It might seem extremely tempting to pay someone to remove spyware from your computer; however, under some circumstances, you can do it yourself. Removing spyware is necessary; hiring or paying someone to do it for you is not. There are several different software programs you can purchase or download for free that will most likely remove unwanted spyware from your computer. Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons of safely removing spyware from your computer yourself rather than paying someone to do it for you.
Here are some questions to ask yourself when it comes to spyware and getting it off your computer:
1. Computer down time:
You can download a free spyware removal program that will scan your system, detect any viruses, Trojans, worms or spyware programs and instruct you on what to do to quarantine or delete the offending items. If you elect to do this, you can keep your computer at home and lose considerably less downtime versus taking it to someone to have them do it for you.
Should you decide to take your computer to someone to get it fixed, you will likely be without it for a minimum of two to three days. Most of us cannot go a few hours without our computers never mind 2 or 3 days. The amount of time you will be without your machine depends on a few factors: principally, how many technicians the company employs, how many sick computers are ahead of yours and the severity of your spyware problem.
2. Personal Information:
If you decide to remove spyware at home using one of the many free programs available, your personal information is safe from the possibly prying eyes of the computer technician working on your computer. However, if your computer is infected with spyware, depending upon the severity of it, the computer tech seeing your personal information is the least of your concerns.
If you take your computer to a computer technician to have them rid your machine of spyware, while your information might be at risk, the risk would be negligible. When computer technicians are removing spyware, they are typically going through your computer’s registry, or its guts, looking for lines of information that do not belong or duplicated lines which indicate the presence of a virus. A technician removing spyware from your computer is akin to a surgeon working on your heart; they don’t care about anything other than doing the surgical work to get your heart, or in the case of a computer tech, your computer working again.
3. Money, money, money:
If you take your computer to a technician to have them remove the spyware, depending on the severity of the problem, it could take a few hours or a day or two. Most good techs charge between $25-$50 per hour, depending on how long they’ve been fixing computers, the depth of the problem and what it will take to fix it. If you have a tough spyware case and a tech can get rid of the problem, it’s worth the money as, if you’re facing this same situation by yourself and you’re not computer savvy, you could do irreparable harm to your computer. If you don’t know what you’re doing and render your computer useless, that’s more expensive a problem than a tech working on it.
While paying someone to remove spyware from your computer means you don’t have to do it, it also means you’re paying someone to do something you can usually do by yourself with the right program. Weigh the pros and cons and if you decide you’d rather someone who knows more about computers than you work on it, get references from your person of choice and make sure you’re comfortable with your choice before you hand over your machine. Losing your files or your computer entirely is a far more costly proposition than paying a computer tech to work on your machine.
