Remove Virus From Laptop or Computer

How To Remove Virus From Laptop or Computer

There are many ways to remove viruses from a computer, some work and some don’t.  This guide is the best way to fix a computer virus.  All the tools used here are free for non-commercial use. Use this guide at your own risk. You are responsible for making sure your data is backed up.  This guide will help remove all rootkits, spyware, Trojans, viruses, malware, and other malicious software.  If you are not sure how to do some of the steps please feel free to contact PC Link Solutions and we can remove the virus remotely for $79

Step 1.

Boot up your computer in Safe Mode with Networking.  This can be accomplished by repeatable tapping the F8 key on your keyboard as soon as you hit the power button.  If you have an OEM computer like Dell or HP, other models too, soon as you see the Logo show up on your monitor; start hitting F8 until you see Advance Boot Options.  Once you see Advance Boot Options, use the arrow keys to move up and down to select Safe Mode with Networking.  If you use Windows XP select Yes when it asks you if you want to be in Safe Mode.

Step 2.

Navigate to a website by opening up Internet Explorer (or other web browser) and download a tool called ComboFix.  If you can’t open up Internet Explorer hold down the Windows Key (the key with a flag on it by the ctrl and alt button) and press the letter R once.  This will open up a box for you to type in a command or web address.  Type in http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/anti-virus/combofix and click on the ComboFix Download Link, which is the first mirror.  ComboFix is a very powerful tool and will remove Rootkits as well as other viruses and malicious software.  It will also fix a lot of problems the virus caused, such as hiding all your icons and documents.

Steps to running ComboFix

1.Click OK if you see a message about real time scanner, you’ll get a 2^nd message about real time scanner so click OK to that as well.

2.Combo Fix will attempt to back up the registry.  Click no if you see a prompt to download Windows Recovery Console

3.Combo Fix will start scanning to remove viruses, let this finish it can take anywhere from 5mins to all night.  Usually only lasts about 20-30 minutes for the entire process.  It has around 50 phases so let it finish and let it automatically reboot your computer or laptop.

4.If Combo Fix detects a root kit it will let you know.  It will prompt you twice letting you know about the rootkit then saying Combo Fix will automatically reboot. DO NOT REBOOT THE COMPUTER if this comes up.  It needs to reboot itself.  Combo Fix will then reboot the computer and run a 2^nd time.  Let Combo Fix run and do its job.

5.The final stage in Combo Fix is preparing the log report.  Make sure to let Combo Fix do this before using any programs or doing anything with your computer.  I’ve seen it take 2 hours to complete a report before so it could take a while, but usually only takes about 10 minutes.

6.You don’t need to do anything with the report, but it lists everything Combo Fix did.

7.After the log is done reboot the computer and go back into Safe Mode with networking.

Step 2.

The 2^nd tool in the arsenal of removing malicious software, viruses and the like is Malwarebytes.  Download this tool from http://www.malwarebytes.org/ You don’t have to pay for it, but they do offer a subscription plan which will protect your computer in the future from getting viruses, so you may want to purchase it.  It can run alongside your antivirus software.  Make sure Malwarebytes is updated and you can do a full scan.  The full scan can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 5 hours, just depends on how fast your computer is and how much stuff you have to scan.  Once the scan is complete click View Results, then RIGHT-CLICK and do CHECK ALL.  This will make sure all items are checked.  Then click Remove Selected.  This will remove all the viruses it found.  After it removed the viruses you can reboot the machine to finish the process.

Step 3.

The next step is to run Super Anti-Spyware, this will also remove malicious software, similar to Malwarebytes, but it can find and remove things other programs can’t, so it’s a good idea to run this tool.  It can be found at http://www.superantispyware.com/ You will also want to run a full scan, then remove any objects it finds.  You can purchase the product which will keep your system protected alongside a good antivirus program.  Once the scan is complete and objects are removed it should prompt you to reboot the computer, so go ahead and reboot the computer.

Step 4.

Remove hijacked URL’s with hijackthis.  Hijackthis is a free tool and can be found http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/ Go ahead and do a system scan with log file.  Copy the contents out of the log file and paste them into this web address http://hijackthis.de/ then click analyze.  Remove any objects that have a RED X and review the objects that have a YELLOW X to see if it’s a program you use.

Step 5.

Run CCleaner  which can be found here and clean out temporary files to help speed up your computer.  Also do a registry clean, and fix objects it finds.  Make sure to ALWAYS BACKUP the registry when doing a Registry clean.  CCleaner will prompt you to do this.  After this is done reboot your machine and your virus Free!