How to Remove Malware from Your Computer
That moment you’ve long dreaded has finally come foe Windows computers that had been infected by Malware. It's not the end of the world though and there are some programs that fight for the good guys, help you clean that PC. I'm Seth Rosenblatt for CNET, and today I’ll be showing you how to use of helpful programs and to nurse your sick computer back to health.
One of the first steps is to ensure that you’ve actually been infected. If you’re seeing system slow downs, make sure that your computer has enough RAM. You’re not going anywhere if you try to run Photoshop on one gig of RAM, right? Also, one system cleaning tools like those found in CCleaner. CCleaner is best known for clearing out temporary internet files, cookies and other browsing tracks. But it also can wipe similar system tracks from your hard drive. This include check disk, file fragments, windows logs and cleaning your registry. After CCleaner, reboot your machine before attempting anything else. Now, if you’re certain that you’ve got an infection, breathe deep, remain calm and leave the panicking for other people.
First off, run an anti- virus scan. If you don’t have one installed, you may have just figured out why you got infected in the first place. Second, see if you can restore your system to a last known clean state without losing any major data. Windows 7 users will find it in the control panel’s action center, XP users will find under start, all programs, accessories, system tools and then click system restore. By the way, if you haven’t yet made a backup to restore your system from, now is a good time. But what if that doesn’t work? Where your last backup just from so long ago but the data loss would be catastrophic? You do have other options.
Grab Malwarebytes, this is anti-Malware and run it's deep scan. If the Malware won't let you, try changing name of the Malwarebytes installer to something innocuous to fool it. You can also boot into safe mode by hitting F8 when Windows is loading and run the scan from there. After the scan, follow the instructions for removing any detected threats. If that doesn’t to the trick, there are in fact even more options. One is to look through your start menu for any program that you don’t recognize and then search for it on the web to see if it's malicious or not. If it's a known threat, search for uninstallation instructions.
However, this can be very time consuming. It's more effective to use one of the free scanning tools that’s available. Kaspersky offers an excellent one that will help you identify what the infection is and it takes about two hours to complete depending on your system. Symantec, the makers of Norton, have a new downloadable program called Power Eraser which scans and cleans your computer for free. Note that Power Eraser is effective in part because it’s extremely aggressive. So be prepared to possibly loose some non-threatening programs.
On of the best security tools is Trend Micro HijackThis. It examines vulnerable or suspect parts of your system such as browser helper objects and certain types of registry keys and generates a log of items. If you can't make sense of the logs, you can post them to forums like bleepingcomputer or geekstogo, were more knowledgeable people can take a look. These gentle souls are volunteers though, so don’t expect to immediate answers.
If all else fails, you may have to do a clean reinstall of your operating system and applications. Microsoft has information on how to do it safely, but keep on mind that it’s really a last ditch effort. Also, there are documented effective ways through move even the most obnoxious fake anti-virus program. So it's not a fun process. But getting a Malware infection is a problem that can be fixed. For CNET, I'm Seth Rosenblatt. And remember, don’t click on anything I wouldn’t click on.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services