove it use Google or MelZoo to search for a resolution.   Then good luck my friends, you may need it.

I really suggest strongly that you seek professional help to rid your computer of this problem.

I have one final repeated warning for you.  Do not install anything on your computer that you haven’t been informed by a trusted source is safe for you to use.  And never install something suggested by a pop up advertisement unless you are familiar with the site and the program to be installed.

The last two columns I have written generated a lot of emails from my readers.  So first off today I just want to say, “Thanks!” for the emails.  I always appreciate your comments, some questions, some complements and some complaints.  No matter which category you were in, thanks for writing!

I probably received more emails than from any other column with regard to the first one which talked about, “Advanced SystemCare 3” (http://www.iobit.com).  And yes the story about my wife’s computer was true and not literary license.  Many of you thanked me for giving you the link for ASC3 and told me how it sped up your computer and just plain helped clean things up.  Some of you wanted to know if you should install, “Smart Defrag” as it suggested you should.  My answer to that is pretty simple, “yes”.  Although, you have a defrag application built in to all versions of Windows today, this one would be convenient to run while you are in ASC3 so you might was well use it.  I have not tried any of the other products they suggest; however, if they are as good as these two I wouldn’t hesitate using them.  Again, be aware that any time you install software on your computer there is the possibility of problems.

I received email from several people who said the software was not free.  I believe that is due to the fact that those folks downloaded the wrong version.  When you go to their download page and click the FREE download they still try to push their $29.95 version on you for “free” with some attachments.  Just remain true to the free one (at this time the one on the left side of the page) and you will not be told you must purchase it to complete fixing problems.  Choose wisely and it is still free.

Now let’s get on to the MelZoo search engine column (http://melzoo.com) which also received a lot of email. I only got thanks for this one as it was widely viewed as everyone’s new, favorite search engine.  I have to admit that I too have found it to be very good to use.  If you haven’t tried it yet you should.  You too may find how good it is to actually see the page that the search links point to before clicking.  It makes searching more accurate and quick.

Again, thanks for the emails and write anytime.

A couple of Saturdays ago my friend Shannon and I were talking about different search engines.  He told me about one that he had started using named Cuil (pronounced Cool) which I tried out.  It was good but it seemed kind of average to me.

To test the search engines I came up with a quick, simple scenario that isn’t very scientific but very egomaniacal.  I searched for “Ron Doyle Virginia” and observed only the first page of each engine’s results.  Some performed much better than others and surprisingly to me better than my favorite, Google.

I chose search engines I have heard about or used in the past as there are many others out there that I didn’t mention here.  Don’t get angry if your favorite isn’t in my alphabetical list.  Yours could be a great one but I just haven’t used it yet/lately.

The first number in each rating is how many direct references appear for my search and that last is the total number of searches on the resulting first search page.

Cuil.com was a 3/11 my lowest score.  GoodSearch.com received a good 9/10 which uses Yahoo.com as its base engine.  Google.com faired fair with only 6/10.  This was really disappointing since I have always thought that it was the best.  Gee, all that I’ve said positive about Google and it takes no notice of me – how demeaning.

Next, I looked at Microsoft’s search engine Live.com.  Live yielded 8/10 however, three of those eight links were dead, meaning that they didn’t mention me, any Ron Doyles or Virginia.  This was also disheartening as I am also a huge Microsoft supporter.

Now, let me mention a new search engine that someone recently told me about called Melzoo.com.  Let me tell you this engine may be the new choice for me.  Not only did it rate a 9/10, it has the most unique user interface (the way it displays on the page) that I have ever seen.

It shows you the links just like all the others, but only on the left side of the page.  On the right side of the page, when you hover over a link from the search, it shows you the actual page that it links too.  In other words, when I hovered over the link to a column that I wrote for the DNR the DNR webpage appeared.  I think this is an excellent way to make sure you are finding what you are really looking for without clicking and visiting the page and having to come back again to see the next one.  Try it you’ll like it!

Last is Yahoo.com which was also another good showing at 9/10.

I received an email from Dennis the other day and he wondered, “My Dell is several years old and getting very slow.  Perhaps running a register optimizer would help, but there are dozens available.”  He wanted to know if I had any suggestions.

Well, it just so happens that this week I was checking my wife’s computer for running very slowly and found a good application which a friend of mine had recommended.  It is called, “Advanced SystemCare 3” where you may download a free version.

There are several maintenance applications based within this one, one of which is a register optimizer.  The three main areas of ASC3 are “Maintain Windows”, “Diagnose System” and “Utilities” and under each of those you will find a glut of apps to run that may help out your computer.

“Maintain Windows” will give you the ability to remove spyware, run a registry fixer, start a privacy check and finally clean up unneeded (junk) files on your system.  All of which are intelligent things to do to keep your computer running well.

The second area of the program, “Diagnose System” contains programs for system optimizations, security defense, defragmenting your disk and analyzing the security of your computer.

Finally, the third step related to “Utilities” would be a couple of important items: disk cleaning, smart defrag (which needs to first be downloaded from the same site…also free of charge) and a register defragger.  There are also several other good maintenance applications you should run under this utility area; however, the ones that I mentioned are, in my opinion, the most important.

The “Smart Defrag” application which I mentioned that needs downloading seems to work faster and maybe even a little better than the defrag program built into windows.  It also allows you to set it to run at a repetitive cycle daily, weekly, monthly, etc. which surely comes in handy.

Make sure when you start the process that you have some time to invest.  Some of the modules run for less than a minute.  However, some of them ran an hour or so on my computer and it slowed down the rest of the system, but only while it was running.

I asked my wife her thoughts on how running these processes on her computer affected its operation.  She said that it was 100% faster than it was before I ran them, so hopefully this group of programs can help Dennis and others of you too.  Let me know what you think after you run it.

I also feel like I have to run a disclaimer when I talk about a program that adjusts your computer, so here it is.  Use this product at your own risk.  I have run it on three computers and all of them run significantly better than before but I suppose there could always be some risk involved.