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Malware Removal
Guide
Welcome to
the Piriform Forums
Malware Removal Guide. This guide is
intended to remove as much of the viruses and spyware on your computer as
possible before asking for help on the forum. By following this
guide you are saving yourself and the helpers on the forum both time
and frustration. Your request for help will not be ignored if you do
not follow this guide but you still may be asked by the helper to go
through it before they offer further assistance.
You
will notice that for Step 2 in the guide there is an A and B. You do
not have to run them both.
Step 2A is for people who fit into the
following category:
- You do not have an antivirus installed
on your computer
- Your antivirus program is expired. (you
have to uninstall it before starting the guide)
- You just
don't like your current antivirus program and want something better.
(again you must uninstall it before starting the guide)
Step 2B is for the following categories of
people:
-You have an antivirus program that is
under license and that you like.
Step 1: CCleaner
1. Download and install CCleaner from here.
2. Once you have installed CCleaner open it up and press the "run cleaner" button in the bottom right corner.
3. The first time you run it you will get a prompt just press ok and let CCleaner run.
4. Once ccleaner has completed its cleaning exit the program and continue to step 2A or 2B.
Step 2A: Virus Removal (AntiVir Personal
Edition)
1. Download AntiVir Personal
Edition
2.
Install AntiVir by double clicking the installer and following the
prompts. Do a complete install and do not change any of the
settings.
3. After the installation is complete you will be
prompted to update the virus definitions. Click YES. (You might get a
pop up advertising the pro version of AntiVir. Just click ok and it
will go away.)
4. When the update is complete open AntiVir and
click on the Scanner tab. Make sure local discs is highlighted and
click on the magnifying glass. AntiVir will now begin to scan your
computer for viruses.
5.
When/if a virus is detected AntiVir will alert you with a pop up.
Choose to move the file to quarantine and check the box that say "apply
selection to all following detections". This will let AntiVir
quarantine all files found and not prompt you for each one.
6.
Once the scan is finished go back to the main AntiVir interface. Click
on reports and you will see the date of the scan you just ran. Double
click it and then press "report file". A notepad file will open. Save
that notepad file to your desktop as AntiVir log.
7. Now move onto step 3.
Step 2B:
Virus Removal (Bitdefender Online
Scanner)
1.
Using Internet Explorer please go
here
to run BitDefender's Online scan
2. Read the terms and then click
I Agree
3. You may receive a Security Warning about the
BitDefender ActiveX control, If you do, please allow it to
install.
4. On the scanning Options screen, Press Click Here
To Scan and then follow the on screen prompts.
5. Once bit
defender is finished scanning your computer it will automatically
remove the infections. Once the removal process is finished press
the close button and a dialog box will appear asking if you want to
send your scan log back to the makers of Bitdefender. You do not
have to do this but what you do want to do is press the buttons that
says "view log" and then copy and paste that log into notepad and
save it to your desktop as bitdefender.txt.
6. With the
bitdefender log on your desktop continue to step 3.
Step 3: Malware Bytes Anti-Malware
1. Please download MalwareBytes Anti-malware (MBAM) from here
2. Double-click on the icon on your desktop named Download_mbam-setup.exe to start the installation of MBAM.
3. When
the installation begins, keep following the prompts in order to
continue with the installation process. when the program has finished
installing, make sure you leave both the Update Malwarebytes'
Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware checked. Then click
on the Finish button.
4. MBAM will now automatically start and
you will see a message stating that you should update the program
before performing a scan. As MBAM will automatically update itself
after the install, you can press the OK button to close that box and
you will now be at the main program.
5. On the Scanner tab, make
sure the the Perform quick scan option is selected and then click on
the Scan button to start scanning your computer.
6. MBAM will now start scanning your computer for malware. This process can take quite a while. When
the scan is finished a message box will appear that it has completed
scanning successfully. Click OK. Now click Show Results.
7. Make sure all entries have a checkmark at their far left. Click
on the Remove Selected button to remove all the listed malware. MBAM
will then delete all of the files and registry keys and add them to the
programs' quarantine.
When MBAM has finished removing the
malware, it will open the scan log and display it in Notepad. Save the
file to your desktop and continue on to step 4. Step 4:
Hijackthis
1.
Download and install the latest version of HijackThis here.
2. Once the File has downloaded
extract (unzip) the files from the .zip file you into the new folder
you created.
3. Open the new folder and double click
hijackthis.exe and choose to “scan and save log file”. Hijackthis
will scan your computer and when its done notepad will open with the
log. Go to File>Save and choose to save the file to your desktop
and name it hijackthis.txt.
4. Exit notepad and Hijackthis
and continue to the final step, step 5.
Step 5: Posting To The
Forum
1. Create an account on the Piriform Forums
if you do not have one by going here.
2.
Go to the Piriform Forums section called "Spyware Hell: Hijackthis Log Analysis".
3.
While logged in press the "New Topic" button in the top left.
4.
This is where you copy and paste in the following items:
- Antivir log OR a Bitdefender online scan log.
- MalwareBytes Anti-malware log
- Hijackthis log.
5. Press the Post New Topic button and then all you have to do
is wait for assistance from one of the Hijackthis Log Helpers. Only follow directions
from someone on that
list.
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