They won't block everything, but this is a step that most antiviruses leave out, and every little bit of protection helps with preventing new infections. In PeerBlock, the built-in lists don't work anymore without a paid subscription to IBlockList, but you can still add the free lists manually. In HostsMan, pick only the Malware Domain List.
Download and install HostsMan and PeerBlock to prevent the computer from going to malicious websites in the future. You'll need to close any web browser windows first or they'll complain at you.ġ0.
Now that you've got all the malware off the computer, install Spybot and Spywareblaster , update them, and apply all their immunization. You'll need to download a new version any time you use it, because it's usually updated several times a week.ĩ. Use ADWCleaner to get rid of any junk software that technically isn't malware or spyware.
It's a great program, though, and a full scan with it will remove anything that's left over after all the other scans.Ĩ. You may want to set it not to run on Windows startup, because otherwise it can get a bit annoying. If the Emergency Kit or MalwareBytes found anything, download and update SuperAntispyware Free Edition , then run a full scan and remove whatever it finds. However, you need to be careful to decline the free trial of the Pro version when you first open it, as that free trial will expire after 30 days.ħ. Like the Emsisoft Emergency Kit, it is free to use as long as you like. Download MalwareBytes Anti-Malware Free, install it, let it update, then run a full scan and remove whatever it finds (notice a pattern here?).
You can keep this software and use it for free indefinitely.Ħ. Download the Emsisoft Emergency Kit, install it, let it update, then run a full scan and remove whatever it finds. It will ask you for an email address, but it will work even if you give a fake one.ĥ. You will only be able to use it for 30 days without buying it, so you can safely skip this step if you'd rather save it for a worse situation some other time. It's normally safe to remove whatever it finds. And if you run ComboFix on a Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 computer, don't expect it to work afterwards. If you don't disable / remove your antivirus first, it will incorrectly detect ComboFix as a virus. I especially suggest removing it if you have any version of Norton, Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro, or Microsoft Security Essentials, as these antiviruses let far too many infections into most computers to be considered secure.Ģ. Disable your current antivirus temporarily, or better yet, remove it. Unless you really know what you're doing, don't use its registry cleaning feature.ġ. This will make all the scans below a lot faster, because they won't have to scan the (now-empty) temp folders where all those temp files used to be. (Optional) Download and install CCleaner Free, then use it to remove temporary files. I'm hoping others can benefit from that experience.Ġ. Cleaning and speeding up computers, including removing viruses and malware, have been specialties for me since the very beginning. My professional website is The Computer Wizard. In case you don't know me personally, I've been working in computer tech support for about 20 years. I'll also go over some other free software to prevent further infections once you have your computer clean. This process will likely take several hours, but it will clean all (or nearly all) of the spyware and malware from your computer if you have Windows. I've been using pretty much the same procedure to clean computers for years now, so I thought it might helpful to document it for other people to use.