General help on eradicating viruses

[cullens]

Hello,
I am pretty much a novice here, so bear with me.
I have damage on my Windows 7 PC, and I am wondering what is the best way (or product) to repair the damage.
I am looking into Reimage Online PC Repair, but want to get some feedback before I spend the money.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
TY!
Maureen

[JoeP517]

What kind of damage? What are the symptoms?

Do you have any anti-malware software installed now?

Joe

[cullens]

Hi Joe,
I am running Microsoft Security Essentials.
It has removed viruses, but there is damage that I need to repair.
Maureen

[cullens]

Sorry Joe,
The symptoms are various. My pages suddenly jump to the bottom or top, and recently, my pointer freezes.
I cleaned the mouse and it seems to be working properly.
Thanks,
Maureen

[Medico]

Sorry Joe,
The symptoms are various. My pages suddenly jump to the bottom or top, and recently, my pointer freezes.
I cleaned the mouse and it seems to be working properly.
Thanks,
Maureen

Does this mean your original symptoms have disappeared with the mouse cleaning? You say you had viruses, were these discovered after you installed MSE AV/AM? It is always a good practice to keep your system up to date with patches and keep your AV and AM running in the background. I would also get in the babit of running manual scans at least once per week with MSE and a couple of other AM apps like MalwareBytes or Spybot search and Destroy or even SuperAntiSpyware. Keeping your PC secure means spending the time to be proactive to do so.

[cullens]

Does this mean your original symptoms have disappeared with the mouse cleaning? You say you had viruses, were these discovered after you installed MSE AV/AM? It is always a good practice to keep your system up to date with patches and keep your AV and AM running in the background. I would also get in the babit of running manual scans at least once per week with MSE and a couple of other AM apps like MalwareBytes or Spybot search and Destroy or even SuperAntiSpyware. Keeping your PC secure means spending the time to be proactive to do so.

What is going on is this, I have a daily scan of my PC. I installed Microsoft Security Essentials, and it found the viruses and discarded them. I am now having problems caused by the viruses.
I downloaded the MSE AV/AM just recently. I had AVG before that and Malwarebytes. The AVG is gone, replaced by the MSE AV/AM.
I thought maybe my symptoms were due to my mouse, but that wasn't it.
My original question was, what can I do to clean the damage?
TY!
Maureen

[Medico]

You may want to consider taking the PC to an expert to help. These types of clean ups are often very involved. It's possible you have been hit with one of the numerous fraudulent security threats that seem to be popping up all over the web. The other possibility is a reinstall of the OS. A clean install will get you back to a pristine condition. After the install, the first app I would install is MSE or another good AV and AM app. Then you could start installing other apps.

If you choose a clean install over your existing OS, a folder is created in your root drive ("C" drive) called windows.old This folder contains your entire old OS. You can grab all your data and drag it into the reinstalled OS. One caveat, this folder will also contain the nasties if you still have some so be very careful what you grab and how you use this stuff. Only get data, personal pics that you actually added yourself, music you actually added yourself, contacts you actually added yourself, etc.

An entire reformat and clean install is the most secure way to ensure these nasties are gone, however, unless your data is backed up somewhere, you will loose all this as well. If you have minimal amounts of data, or it will be easy to replace this with new, this would be the most secure and safest route to rebuild your OS.

[cullens]

You may want to consider taking the PC to an expert to help. These types of clean ups are often very involved. It's possible you have been hit with one of the numerous fraudulent security threats that seem to be popping up all over the web. The other possibility is a reinstall of the OS. A clean install will get you back to a pristine condition. After the install, the first app I would install is MSE or another good AV and AM app. Then you could start installing other apps.

If you choose a clean install over your existing OS, a folder is created in your root drive ("C" drive) called windows.old This folder contains your entire old OS. You can grab all your data and drag it into the reinstalled OS. One caveat, this folder will also contain the nasties if you still have some so be very careful what you grab and how you use this stuff. Only get data, personal pics that you actually added yourself, music you actually added yourself, contacts you actually added yourself, etc.

An entire reformat and clean install is the most secure way to ensure these nasties are gone, however, unless your data is backed up somewhere, you will loose all this as well. If you have minimal amounts of data, or it will be easy to replace this with new, this would be the most secure and safest route to rebuild your OS.

Thank you so much Ted. I am going to do just that.
I hope I don't sound too naive, but, are you saying that I should save all of my info, and then run recovery discs?
And, if so, what should I do if my recovery discs don't work. What I am saying is, I believe that I needed to run those in the past, but they were incomplete or something like that.
Is there another option if that is the case?
Maureen

[Medico]

If by recovery disks you mean a manufacturer's branded disk you received when you purchased your PC, then yes that is what I'm talking about. These disks include Win 7 and any manufacturer apps that are not a part of Win 7 but were on your PC when it was brand new. There are times when problems are so involved that a reinstallation of the OS is the best and least time consuming fix for the problem. If you do not feel comfortable doing this reinstall, the tech guy you take the PC to should be able to accomplish this for you. Like I said, a reinstall in many cases is much less time consuming (and costly at hourly rates for repair) than an exhaustive search for the cause of the problem.

[cullens]

If by recovery disks you mean a manufacturer's branded disk you received when you purchased your PC, then yes that is what I'm talking about. These disks include Win 7 and any manufacturer apps that are not a part of Win 7 but were on your PC when it was brand new. There are times when problems are so involved that a reinstallation of the OS is the best and least time consuming fix for the problem. If you do not feel comfortable doing this reinstall, the tech guy you take the PC to should be able to accomplish this for you. Like I said, a reinstall in many cases is much less time consuming (and costly at hourly rates for repair) than an exhaustive search for the cause of the problem.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Very much appreciated.
God bless you!
Maureen

[SpiritWind]

Hi Maureen :

There are many experienced, trained, certified, Volunteer "Malware
Removal Specialist(s)" you should consider contacting before
spending money as Ted Myers suggested . The Malware removal
forum I recommend is at http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/forums.html .
They request you read through their "Malware and Spyware Cleaning
Guide" . Practically speaking, they request you post a "Log" using
the FREE "OTL" program which is mentioned in the "Guide" .

[Medico]

The basic reason why I suggested a PC technician is that Maureen sounds as though she might be less experienced and some of these removal techniques are quite involved. They can be very intimidating for a non-technical person. Also, in my experience, a complete re-installation of the OS is far less time consuming than running through the removal procedures in many cases, especially if one is paying for this service. However, if my thoughts of Maureen's technical expertise are in error I apologize for jumping to this conclusion and would recommend trying removal. A Google search of fraudulent antimalware or antivirus or security threats return a wealth of information on removal techniques.

[R-C]

one question I always ask when I hear that one Antivirus was change to some other antivirus. This is did you run the dedicated removal tool for the antivirus program you had on the pc before you installed the new antivirus program? If NOT then you should consider doing that before anything else because that can cause problems in itself. Parts remain behind and can cause conflicts.

You mention you had AVG, there is a dedicated AVG removal tool you use. I will provide a link to Corrine's excellent blog where she has instructions for how to use these tools and also a list of the various removal tools, you will want to go down the list to the AVG removal tool.
http://securitygarden.blogspot.com/2...val-tools.html

there are some great malware removal forums out there that help guide through infection removal however some of the steps can be intimidating. It does take persistence, patience and understanding.
http://asap.maddoktor2.com/

[Corrine]

Small world. Hi, R-C!

Hi, Maureen.

With MSE installed, you'll also want to be sure you allow the upgrade to the latest version 1.0.1963.0.

The people at Geeks to Go are very good and will be able to advise if your computer is clean of the infection.

If it is necessary to seek the help of a technician, I concur with Ted regarding careful selection of who you contact. In the event you elect to do a Repair Install, there are excellent tutorials at the Windows Seven Forums. (See, for example, Repair Install).