Simple Steps to Virus Removal in Windows XP

So you opened an odd attachment in an email and suddenly your computer gets a ton of popups, or maybe you accidently clicked on one of those "you're the 1000^th customer!" ads and suddenly your computer is trying to talk you into giving your credit card information to weird places and companies. Well guess what, looks like you're the victim of malicious software. That's the bad news, the good news is that despite what you may believe, even a novice can undergo virus removal processes on his or her own without being worried of hurting there computer or not doing a good job. With a little bit of reading anyone can do virus removals without any hassle.

So, what's the first step in virus removal? The answer is to know the level of infection. A general rule of thumb is if your computer still boots into Windows (you have a mouse cursor, you can see your start button and desktop, etc.) then you can 99% of the time proceed with virus removal on your own and be successful. If your system does NOT boot into Windows, you can still fix it, but you may have to take a loss (to be specific, your data will be deleted, personal pictures, music, video, text documents, and 3^rd party software you've installed since you owned the machine.) If you are more advanced in computers you can save that as well, or you can hire someone to do that for you. Just follow the steps below and you will be able to complete a virus removal within 24 hours and know that you just saved a pretty penny by doing so.

Step 1: Acquire the needed software. This is always changing, the best software may not be the best in 6 months, so it's important to keep up to date. With that said, currently some of the best software available for virus removal is completely free, www.superantispyware.com, www.Malwarebytes.org, and www.avast.com all offer a free version of there software, and all three are known to be very good for what they do. Simply visit each site, download each free version of the software, install it and update it on your infected machine, and do complete scans on your local hard drive. 9 times out of 10, this is the one and only step you will need to follow to complete a typical virus removal. This will solve a TON of problems, and will even speed up your computer on many notes. Now, if you've completed this and everything looks good, why not take it a step further and make your computer run a little bit faster?

Step 2: Optimize your system. This is a very important step to do after a virus removal, as its possible that the infectious software that was on your system could have changed settings, making your computer run much slower than it could be. In windows, simply click Start > right click My Computer > select Properties > click the System Restore tab > checkmark "Turn off System Restore on all drives" > Click Apply. This is a step to make sure the viruses have not been stored in the system restore file (enabling them to come back in the future) and will actually speed up your computer a bit. Next, click on the Advanced tab, click "settings" under the performance tab, select "Adjust for best performance" and click Apply. This will lower the resources Windows uses and cause your system to run much faster than it previously did.

But what about those times when it wont even boot into windows now, what if you cant click or install anything? Well, there's 2 steps that every tech uses that will almost always solve this issue:

The first thing to do is what will work the easiest and best, and that would be trying to repair the operating system so you do not lose any files. You need to have a second, working computer to work with in order to accomplish this.

Once you've gotten your hands on a working computer to use as your tool, you need to open the broken computers case (Of course, make sure all opened machines are powered off and unplugged at all times), normally this is done by removing the left side panel (which is held on by 2 bolts on the back, this CAN vary however, so just take a few minutes to figure out how to open the case if it's different), from there, locate the hard drive and find the correct method of removing it (sometimes its 2-4 screws mounting it inside, sometimes its a little lever, and other times you will have to remove the faceplate to pull the hard drive out.) Also please note that you should obviously know what the hard drive is, which a simple Google image search for "Hard Drive" can give you the answer.

Now that you've located the hard drive and removed it, you need to hook it up to the working computer. Open the working computer up, and locate the cable connecting the hard drive. There are two different connectors, the old style (IDE, which is a large "ribbon cable", it will have a second connector on the cable for a second hard drive to be attached, simply plug the second hard drive up to it, follow the diagram on the hard drive label to make sure the jumpers on the back near the power connector is set to "Cable Select" and put it all together), and a new version (Sata, in which case you will need to pull the connector out of the old machine and plug it into the motherboard, normally the connector is located on the bottom right of the board inside the machine, then hook the other end up to the hard drive)

Once the old hard drive is connected to the working machine, turn the machine on and simply follow the instructions in the above Step 1, making sure to scan the newly connected hard drive when they ask. This will normally repair operating system good enough to boot into windows on the infected machine, at which point re-do steps 1 and 2 again.

However, If this does not work, you will have to take further steps. While the hard drive is in the working machine, navigate into it and move any files you wish to keep (video, music, text documents, pictures, etc) onto the working machine, this way we will lose as little as possible. We will not be able to save any installed software, but at least we can salvage most of your personal items.

Once done, put the old hard drive back into the broken machine, and reload the operating system. This can be accomplished with the Restore Disk that is provided by your manufacturer, If you no longer have this disk you can normally contact the manufacturer via email or phone and request a new one, I've known them to be free of charge, or cost up to 30 dollars. Pop the disk in and follow the on screen instructions, and in no time your system will be back to normal. From that point, all you need to do is put your saved data back onto it and your up and running.

Now from this point on, all you need to do is simply watch out for what you click on in the future, and make sure your new antivirus is kept up to date, and you will never have to a virus removal again!