jmacavali
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My Brief 1 Page Guide to Cleaning Up an Infected Windows Computer
*Not responsible for any data loss or for any damage done to the computer*
1. The first step to cleaning up an infected computer is to backup all your important data.
- Find all of your Documents/Pictures/Emails.
- If you use webmail for your email (ie, you go to the Internet and access your ISP's website) then you will not need to worry about backing up your emails. If you use Outlook Express or another Email Client, search on Google as to where to go to back up the necessary files.
- Copy all this data to a CD/DVD/Flash Drive.
***It's not a bad idea to do this backup weekly/monthly anyway so that you have your data in the event of a computer crash***
2. Now that your data is backed up you can proceed. I use 2 programs --both free-- to remove any viruses/spyware/malware on my computer. Depending on how bad of a virus you have you may or may not be able to access the Internet. If you can't you will need to do the following steps from another computer and save the installation files to a flash drive or CD and then run them on the infected computer.
- The first program you will want to download is called MalwareBytes Anti-Malware. It can be downloaded from: malwarebytes.org (choose the free version). Once you have downloaded the program, you will want to run the installation and then update the program.
- Then restart your computer into Safe Mode. Pressing F8 as the computer turns on will give you the boot options and allow you to choose Safe Mode.
- Once in Safe Mode, open MalwareBytes and run a full system scan. Remove anything that it finds.
- Restart the computer (regularly) and see if the virus is still infecting the system.
- If not, congratulations! If so, continue.
- The next program we will try is called AVG Free AntiVirus. It can be downloaded from free.avg.com (again, choose the free version). Please be advised that you should not have 2 antivirus programs installed so that if you already have one, use that program to perform the system scan.
- Follow the same steps as above.
- Install, update, restart into Safe Mode, Full Scan, Restart and see if virus is removed.
3. It has been my experience that these two programs will find and remove most (if not all) viruses that I've run into. If they won't do the job, the next option is to format and reload Windows. This is an advanced step and deserves a guide in itself, however here's a brief overview of the process.
- Make sure you have all the data you want backed up.
- Make sure you have all of your program disks (any program that you've loaded onto the computer will be gone).
- Your computer should have come with a Restore CD. You will need this to continue. It will restore the computer to factory settings.
- Insert the Restore CD into the CD-Drive and restart your computer.
- You will be prompted to boot off of the CD. Do so and follow the on screen directions to format and reload Windows onto your computer.
- Reload any programs you previously had.
- Restore your data from the backup you've made.
*Not responsible for any data loss or for any damage done to the computer*
1. The first step to cleaning up an infected computer is to backup all your important data.
- Find all of your Documents/Pictures/Emails.
- If you use webmail for your email (ie, you go to the Internet and access your ISP's website) then you will not need to worry about backing up your emails. If you use Outlook Express or another Email Client, search on Google as to where to go to back up the necessary files.
- Copy all this data to a CD/DVD/Flash Drive.
***It's not a bad idea to do this backup weekly/monthly anyway so that you have your data in the event of a computer crash***
2. Now that your data is backed up you can proceed. I use 2 programs --both free-- to remove any viruses/spyware/malware on my computer. Depending on how bad of a virus you have you may or may not be able to access the Internet. If you can't you will need to do the following steps from another computer and save the installation files to a flash drive or CD and then run them on the infected computer.
- The first program you will want to download is called MalwareBytes Anti-Malware. It can be downloaded from: malwarebytes.org (choose the free version). Once you have downloaded the program, you will want to run the installation and then update the program.
- Then restart your computer into Safe Mode. Pressing F8 as the computer turns on will give you the boot options and allow you to choose Safe Mode.
- Once in Safe Mode, open MalwareBytes and run a full system scan. Remove anything that it finds.
- Restart the computer (regularly) and see if the virus is still infecting the system.
- If not, congratulations! If so, continue.
- The next program we will try is called AVG Free AntiVirus. It can be downloaded from free.avg.com (again, choose the free version). Please be advised that you should not have 2 antivirus programs installed so that if you already have one, use that program to perform the system scan.
- Follow the same steps as above.
- Install, update, restart into Safe Mode, Full Scan, Restart and see if virus is removed.
3. It has been my experience that these two programs will find and remove most (if not all) viruses that I've run into. If they won't do the job, the next option is to format and reload Windows. This is an advanced step and deserves a guide in itself, however here's a brief overview of the process.
- Make sure you have all the data you want backed up.
- Make sure you have all of your program disks (any program that you've loaded onto the computer will be gone).
- Your computer should have come with a Restore CD. You will need this to continue. It will restore the computer to factory settings.
- Insert the Restore CD into the CD-Drive and restart your computer.
- You will be prompted to boot off of the CD. Do so and follow the on screen directions to format and reload Windows onto your computer.
- Reload any programs you previously had.
- Restore your data from the backup you've made.