Step 2: Disable Unnecessary Services

Any services which are not needed for your day-to-day use should be disabled. By disabling or removing these services, viruses have less avenues of attack and you have fewer services to maintain through patch updates.

Note: Be sure to work with your departmental computing administrator as you adjust or shut off services on your machine. Some of these services may be in use by departments for automatic patching or backups.

Note: Before you begin, see the Definitions page for a list of services that can typically be turned off.

To view and disable the services that are running on your machine, follow these steps:

1. Click Start > Control Panel.
2. Double-click Administrative Tools and then Services. The Services window appears.
3. Double-click the service you wish to disable (e.g. Clipbook). The Properties window for that service appears.
4. From the Startup type: drop-down menu choose one of the following:
   • Automatic: This setting will start the service at boot time.
   • Manual: This setting allows Windows to start a service when needed.
   • Disabled: This setting will stop a service from starting, even if needed.
     
5. Repeat these steps for each service you want to disable.

Step 3: Run and Update a Spyware Removal Program