Scientechie

Nowadays, viruses, trojans, spyware, and other malware is rife. The best defence, of course, is prevention. Keeping a system clean is relatively easy.

But what happens if you realize too late, and you do get your system infected? Note that this is meant for Windows users, after all, I have yet to see a Linux user report any infection.

Cleaning an infected PC is difficult. Very difficult, because malware now employs extremely good defensive techniques. Cross monitoring of processes, multiple replications, mimicking OS files, and so on.

What you must do is to clean up - and it’s no easy task. Here’s a summary.

1. Get yourself an antivirus scanner, preferably Eset’s NOD32 or Symantec’s Norton. These cost money, but the trials versions will also do disinfection for you. Full scans.
2. Download and use Mbam. Full scan.
3. Run an online scan from http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/
4. Use the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool. Full scan.
5. Now that the system will hopefully be clean, buy one of the products listed in step 1, and turn on full protection.

There is a good chance that this routine of steps will clean an infected system.

But this is not a 100% certainty. If some really sticky malware remains, the best you can do is a full reformat of your hard disk, and take full preventive measures.