I’ve been doing computer support well over 10 years. I’ve seen many different types of problems and have had my fair share cleaning user’s computers that have been infected from the worst of the worst when it comes to spyware and viruses. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that you’ll most likely need multiple tools to disinfect your computer.
I’ve also witness countless people from coworkers to neighbors just blowing their money on highly marked up services like the Geek Squad to come out and service their machines. While they may end up getting the job done it will come at a hefty price. I’ve compiled my own little tutorial here to assist you as easy as possible with removing malicious software that may be on your computer.
Even if you’ve got a virus scanner on your computer something may sneak by. There are many people actively writing new code to infect your computer that the virus labs might not know about it. That’s why it’s important to share information with the anti virus labs. They actively collect potential threats and analyze them to make sure there’s something new out on the internet they’ve got to adjust their software to so it can clean it from your computer.
The best thing to do to prevent getting your computer virus is end user awareness. If people were more careful on what they clicked on they’d save themselves lots of money. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen people clicking on anything and everything and executing a random download that happened to popup on some website they were on. This is obviously a big no no and is just asking to get your computer infected with something.
First thing is first. You’ll always want to make sure you’ve got some sort of basic virus protection on your computer. I’ve always used Avast Free Home Edition for all of my home computer and it has worked well for me. I know the free scanners are going to differ from professional to professional. I’ve also known people how love Avira Free Antivirus and stand by it.
Both of these antivirus scanners have an on access scanner. What does that mean to you? Well, it means your virus scanner will actively scan connections and files for you and should alert you if it finds something bad before it gets a chance to infect your computer. When you install Avast Free Antivirus make sure you don’t fall for some of the advertising done within their software.
I know they’ve got to make money but they’ve done it in a way to make you think you’ve got to upgrade to the professional edition to get it working. The registration is absolutely free and has been for years on their home edition. You just need to read through the screens and take the correct action. When you first register you’ll also be asked if you want to run a credit report. You can disregard this message as well. They’re giving you a free antivirus so they’ve obviously got to find ways to monetize it. But by all means, if you’re really looking for any of that stuff go ahead and register. I’m just telling you there’s no need to shell out money for a product they’re giving to you for free.
Once you’ve got a solid virus scanner setup you’ll want to do a boot scan before your computer boots up. Below I’ve outlined how to do a boot time scan with Avast! Antivirus Free Home Edition.
What this does is only loads the needed drivers to boot your computer. This ensures the virus is not running while you’re doing your computer scan. If you’d like to do the boot time scan please keep following the instructions below.
How To Perform A Boot Time Scan With Avast! Free Home Edition
STEP1: Open Avast from the tray
STEP2: Select Boot Time Scan
STEP3: Click on Settings
STEP4: Areas to scan select ALL Hard Disks
Step5:Heuristics set to HIGH
STEP6: Make sure (scan for unwanted programs PUPS is checks and also check Unpack archive files)
STEP7: Once you’ve used the above settings go ahead and click on Schedule Now
The scan should take some time if you’ve got a lot of data on your drive. If Avast! find something it will ask you permission to remove the infection. Now here’s exactly what I do. There another free program out there that does very well called Combofix. After Avast has scanned your computer download and run Combofix. There’s really no install as it unpacks and runs as soon as you execute the executable from Combofix’s website.
Make sure you follow the instructions when you’re running Combofix. Combofix will create a restore point for you just in case something gets removed that will cripple your operating system. While I’ve never run into this problem all the years I’ve used it, I just wanted to point that out so you know what *could happen. Before you run your Combofix scan make sure Avast! Antivirus has been disabled. Sometimes Combofix will conflict with a lot of the antiviruses that are running on your computer which we don’t want.
To disable Avast right click on the Avast icon in the tray and select disable 7 active scanners. After you’ve disabled it you can proceed to run Combofix to make sure Avast for some reason didn’t pick up something it should have cleaned. I’ve been using this deadly mix of tools for years and this has been the most effective process for me.
Combofix will scan your computer for any rootkits, virus or spyware and automatically remove them from your computer. If you’ve got a bad infection it will want to reboot your computer to remove the infection. This is normal. Once the scan has been finished and it has done its job removing the files you should be good to go. If for some reason your computer is still acting sluggish you could try going to Start>run>msconfig and disabling a few start up items to make your computer run faster for you.
Sometimes its good to just do a factory reset or a reformat. This will wipe your computer clean so you can start off fresh again. Years of computer use will clutter your computer with registry entries and files that are no longer needed. This can noticeably slow down your computer. If you’re going to do a reformat make sure you backup all your files and even backup your drivers on the computer. I’ve done reformats and needed to figure out what kinda graphics driver to download which can be a pain.
To do my driver backups I’ve always used some software called Double Driver which is also free! Make sure you run that software before your reformat and put your drivers on a USB or CD. I’ll add another tutorial on here on how to reformat Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
If you’ve successfully followed all of my instructions you could have saved yourself a lot of money doing it this way. Most of the places that will service your computer are going to charge you for their time and even charge you for software they’re going to put on the machine which can really hurt your wallet. If you’re not computer savvy at all you still may want to consider calling somebody out or taking your machine in to be fixed.
Remove Spyware and Viruses From Your Computer For FREE,
