Removing OLD viruses from my computer?

Question

Hello! 5 years ago I got a Trojan infection on my computer WinVirus or something like that. Well, I hired geeksquad to come and remove the files and supposedly they did although things have been a bit squiffy ever since (slower, and the occasional freezing, etc.) no big deal though and no major problems.

Well I just did a scan with Software Explorer (windows Defender) and see that there are about 6 of those old files left on my computer, so they were not removed and were obviously well hidden!

They do not show up in Add/Remove and I cannot delete them when I right click ('access denied' if you can believe the nerve).

They have never been caught by my antivirus software or any other scans, but now that I know where they are I would really like to remove them since it feels a bit creepy...like a black widow hanging around in the closet.

I've heard that they can't hurt anything as long as I leave them alone but they are taking up space and if I can remove them I would love to.

Also, I'm not too keen on the idea of downloading any antivirus software or other programs online since this is where the thing came from to begin with, (A fake antivirus program). Is there something I can buy from my local software store instead?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Answer 1

AVG 8.0 IS great!!! it got rid of all my infections

Answer 2

Well if you want to download real antiviruses and antispyware from the web you should use

www.siteadvisor.com

type in the site name and check the reviews from users because siteadvisor isn't always accurate.

http://computersandhelp.blogspot.com/200...

Now I'm going to show some good free antivirus and antispyware from the web you can ease your fears of my links with siteadvisor. Also what the local software store might not help because rogue software tries to avoid norton,windows defender,etc.

Antivirus(should only download one for each computer)

Avira antivirus(my recommended choice)

http://www.avira.com/en/downloads/

Personal Review: Very good detection rates. Sometimes I can find a false positive from time to time but that's not much of a problem. Also if you get the free version it has the annoying habait of giving a popup about paying for the software maybe two times a day. It is very good to avoid disrupting what you were doing so I give this a rating of 9/10

AVG Antivirus Free Edition

http://www.grisoft.com/

Personal Review: Easy to use. Not the best detection rates but I very good product anyhow.

Rating 7/10

Avast! Antivirus

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.ht...

Personal Review: Easy to use. It probably has better detection rates then AVG so I'll give this a 8/10

Sorry never tried Nod32 but I heard good things about it.

Now lets talk about the Anti-spyware

You can download as many as you want.

Spybot Search and Destroy

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/downl...

Great program! One of my favorites for detecting and removing spyware. A must have and it's freeware. There isn't even a paid version but there is a donate option. It has the option to Immunize your browsers and recovery system if you wanted to undo the removal.

Malwarebytes Antimalware Free Edition

It's probably my favorite anti malware program. Good detection rates. Only used for scanning if you have the free version but great no the less.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

Malwarebytes RogueRemover Free

http://www.malwarebytes.org/rogueremover...

Detects for rogue software such has winfixer or spysheriff and deletes it. Just to let you know if you see a popup of rogue software suggesting you have "viruses" You should immedility disconnect your internet(to be on the safe side) and press ALT F4. Also please PLEASE don't click on either X,ok, or cancel because it will install anyway.

Superantispyware

A good scanning tool whats more there to say?

http://www.superantispyware.com/download...

It does sound like rogue software which is kinda annoying but trust me it's safe.

Ok once your sure all the malware is gone we will deal with the startup program and disable any you don't need.

Adaware Free

http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-2008/30...

Another great tool for finding spyware

Only download one antivirus and you can download all the antispyware you want

Answer 3

if you are not keen on downloading the good free stuff then no one can help you,go ahead spend a fortune,

i dont do fakes and i love free and i suggest all free and totally brilliant,

between them they will remove just about anything which may damage your system,,,you really do need a protection system(but you have to pay for a top one)AVG is free but only goes so far,

so i suggest you download the following ALL FREE Yahoo Toolbar with Antispy,run updates and scan,,,it advises you what to remove or leave be,,,then download Ad-aware and run it,,

or run search ,select all hidden files,select and delete then sit sit back and wait till it happens again

Answer 4

Press ctrl alt del. Close all programs. Go to shut down windows and wile shutting down hold ctrl shift alt and press cancel. Then Go to cmd prompt and type "cd" and next to cd type the directory the file is located. Press enter. Now type "del /F" and next to the F enter the name of the file you want to delete and press enter.

Answer 5

O.K. Here we go. First of all this is meant to answer the most commonly asked questions. Such as. 1) Why is my computer acting funny and what is malware,spyware,trojans,etc?  2)How can I tell if I am really infected? 3)How do I fix the problem? 4)Are there free utilities that I can use and if so which ones are best? 5)What is the best security software.

Your computer is most likely to act up as a result of MALWARE.  Malware, also known as Malicious Software, is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's informed consent. Malware includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, most rootkits, spyware, dishonest adware, and other malicious and unwanted software.

There are a couple of good Free online scans to verify the presence of an intrusion. Trend micro Housecall and Kaspersky. Housecall will also remove malware while Kaspersky offers a Free 30day FULL VERSION TRIAL.

Fixing the problem is only half the equasion. First is to attempt to prevent this from happening in the first place. To do this you must employ several tools together. A firewall. An anti-spyware utility. An anti-virus utility. And in some cases a popup blocker. Next is to remove any intrusions that happen to get through.*Note* The stronger your utilities and the more often they update their detection protocols the less likely something will get through.

The proper way to remove malware is to turn off your system restore. (malware hides a copy of itself there quite often) Then re boot into safe mode. (keep pressing f8 when you power up and select safe mode) Then run your anti virus / anti spyware-trojan utilities. Then re-boot with your internet connection disabled and re-run your scans. then turn your restore back on and set a new restore point.

Lets face it. You usually get what you pay for.There are some rather fine Freeware utilities out there but none of them are as strong as the ones you pay for. Of the pay ones Norton / Symantec is almost as big a joke as McAffee.Which is just marginally better than the c**p that microsoft packs with windows. Google the anti virus certifying bodies that rate these companies. Use what the pros use. Of the freeware out there my personal preferences are: For Anti-Virus) Avira Antivir, AVG, Avast, Cyber Defender.

For Anti-Spyware) Ad Aware, Panda, SpywareTerminator, SuperAntiSpyware, Spybot S&D.  Firewalls) Agnitum outpost, **COMODO PRO**, ZoneAlarm.

As for the paid for utilities There is something that needs saying. Running seperate utilities is more resource intensive on a system. It will use more of your processor as well as more of your RAM. Most GOOD security utilities are Suites which not only use less system resource but include such things as firewall, privacy protection, file anti-vir, mail anti-vir, web anti-vir, Anti-spam, parental control, and a little thing called a "Proactive defense" which monitors your computer for ANY unauthorized changes to its configuration. By the way I am a typical guy and surf p**n like the rest of you. (DON'T FRONT) I also operate and download in hostile environments. The reason I'm saying this is to tell you that a GOOD QUALITY SUITE (like Kaspersky or TrendMicro) is capable of really protecting the average user.

Here are some download links for the above mentioned software. And finally. Here is a review by PC Authority magazine of 47 products rated by price, performance,ease of use, etc.

http://www.pcauthority.com.au/Search/Def...

http://www.free-av.com/

http://lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_fr...

http://www.spywareterminator.com/

http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpostf...

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner

http://usa.kaspersky.com/trials/home-use...

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/