computer virus!

[SMOKE 1,426]

my SO downloaded a virus to our home computer yesterday. anybody know of a free anti virus i can download to remove it? or am i stuck paying someone to fix?

Edited August 16, 2008 by SMOKE

[Otto 83]

http://www.avast.com/

[william_wallace 8]

www.majorgeeks.com

[SMOKE 1,426]

thank you. will try when i get off work.

[SMOKE 1,426]

well after ?? hours & downloading & running every antivirus/malware program i could find, none of which fixed the problem. i was seconds away from reinstall. i found this site: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ downloaded & ran the recommended program 20 sec. to download...45 sec. for quick scan. fixed. WOOO!!!

[KiKi 0]

We have Avast and it's REALLY good. It's caught tons of things BEFORE they can infect our computer........

[almaty 19]

well after ?? hours & downloading & running every antivirus/malware program i could find, none of which fixed the problem. i was seconds away from reinstall. i found this site: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ downloaded & ran the recommended program 20 sec. to download...45 sec. for quick scan. fixed. WOOO!!!

cool.. i use that next time run into trouble

[aidan80 9]

Probably too late to post anything now but from experience in the field (well actually in my former workroom/office).. try the following if all else fails:

• Uninstall your old beaten to death A/V reboot..
• Start in safe mode keep pressing F8 after you turn on your computer.
• from the menu select "Safe Mode with Networking"
• Download and install a new free (or the one you just bought) scanner.. e.g...
• AVG Free or even Panda, there are others which work just as well!!
• I'd also recommend installing something else e.g. Adaware or even Spybot
• Reboot if needed after both installs and start up in Safe Mode with Networking again...
• Update the A/V and run a scan, when it's done run a spyware/malware/scumware scan. Delete/quarantine all the nasties!
• Start up as normal and all should be well?.. defrag is always a nice way to finish it all off

You can always run a free Trend Micro scan via your web browser either via Firefox or IE. No need to uninstall or install anything other than maybe a browser plugin. Keep in mind if you try to run this while your infected there's always a chance, depending on the virus that it may return a false negative or even block you from reaching the Trend Micro site. In the case of some scumware you may not have an option of seeing anything on the web but what it wants to show you! Starting Windows in safe mode loads only the bare essentials to start the machine, normally nothing else starts up. It's an excellent GUI environment to go on the attack against the evils of "the net".

If you do give up or if it's just too much and you have a branded machine.. e.g. Dell, Gateway, eMachines etc.. look for the "System Restoration" disc. Stick it in the CD/DVD drive and reboot. On the next boot it should (if BIOS settings are set correctly) boot from the CD/DVD and ask if you'd like to restore your machine. Run through the wizard and in no time you'll be back to how it was when you bought it. If you're missing the disc and know your machine number contact the manufacturer they may allow you to download the image from their website or even mail out a replacement CD/DVD.

Want to run a restore/reinstall but need your files?.. Try a "Live" CD/DVD, many variants of the Linux system are available as a free Live OS on the disk, they load into a RAM drive not your hard drive and normally allow you to access your files. Knoppix is one variant which should allow you to access those windows partitions formatted with NTFS. If you have a second DVD burner you can burn your files to a disk, send them via the network to another machine/internet or even send em to a flash/thumb drive.

I know this might be over kill but still, it's there if anyone needs it. If my machine went down I'd do everything I could to get my files back if I didn't have a backup.

Good luck!