Virus Help

[PanzerJaeger]

One of my computers seems to have contracted one of those particularly infuriating viruses that screws with your pc and then tries to convince you to buy anti-virus software... :angry:

I was wondering if there is anything I can do now that I have the virus besides wiping my hard drive. I have AVG and I downloaded Avast, but it seems to be able to prevent me from initiating a virus scan. :no:

[Lemur]

It would be helpful if you filled us in on exactly how the beast is behaving. Absent any other clues, I'm guessing you have a Vundo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vundo) variant; they're insane to try to get rid of, and yes, wiping the hard drive is a valid option.

AVG and Avast can't help you now. Time to reach for harder stuff such as killbox, hijackthis, and there's another ... can't quite remember the name offhand ... I'll post as soon as it comes to me.

If the PC contains critical data and wiping it would suck, there are alternatives, but they aren't easy.

-edit-

Not what I was thinking of, but have you tried Windows Defender (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx)? Very well-reviewed, and free.

[Ice]

I've dealt with this annoying, common problem a few times. Follow these steps:

Download this :http://www.technibble.com/rkill-repair-tool-of-the-week/ (r-kill)

This essentially terminates the .exe for hard to kill viruses.

Download this: http://www.malwarebytes.org/ (malwarebyes)

This is an excellent program. After killing the exe, malwreabytes was able to succeed where three other anti virus/spyware programs failed

NOTE: If you cannot install these programs due to the virus fear not.

-Boot to Safe Mode

-If you were unable to install malwarebytes before, do so now.

-Run R-Kill
-Run Malwarebytes

Your problem should be solved.

[Lemur]

Malware bytes! That's the one I was trying to remember! Thank you!

[Ice]

Malware bytes! That's the one I was trying to remember! Thank you!

Anytime! I've dealt with this virus on a few occasions... (my family somehow always gets this on the main computer at home)

[PanzerJaeger]

Thanks so much for the help guys. Sadly, the whole thing siezed up - couldn't even get to safe mode - and it's going in to the IT guy at the office sometime next week for a wipe... or whatever they have to do. Thankfully, I recognized such a situation could occur and managed to salvage all my pictures and documents off the thing in the early stages of it taking over my computer, and then ran MalWarBytes on that hard drive and it was clean. What a hassle!