How to remove a Trojan, Virus, Worm, or other Malware?
About the Virus: If you use a computer, read the newspaper, or watch the news, you will know about computer viruses or other malware. These are those malicious programs that once they infect your machine will start causing havoc on your computer. What many people do not know is that there are many different types of infections that are categorized in the general category of Malware.
Malware - Malware is programming or files that are developed for the purpose of doing harm. Thus, malware includes computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spyware, hijackers, and certain type of adware.
This article will focus on those malware that are considered viruses, trojans, worms, and viruses, though this information can be used to remove the other types of malware as well. We will not go into specific details about any one particular infection, but rather provide a broad overview of how these infections can be removed. For the most part these instructions should allow you to remove a good deal of infections, but there are some that need special steps to be removed and these won't be covered under this tutorial.
Before we continue it is important to understand the generic malware terms that you will be reading about.
Adware - A program that generates popups on your computer or displays advertisements. It is important to note that not all adware programs are necessarily considered malware. There are many legitimate programs that are given for free that display ads in their programs in order to generate revenue. As long as this information is provided up front then they are generally not considered malware.
Backdoor - A program that allows a remote user to execute commands and tasks on your computer without your permission. These types of programs are typically used to launch attacks on other computers, distribute copyrighted software or media, or hack other computers.
Dialler - A program that typically dials a premium rate number that has per minute charges over and above the typical call charge. These calls are with the intent of gaining access to pornographic material.
Hijackers - A program that attempts to hijack certain Internet functions like redirecting your start page to the hijacker's own start page, redirecting search queries to a undesired search engine, or replace search results from popular search engines with their own information.
Spyware - A program that monitors your activity or information on your computer and sends that information to a remote computer without your knowledge.
Trojan - A program that has been designed to appear innocent but has been intentionally designed to cause some malicious activity or to provide a backdoor to your system.
Virus - A program that when run, has the ability to self-replicate by infecting other programs and files on your computer. These programs can have many effects ranging from wiping your hard drive, displaying a joke in a small box, or doing nothing at all except to replicate itself. These types of infections tend to be localized to your computer and not have the ability to spread to another computer on their own. The word virus has incorrectly become a general term that encompasses trojans, worms, and viruses.
Worm - A program that when run, has the ability to spread to other computers on its own using either mass-mailing techniques to email addresses found on your computer or by using the Internet to infect a remote computer using known security holes.
How these infections start
Just like any program, in order for the program to work, it must be started. Malware programs are no different in this respect and must be started in some fashion in order to do what they were designed to do. For the most part these infections run by creating a configuration entry in the Windows Registry in order to make these programs start when your computer starts.
Unfortunately, though, in the Windows operating system there are many different ways to make a program start which can make it difficult for the average computer user to find manually. Luckily for us, though, there are programs that allow us to cut through this confusion and see the various programs that are automatically starting when windows boots. The program we recommend for this, because its free and detailed, is Autoruns from Sysinternals.When you run this program it will list all the various programs that start when your computer is booted into Windows. For the most part, the majority of these programs are safe and should be left alone unless you know what you are doing or know you do not need them to run at startup.
Solution:Automated Removal Instructions for VirusBursters and VirusBurst:
Print out these instructions as we will need to close every window that is open later in the fix.
Download SmitfraudFix.exe from here and save it to your desktop:
SmitFraudFix.exe
Confirm that the file SmitfraudFix.exe now resides on your desktop, but do not double-click on the icon as of yet. We will use it in later steps. The icon will look like the one below:
Next, please reboot your computer into Safe Mode by doing the following:
Restart your computer
After hearing your computer beep once during startup, but before the Windows icon appears, press F8.
Instead of Windows loading as normal, a menu should appear
Select the first option, to run Windows in Safe Mode.
When you are at the logon prompt, log in as the user you were performing the previous steps as.
When your computer has started in safe mode, and you see the desktop, close all open Windows.
Now, double-click on the SmitFraudfix icon that should be residing on your desktop.The icon will look like the one below:
When the tool first starts you will see a credits screen. Simply press any key on your keyboard to get to the next screen.
You will now see a menu as shown in the image below. Press the number 2 on your keyboard and the press the enter key to choose the option Clean (safe mode recommended).
The program will start cleaning your computer and go through a series of cleanup processes. When it is done, it will automatically start the Disk Cleanup program as shown by the image below.
This program will remove all Temp, Temporary Internet Files, and other files that may be leftover files from this infection. This process can take up to a few hours depending on your computer, so please be patient. When it is complete, it will close automatically and you will should continue with step 11.
When Disk Cleanup is finished, you will be presented with an option asking Do you want to clean the registry ? (y/n). At this screen you should press the Y button on your keyboard and then press the enter key.
When this last routine is finished, you will be presented with a red screen stating Computer will reboot now. Close all applications. You should now press the spacebar on your computer. A counter will appear stating that the computer will reboot in 15 seconds. Do not cancel this countdown and allow your computer to reboot.
Once the computer has rebooted, you will be presented with a Notepad screen containing a log of all the files removed from your computer. Examine this log, and when you are done, close the Notepad screen.Your computer should now be free of the VirusBursters, Virus-Bursters and VirusBurster infection.If you are still having problems with spyware after completing these instructions, then please follow the steps outlined in the topic linked below:
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