Malware Removal - Viruses/Spyware/Adware

[Bulletsponge]

Hey Everyone,

Since there has been a huge influx of people reporting Viruses, Spyware, and Adware both here, and at work I figured I would offer a "walk-through" of sorts to successfully remove these annoying items that plague us all. However, in this post I have made a few assumptions.

These are:

1. You are a local administrator of your computer, and you know all of the passwords to your computer.
2. You have Internet access
3. You are able to boot successfully in to Windows XP SP3/Win 7 SP1 (Latest)
4. You understand that there is absolutely no way to prevent Viruses and other forms of Malware 100% of the time.
5. You have a completely full backup of your system and all of your critical data. *

*Note: I myself, nor EdgeGamers Organization are responsible for data loss, or problems that come about to your personal computer as a result of following these, or any other technical help support guidance. Simply put, your computer is your responsibility.
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So, lets begin.

First you will need to boot to Windows in normal operating mode. This is your standard operating environment. Once in Windows perform the following steps to turn off the System Restore function built-in to Windows XP. This is a useless feature anyway:

1. RClick on My Computer -> Select Properties
2. Choose the "System Restore" tab
3. Select/Check the check box that says "Turn off System Restore on all drives"
4. Click "Apply" -> Click "OK"

Now you will go download your preferred removal utility. As a Systems Engineer I am constantly searching for software that are able to successfully remove dangerous malware/spyware. Currently, I am recommending the following software:

http://support.kaspersky.com/faq/?qid=208280684
http://www.malwarebytes.org
http://www.superantispyware.com
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/anti-virus/combofix
http://www.spybot.net


These are all free software programs. Absolutely no charge, but work extremely well when used as a tool set to clean your system from infection. Of the four software titles, SpyBot works the least and should be used last. The SpyBot immunization function is very helpful, but as for finding and eliminating threats, well... they just haven't kept up with the project.
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Once you have downloaded your preferred softwares you will need to install them**. Once you have installed the software titles, make sure you update them to their latest definitions. When you are positive you have the latest definitions for all of your software tools shut your computer down completely.

** NOTE: You should not install and run multiple Antivirus/Anti-Malware systems to your PC at the same time. Please run a single different software at a time. When finished, move on to the next. **

At this point you will need to press the power button on your system to power the machine on. Once you have done so, and have received your POST beep-code begin pressing the F8 key once every second. This is most frequently found above the number 7/8 keys accross the top. After a time you will be prompted to select a Windows Startup mode. You are going to go all the way to the top, and select "Safe Mode". Then press Enter.
*Important* At this point you will see a ton of directorys and files flood the screen, and your system will halt at the end for approximately 1-3 minutes while the safemode environment loads. This is normal. *DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER*

Once you have entered Safe-Mode you will be prompted with a Yes / No dialog box informing you that the computer is running in safe mode. Please Click Yes to continue running in safe mode. Then log in as the local Administrator.

Now that you are in safe mode, open the first of your preferred removal utilities. I recommend using TDSSKiller first for those of you using my recommended list. It takes only a few minutes. Then go straight to MalwareBytes. With MalwareBytes, perform a full system scan. This will take approximately 1-2 hours depending on the size of your computer, and the number of files it must scan as well as the number of infections it finds. Once this is complete, move on to remove the items listed. Do not be concerned if any items are not able to be removed successfully. Remember: You have more software titles to run!

Now run the second of your preferred removal softwares. I recommend using SuperAntiSpyware at this time, if you are using my recommended list. Perform a Quick system scan. This will take approximately 1 hour. Perform appropriate removal.

Now run your Antivirus utility. If using my recommended tools, this will be a quick system scan using Microsoft Security Essentials. This will take approximately 1-2 hours. The system will prompt you for removal actions (Remove, Delete, Clean, Quarantine) when the scan is complete.

Finally, perform the same steps using your last scan using another alternative removal utility. This is when I would determine if I need to run SpyBot or ComboFix, or if I am comfortable with the results I have received with my other tools. Perform the appropriate steps for removal. Remember: If you are going to use ComboFix, you need to make sure that you have a full complete backup of your computer first. ComboFix is an absolutely amazing tool but from time to time it does break stuff, so you need to have a good backup.

Now you can reboot your computer. I know, that was a long process but well worth it! 2-4 hours is better than rebuilding your system OS, and then having to reinstall all of your applications and drivers!

Once you have rebooted in to your normal Windows Operating environment, you can choose to rescan using quickscan options while logged in to your user account. I strongly recommend this action. Many forms of Malware lay hidden or undetectable unless you are using your specific user profile. If there are multiple user profiles on the PC, I recommend running quick scans from each one. Starting with those that are most likely to have caused the infection.

At this time your system should be virus, spyware, and adware free! (Relatively speaking)

Remember folks: The only way to be 100% certain you will never receive Malware is to simply not use the Internet and to not allow ANYONE to touch your computer. This is usually not a viable option, particularly for gamers so BE CAREFUL!

I hope this is found helpful by at least one person.

Regards,
Bulletsponge

 

[Kibo]

Thanks man so much. I can tell this took you a lot of time and you did an awesome job! I'm glad it's stickied!

 

[Legit^]

nice guide looks like it took some time

 

[Frazar]

here is my guide
1)computer breaks
2) have brother come over
3) have him fix it
4) Xbox time...

 

[Insurge]

Great stuff man, if anyone I know has problems with nasty viruses I will consult this guide

 

[Crawlerz]

guys hold on - the best anti-virus/scanner/fixer is FREE and it's DrWeb's CureIt. http://www.freedrweb.com/ i cannot beleive it isnt mentioned! there are free antiviral forums @ http://www.bullguard.com/forum/10/ post a new thread with logs if u suspect an infection. WAKE up people! AVG (even the bought one) detects only about 50-60% and eats alot of your computer resourses! slows u down to a crawl. since DrWeb actually fixed my pc and saved it from reformatting twice i will sing its prases for as long as i live. u should too

 

[Bulletsponge]

Crawlers, I've seen you post about this software many times and I do not anywhere in my post state that AVG is the best. I am completely open to the idea of better and more efficient software. I will gladly look in to the software you have provided the links to and hopefully I will also find it to be helpful.

I also mentioned that as a systems engineer I know the methodology I've provided works based on my experiences of daily supporting thousands of client PC's over hundreds of networks. The vast majority of which are Windows XP/Vista client PC's. I also recommended people use software's of their own choice, and provided a list of software for people to use if they are completely uncertain of what to do.

Finally, there is no study that I can find that proves AVG only finds 50-60% of viruses. I am interested in any cited evidence you can provide that shows this to be true. If you have used an arbitrary number to make a point I can understand, but if you have hard evidence that AVG only finds 50-60% of known viruses I would like to see it so I can issue a warning to my company not to renew our paid-subscriptions. We maintain paid subscriptions to legally provide virus removal on our corporate customer networks, then remove the software when we are finished.

 

[Pyro78]

hey guys. Just wanted to add my 2 cents.

In my oppinion you should take a look at

http://us.trendmicro.com/us/products/personal/internet-security/index.html?WT.svl=link2

Few things you should know about Malware today. Over 5000 new samples come out daily "This is spyware and viruses"

Most viruses today try to remain hidden on your PC and log information to feed an outside source. So the day of having a box screaming at you about a virus are gone.

This software includes Web Threat protection. What this meens is you have a small proxy service running on your machine, and when your PC goes out on port 80 "Web Traffic" it does a quick check on where you are going, then decides if you should load that page or not.

This is kind of like content filtering but with a few important differences. #1 this will not block adult sites "porn if you will" you can surf playboy all day and this wont block you. This is because playboy does not send out viruses and spyware so far. #2 this is more aggressivly updated then a normal content filter.

So the reason I bring this up is, once you clean your PC you need to invest in protecting it from the new infection. Web Threat protection makes it so you just get far far far fewer viruses in the first place. Also one license of this software will work on 3 home PC's. So for 50 bucks I protect 3 of my 5 home PC's.

Anyways just my two cents ;-)

 

[Swordsman12]

Thanks

 

[Angeal]

Here's another Anti spyware
spyware terminator
http://www.spywareterminator.com/

it seems pretty good.

 

[Cpt. Moogle]

I think everyone should use Hijack This/hijackthis it's very good as long as you have common knowledge on computers.

 

[( . Y . )Pola Negri]

You can go round and round with different various pieces of software enough to make your head spin.

Bulletsponge's suggestions are rock solid, those 4 listed pieces of software are very current and more than adequately protect you from "today's" threats.

Powerful software and yet remarkably still.... free!

 

[malalla]

luv u man found over 50 maleware and spyware etc. thing
they were stealing my connection bandwith....resulting in packet overflow no its great and fast
ty.
regards,
malalla

 

[Raptor]

Nice i need this my computer has some weird stuff in it.

 

[RotaryVelocity]

good stuff thanks for the post

 

[Miiikey]

thanks for this guide

 

[Kulture]

nice walkthrough. I have never run successive malware-virus programs like this, but I will give it a go. I usually just use spybot.

 

[RyanSoFire]

I never use an anti virus/spyware program. Mostly because it slows the computer down a whole lot. Plus I've never gotten a virus.

 

[PsshWomenPlease]

help for vista users? i just noticed the guide was SP3 :O cuz i have a nasty virus in my comp now that doesnt want to be cleaned by the programs you listed. but then again i scanned them all at the same time and wasnt in safe mode. so ima go and scan 1 at a time in safemode to try and clean it all up.

 

[.[BORN]2kill]

Good guide. I too am a systems admin and have a pretty good side business.

To the OP: Spyware Doctor works great too and you can install on 3 PC's with one license. http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/

I will have to check out the malwarebytes next time I am having problems.

Thanks for the post!