Trying to understand F-Secures suggestions?

10_66

I sent a scan report to F-Secure following a warning that a virus had been detected on my computer. It automatically renamed the viruses (which I’m hoping renders them harmless!). F-Secure sent me a reply saying that:

“the viruses in your computer cannot be removed, because IE is running in the background, please download and install this: http://download.piriform.com/ccsetup214.exe. Furthermore, it is extremely advisable to use a safer browser to perform your online activities www.mozilla.com, this will prevent your files from being tracked again like earlier”.

Can someone please tell me what the first recommended (piriform) link achieves? Also, I had a look at the mozilla link, and see it’s for Firefox. What is this and does it replace Internet Explorer? F-Secure said that the viruses can’t be removed because IE is running, would I have to remove IE and replace it with Firefox? I’m not familiar with the complexities of how computer software operates (in case you hadn’t already guessed!), and would prefer to leave IE in place to avoid any further confusion for me, but if it’s not safe I don’t want to be sorry I didn’t take any action. Advice would be much appreciated.

espresso

The file that you are being advised to download is ccleaner, more details here including a tutorial.

You can't un-install IE but you can use a better alternative browser e.g. Firefox with add-ons like NoScript here for safer browsing.

10_66

espresso, I've just had a look at the ccleaner tour, just out of curiosity, what's the difference between running the ccleaner rather than just deleting browsing history from internet options? Would I just be able to download this tool without having to customise it, ie just leave it at its default settings?

Re Firefox, similarly, can I just download it without making any changes to it (and the add on you suggest)? I'm not at all with it with setting things up like this! Sorry