Virus removal can be a difficult task even for the tech-experts and some viruses can resist removal. If your computer is playing sounds, moving extremely slow or taking you to wrong websites I recommend you seek a qualified computer repair shop for removal. If on the other hand your computer is running well and you want to do a routine virus scan here are some tips to keep your computer free of infections. You should do a weekly virus scan with a powerful malware removal tool (not your antivirus software suite) such as Malwarebytes free edition which I will explain in detail below.
Start in Safe Mode
Safe mode is used for troubleshooting issues and runs only the minimum software and drivers necessary to start your computer. To start in safe mode you should remove all the CDs, floppies, or USB storage from your computer and restart. Press and hold the F8 key while the computer is restarting. You need to press F8 before the Windows logo is shown. If it appears before you press F8, then you need to go through the entire restart cycle again. You will be shown a black screen with white lettering and an advanced boot option menu. Use the down arrow to select “safe mode with networking” and hit enter.
Remove Any Suspicious Programs from Control Panel
You should manually remove any suspicious programs from your computer using the control panel. The file path in Windows 7 is: Start > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs. Make sure you know what you are removing and take precautions not to remove any of your system software that is critical for your machine to run correctly or application software that you use which is “non-problematic.” I especially target games, toolbars and media players for removal. If you have a question about what an application does “Google It.”
Remove Aftermarket Browsers and Reset IE
I recommend removing aftermarket browsers such as Chrome and Firefox and resetting Internet Explorer by following the below steps. To remove Chrome and Firefox go back to Start > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs. Internet Explorer can be reset in control panel too. The file path in Windows 7 for resetting IE is Start > Control Panel > Networking and Sharing >Internet Options > Advanced Tab.
Run Malwarebytes Free Edition and Restart
The Malwarebytes is a free Anti-Malware program, which features high speed scanning and removal of the suspicious Malware on your computer. If not installed, you can download it free from the internet at http://www.malwarebytes.org. Be sure to stick with the free version and do not enable the Pro Version (uncheck checkbox for pro). Once installed, select full scan. After the scan if finished check the box by the infections and click remove. Restart your computer.
