Nasty Computer Viruses and How to Remove Them

Not everyone runs out to buy a new malware removal tool every time their antivirus misses a beat. Some people can't afford to do that and others simply choose not to. This article is for those of you who don't feel the need to rush out and buy the hot new anti-virus, malware-removal, or anti-spyware, tool on the market. But first I'll give you a little background on the most common ways these nasty viruses get on your computer.

The virus has been around since the early era of computers in the 80's originally intended to steal important data. A by-product of this invention was that sometimes people were careless in programming them, and often times that would lead to problems with the computer deleted files crashes and other nasty effects. Early generation hackers during the early nineties would poke fun at "ping spamming" people until they disconnected from the internet and that grew into what we have now.

The generational divide isn't as great as it may seem today the most common use of a virus is not damaging your computer but rather to steal your data. The most common methods of contracting a virus today are downloading suspicious files from places like Frostwire, Bittorents, and other P2P networks of sharing. It's also very common to contract a virus or malware browsing the internet. These viruses are commonly disguised as harmless "codecs" so the best way to avoid these kinds of problems is to not download any codecs or allow java code to run unless you are sure of what it's meant to do.

Another method of goading people into downloading a virus is to disguise it as an antivirus as with system tools, and anti-virus 360. When browsing the Internet never allow anything to download or install especially if it pops up asking you to. Installing and keeping Windows defender up to date alongside your antivirus can assist in preventing malware from entering your computer.

The most recent infection I have had to cure would be that of the notorious system tools infection. This is really a simple mal-ware infection that deliberately hides itself from the user causes a few minor problems. The removal method is simple.

Reboot the computer, press "F8" as Windows loads and select "safe mode". Once Windows is finished loading open "my computer" right click in the window and select "folder options" or in later versions of Windows "customize this folder" inside of the folder options tab check the box "show hidden files" the folder you are looking for is "C:\documents and settings\all users\application data" inside of this folder you want to remove any folders that you do not recognize and reboot. At this point your computer should be back to normal but the virus will still be present so be sure to download malwarebyte's anti malware and run a scan to remove the remaining entries.

The one other infection I've had to remove from a customer's computer was the anti-virus 360 virus. This virus is a bit more difficult as it hides itself from the user blocks out the system manager and more. The removal method is also much more difficult. To remove this virus you will need to download malwarebyte's anti malware from another computer and run a thorough scan. Spyware doctor is also capable of finding the infection and if Windows defender was installed and up to date you wouldn't have the infection in the first place. Once you have found the infection instead of purchasing the "full version" of the tool, write down the directory where it's hiding. Reboot the computer and boot from your Windows installer cd. When prompted select the recovery console option from the Windows installer cd, using the command "cd directory_name" browse through the directories until you find the directory the file is in. (typically C:\windows\system32) Now simply delete the file or files and reboot. At this point you should once again have access to the Internet task manager and more. Run the free malware scan using malwarebyte's tool and clear any remaining infections.

These are the two most notorious infections that I have encountered proving to make things very difficult, and are both easily avoided if you simply pay attention, so look out for them.