How to Remove Win32: Trojan-Gen

The Win32 Trojan-Gen virus is a Trojan horse that is installed on your computer when you download an infected video codec or open an infected email attachment. The Trojan will install several new programs on your computer that cause pop-up advertisements to appear on your screen and even turn off your firewall. Because the Win32 Trojan-Gen infects so many areas of your computer and because it has characteristics both of a virus and a spyware program, the best way to remove it is to run both an anti-virus and an anti-malware utility.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Virus removal utility
• Malware removal utility

1. Open your web browser of choice. Navigate the web browser to a website that has an anti-virus program for download such as AVG Free Anti-Virus (see Additional Resources). Download and install the anti-virus program.

2. Navigate to another website that offers a program for any type of malware such as Malware Bytes (see Additional Resources). Download and install the anti-malware program. Close down your web browser and open the computer's Start menu.

3. 
    
   The "Properties" option

   Find the My Computer icon and right-click on it. Click on the "Properties" option in the menu screen. Click on the "System Protection" button when a new window appears on the screen. Access the "System Restore" tab.

4. 
    
   The "Update Now" Button

   Click on the "Turn Off System Restore" button and then click on "OK." Close the window entirely and then open the first anti-virus program you downloaded earlier. Update the program's virus detection information by clicking on the "Update Now" button.

5. 
    
   Scanning the computer

   Wait for the update to finish installing and then click on the "Scan Computer" button. Click on the button labeled as "Remove Selected Problems" once the scan has finished.

6. Close down the anti-virus program and then open the malware program. Run the program's updater utility and then click on the "Scan" button. Wait for the scan to finish and then click on the button to remove any malware that was found on your hard drive. Restart your computer to finish removing the Win32 Trojan Gen virus.

Tips & Warnings

• Always update your anti-virus programs at least once per week to make sure you have the most recent virus scanning algorithms.
• If you leave the System Restore option on, your computer will make a new restore point as soon as you start the virus scan. The new restore point will have a copy of the Win32 Trojan Gen virus, which could potentially infect your system again.

References

• Win32 Trojan Gen Explanation
• Win32 Trojan Gen Information

Resources

• Download AVG
• Download Malware Bytes