What to do if you get a virus
1. Do not open suspicious folder where the virus may be. Run a scan with a Free antivirus tool if You do not have Antivirus program installed. Download the tool from here, or use an online scanner. If Free tools do not catch the virus then submit a suspicious file here for analysis:Virustotal.com - all the best antivirus companies participate in VirusTotal
- Free, independent service
- Use of multiple antivirus engines
- Real-time automatic updates of virus signatures
- Detailed results from each antivirus engine
- Real time global statistics
Additional sites for file analysis if virus total is offline:
ca.com/us/securityadvisor/documents/collateral.aspx?cid=33514hot to remove Spyware manually
Great resources: ca.com/us/technology-security-resources.aspx
Step by step instruction on how to manually remove pests on your computer (for advanced users):
1. Identify the files you wish to delete. (Search all files created recently to find potential pest)
2. Disable the Pest's autostart using MSConfig.
3. Reboot into DOS
4. Delete or rename any files you identified in step 1.
5. Reboot back into Windows
6. Clean up registry entries, win.ini, system.ini, and any other locations which were automatically invoking this file.
7. Run PestPatrol (eTrust AntiSpyware) to ensure that the Pest is gone
If manual removal of files has left you with an error message or two at boot, then there are likely one or more references to the files you just deleted which also need to be cleaned up.
Check your Windows Start-up programs. The path of these programs
is:
C:\Documents and Settings\*Your Name Here*\Start
Menu\Programs\Startup
Also check
C:\WINDOWS\WINSTART.BAT
C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
C:\WINDOWS\wininit.ini
C:\WINDOWS\Win.ini
C:\WINDOWS\Sys.ini
Purging information from these areas will remove remaining references from your computer.
Good and bad Antivirus prevention
Symantec: Family Online Safety Guide (pdf)