virus and threat removal guide
Posted: 26 Apr 2015, 10:34
Hey friends,
So, I've decided to craft you all an easy to follow guide to solve all malware issues you might have on your PC.
1. go to bitdefender and download the free home edition to your desktop or some other folder you can recall later.
2. go to malwarebytes and download the free malwarebytes anti malware edition to a spot you can recall as well
3. restart your machine at "safe mode with networking" (for those running windows 7 and down it's pressing f8 repeatedly at boot, after the bios screen until you hit a menu asking you which option you want) (windows 8 tutorial clicky in the tutorial you choose network instead of minimal)
4. log in with an administrative user on the machine.
5. Install Bitdefender first, since it will complain if malwarebytes is installed before it is installed, let it do it's initial sweep of your computer as it's installing (might catch something during this scan)
6. after bitdefender is done installing, install malwarebytes.
7. restart your machine again to safe mode with networking
7.1 in malwarebytes anti malware go to "Settings" -> "Detection and protection" and tick the box next to "scan for rootkits", both PUP and PUM should be treated as malware
8. load bitdefender and malwarebytes anti malware manually from the start menu and click the update button on both of them (bitdefender automatically will start an update check which will take quite a while) once you have finished updating malwarebytes anti malware, start a "threat scan" and let it run, once bitdefender is done updating, you can see it once it no longer is "checking" or "downloading" or "updating" then initial a full scan
9. make yourself a coffee or other beverage and wait for the scans to finish (depending on how fast your machine is and how full your hard drives are, it might take up to an hour approx)
10. let malwarebytes and bitdefender deal with threats, all threats are placed in quarantine, you can restore them by clicking on the event which caught that virus and restore it or go to history and restore files from quarantine in malwarebytes.
11. if malwarebytes needs a restart to remove threats, let it do so, preventing it from doing it shall leave threats on your machine, If bitdefender isn't done yet, just leave malwarebytes request to restart open until you can restart.
12. you are done, your computer is clean of malware (99.9 percent) there is always a chance that you caught a wild virus which hasn't yet been treated, but you have a very low chance that this will actually happen to you.
Enjoy your machine at full speed free of malware and potentially unwanted programs (toolbars and such)
Notes: The malwarebytes protection is totally worth the money of the yearly subscription but having it even without the subscription is good for the occasional scan of threats on the machine.
Bitdefender free edition is very uncomfortable regarding changing settings, but it's anti virus engine is exactly the same as the paid version, so, if you don't care about it just looking silly, you can remain with the free edition (you need to sign up though through their application, it shall show it in the program)
If you already have another antivirus and which has a good ranking you can just run the scan when in safe mode with that antivirus, though not all big names have good scores at catching viruses.
Antiviruses I would trust at this time would be (kasparesky, Bitdefender, Avast(only if it was installed before you might have caught the virus, Avast isn't as good with treating infections after they have already been inserted on the machine)
So, I've decided to craft you all an easy to follow guide to solve all malware issues you might have on your PC.
1. go to bitdefender and download the free home edition to your desktop or some other folder you can recall later.
2. go to malwarebytes and download the free malwarebytes anti malware edition to a spot you can recall as well
3. restart your machine at "safe mode with networking" (for those running windows 7 and down it's pressing f8 repeatedly at boot, after the bios screen until you hit a menu asking you which option you want) (windows 8 tutorial clicky in the tutorial you choose network instead of minimal)
4. log in with an administrative user on the machine.
5. Install Bitdefender first, since it will complain if malwarebytes is installed before it is installed, let it do it's initial sweep of your computer as it's installing (might catch something during this scan)
6. after bitdefender is done installing, install malwarebytes.
7. restart your machine again to safe mode with networking
7.1 in malwarebytes anti malware go to "Settings" -> "Detection and protection" and tick the box next to "scan for rootkits", both PUP and PUM should be treated as malware
8. load bitdefender and malwarebytes anti malware manually from the start menu and click the update button on both of them (bitdefender automatically will start an update check which will take quite a while) once you have finished updating malwarebytes anti malware, start a "threat scan" and let it run, once bitdefender is done updating, you can see it once it no longer is "checking" or "downloading" or "updating" then initial a full scan
9. make yourself a coffee or other beverage and wait for the scans to finish (depending on how fast your machine is and how full your hard drives are, it might take up to an hour approx)
10. let malwarebytes and bitdefender deal with threats, all threats are placed in quarantine, you can restore them by clicking on the event which caught that virus and restore it or go to history and restore files from quarantine in malwarebytes.
11. if malwarebytes needs a restart to remove threats, let it do so, preventing it from doing it shall leave threats on your machine, If bitdefender isn't done yet, just leave malwarebytes request to restart open until you can restart.
12. you are done, your computer is clean of malware (99.9 percent) there is always a chance that you caught a wild virus which hasn't yet been treated, but you have a very low chance that this will actually happen to you.
Enjoy your machine at full speed free of malware and potentially unwanted programs (toolbars and such)
Notes: The malwarebytes protection is totally worth the money of the yearly subscription but having it even without the subscription is good for the occasional scan of threats on the machine.
Bitdefender free edition is very uncomfortable regarding changing settings, but it's anti virus engine is exactly the same as the paid version, so, if you don't care about it just looking silly, you can remain with the free edition (you need to sign up though through their application, it shall show it in the program)
If you already have another antivirus and which has a good ranking you can just run the scan when in safe mode with that antivirus, though not all big names have good scores at catching viruses.
Antiviruses I would trust at this time would be (kasparesky, Bitdefender, Avast(only if it was installed before you might have caught the virus, Avast isn't as good with treating infections after they have already been inserted on the machine)