Anyone have any experience removing a computer virus?

[Kim&Chris]

I am so frustrated right now. Last night I accidentally downloaded some sort of rogue virus. I need to remove an av exe file, but I can't seem to find the info that will help. We downloaded a program to remove malware, and DH is running it right now, but it doesn't seem to be able to remove the files.

Any tips anyone can provide?

 

[FireDancer]

Microsoft has a monthly tool called the Malicious Software Removal Tool. To run it click start -> run and type MRT in the box. If your patches are up to date it will say February 2010 in the title bar. Click next and do a full scan.

There are a couple of other free tools you can use other then whatever virus scan software you run. Spybot and Ad-aware are good. Both are available from downloads.com.

To be honest though, I always do a clean install of Windows after I clean a computer. There are some viruses that get deep into Windows and it almost impossible to be sure you got rid of everything. Backup your data to an external drive. While it is still on that drive make sure to run all the tools I mentioned above against the data to make sure there isn't an exe waiting to reinstall itself. Install the Windows boot disc, do a complete format, and reinstall.

I am an I.T. director at a financial institution and pretty good at taking care of these problems and even I wouldn't trust that I got everything out of the computer. There are very sophisticated root kits out there that sit deep in the OS and hide from just about anyone.

Good luck.

 

[Kim&Chris]

thanks for the advice, but now it seems as though we have no admin rights on our computer. I guess that's what the virus changed?

 

[joviroxx]

When faced with a deep rooted virus, I alway do a clean install. Wipe it clean and start all over. This is why I like to keep most of our important information on external drives.

 

[FireDancer]

thanks for the advice, but now it seems as though we have no admin rights on our computer. I guess that's what the virus changed?

It might also seem that way because the virus is killing processes that may get rid of it. If you have another computer you can throw the hard drive in it as a slave and try to remove it as best you can. Since you aren't booting to the bad drive most viruses won't get loaded. Ideally this should be done on a throw away machine but I know most people don't have a test bench laying around their house. That is usually reserved for nerds or I.T. Pros...I know, I'm both.

 

[wilderness01]

We recently had this happen. You need to put it in safe mode and then run a protection program. I was told Kaspersky is good or aeg? Good luck. If that fails, wipe it clean and start fresh.

 

[Kim&Chris]

Thanks everyone!!

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

I keep a bootable USB drive on hand - boots to Ubuntu - just for times like these. It has all of the tools necessary to clean or format a drive. Not much help for the non-IT person. Sorry.

 

[SamRoc]

the best free one is Avast and then next one is clamwin.

 

[whogirl'smom]

We just paid $100 to get ours cleaned off after Vista Spyware 2010 invaded yesterday--the guy said it was the worst case he had ever seen. I didn't even have time to try to remove it myself before it had shut down EVERYTHING. Removed Vista and installed Windows 7 with Avast protection. I don't know how to do any of this stuff myself so it was worth it.

Good luck!

 

[DISdreamin']

I had a bad infection on our computer a few weeks ago...I ran malwarebytes and stinger from safe mode, then booted and re-ran each of them again. Installed AVG (the free version) and all has been well since then. Good luck and hope you are able to get things sorted out!

 

[MouseketeerOvaHere]

I took my laptop to a computer expert store after opening an email that was loaded with virus and they downloaded a program called malwarebytes anti-malware and it cleared everything up. I only have the free version and run it every month along with AVG and it gets the things AVG misses. I had registry key trackers, key loggers, trogan and conflicter and it took care of em all.

Here's a link. http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

Good luck.

 

[starwood]

When I have virus/computer problems I go to http://forums.whatthetech.com/forums.html. They have helped clean my computer and my DS's (numerous times). They are very knowledgeable.

 

[cabanafrau]

Microsoft has a monthly tool called the Malicious Software Removal Tool. To run it click start -> run and type MRT in the box. If your patches are up to date it will say February 2010 in the title bar. Click next and do a full scan.

There are a couple of other free tools you can use other then whatever virus scan software you run. Spybot and Ad-aware are good. Both are available from downloads.com.

To be honest though, I always do a clean install of Windows after I clean a computer. There are some viruses that get deep into Windows and it almost impossible to be sure you got rid of everything. Backup your data to an external drive. While it is still on that drive make sure to run all the tools I mentioned above against the data to make sure there isn't an exe waiting to reinstall itself. Install the Windows boot disc, do a complete format, and reinstall.

I am an I.T. director at a financial institution and pretty good at taking care of these problems and even I wouldn't trust that I got everything out of the computer. There are very sophisticated root kits out there that sit deep in the OS and hide from just about anyone.

Good luck.

^^Absolutely good advice. DH is also an IT manager & I can tell you the thing he most reminds family & friends who call crying with this issue is -- ALWAYS have a backup of your data -- ALWAYS. Next, get some antivirus protection on your computer & UPDATE REGULARLY. He just took in another victim last night & it's sitting down on his workbench now, running scan after scan. Our friends are holding their breath because all of their photos from at least the past five or six years are on there. 99.9% of the time he's successful at recovering all or most of people's data, but I sure wouldn't want to put my kids' pictures to chance.