How to Clean a Virus-Infected Computer

Computer viruses are insidious, sneaky and--like their biological counterparts--constantly mutating. If you think your computer has been infected, the only safe course of action is to use a good anti-virus program.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Anti-virus Software

1. As soon as you suspect that your computer has a virus, remove your computer from any networks it might be on, as well as from the Internet, so that you don't inadvertently spread the bug to others. Unplug your network cable if you have to.

2. If you have virus-scanning (anti-virus) software installed, run it.

3. If you don't have anti-virus software, you'll need to obtain some. If you can't get it from a network administrator or download it from an uninfected computer, you can mail-order it from a retailer.

4. Start your computer (still not connected to a network) and follow the instructions that came with the anti-virus software.

5. Keep running the virus-scanning software until your computer comes up clean.

6. Reconnect your computer to the Internet and check with the anti-virus software's publisher to make sure you have the latest updates. If not, download them now.

7. After updating the anti-virus software, run it again until your computer comes up clean.

Tips & Warnings

• There's no substitute for prevention. Good anti-virus software more than pays for itself as long as you keep it up-to-date.
• Common sense also goes a long way toward keeping your computer clean. Never open an attachment from someone you don't know, and be suspicious of odd attachments from people you do know (a virus may have mailed itself to you from their computer).

[tapthat]

on 10/20/2009 Hello,
I have a computer that is infected with a virus. My first step was to download a free virus scanner and run that to confirm, which it did. It’s infected. I removed and reinstalled windows onto my computer and all my software, at first everything seemed to be working fine but then the virus started to appear again so it wasn't removed from my computer when I formatted the hard drive. Now what I would like to know is what is the best software and procedure to use when trying to remove this virus from my computer. I want to make sure my files are clean, my registry is uninfected and that I'm protected. Thanks for your input.

[j2cool]

on 7/21/2009 I have a virus. It's affecting my registry. I can't seem to get anything to work. I downloaded a recommended free program but it appears to be a scam (the software only scan the issue but I would have to buy it to removed what it supposively found). It seems to be keeping from getting online too. I get serveral error messages: Explorer.exe (can't get online), Service & Controller application (programs not working), and System Shutdown (NT Authority type) this one comes up even when I tried to shutdown and/or restart my computer after trying other stuff. Please help.

[bry492]

on 7/14/2009 help ,could anybody tell me how to reformat a emachine model 770. the machine has been infected by a trojan virus and i beleive this will solve the problem by starting the machine from scratch. this worked for me before on another computer. thanks to all

[violet4me]

on 6/10/2009 Oops - typo - should be good advice - very helpful!

[violet4me]

on 6/10/2009 good adcice!