Windows 7: Review Personal Downloads Folders

Windows Security Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟Windows 7: Review Personal Downloads Folders

This section provides a tutorial example on how to review and clean download folders of user accounts on Windows 7 system.

The key folders to review on the hard disk are download folders, which are located inside personal folders of user accounts created on the Windows 7 system.

1. Open a command window and run the following commands.

C:>cd \users\herong\Downloads

C:\Users\herong\Downloads>dir /a /od
...
07/12/2013  02:35 PM        10,026,712 installer.exe
07/15/2013  08:44 PM         2,429,759 Aspell-en-0.50-2-3.exe
07/30/2013  08:51 PM           903,080 chromeinstall-7u25.exe
08/03/2013  09:50 PM       105,664,248 ZuneSetupPkg.exe
09/17/2013  08:57 AM           258,928 Cisco_WebEx_Add-On.exe
              51 File(s)    324,946,836 bytes

2. Review most recent downloaded files near the bottom of the list. If you see any file name that you are not familiar with, you should look detail properties of the file and search Internet to find out more information about it.

For example, I see installer.exe in my download folder and I don't know what it is by looking at the file name. So I open its file properties and see the file description of "Akamai NetSession Client Installer". Then I check the installed program list and see that I have installed an Akamai product some time ago. I don't need this program anymore now. I will uninstall it.

3. If it is confirmed that a download file represents a virus or a spamware, you need spend time to remove it from your system.

4. If a download file is a legitimate file downloaded by you and not needed any more. Delete the file to the download file clean.

5. Continue to review download folders of other user accounts on your Windows 7 system. Don't forget your kids' user accounts. They probably have way more downloads than you.