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Louis Brandt
07-05-2010, 2:58 PM
Hello,

Has anyone found a good malware remover program that works well and that can be downloaded free? I think that I have malware on my windows XP desktop computer. I don't have a virus or anything that's stopping me from using the machine, but I do have something on this machine that's causing problems from time to time, and I'm pretty sure that it's malware.

Thanks,
Louis

David G Baker
07-05-2010, 3:19 PM
Don't know if it will do the trick but Adaware gets rid of a lot of junk.
I got one of those Anti Virus loops on one of my other computers. Wish I was a hacker so I could close down the company or person that stuck me with it. Guess it is a malware. For $47 I could buy their product and get rid of the problems they caused.

Norberto Coutinho
07-05-2010, 3:19 PM
Try www.malwarebytes.org (http://www.malwarebytes.org) . Excellent

scott spencer
07-05-2010, 3:26 PM
Louis - Whichever programs you decide to use, try running them with the PC in safemode, otherwise the better malware bugs will interfere with the cleanup process.

Bruce Page
07-05-2010, 3:46 PM
I got one of those Anti Virus loops on one of my other computers. Wish I was a hacker so I could close down the company or person that stuck me with it. Guess it is a malware. For $47 I could buy their product and get rid of the problems they caused.

I had one of those earlier this year. I ended up taking the PC into the shop where I bought it to have it sanitized.
I'd like to do more than close the guy down...:mad:

paul cottingham
07-05-2010, 3:52 PM
The best free spyware remover is spybot.

Pat Germain
07-05-2010, 4:57 PM
In my experience, each of the free anti-malware programs removes things the others don't. So, I think it's difficult to say which is best.

If you run Ad-aware, Malwarebytes and Spybot, you should be good to go.

It's also been my experience that the commercials antivirus programs are lousy or downright useless when it comes to malware. They cost money, slow down my computer and then don't prevent or remove nefarious infections. So what are they good for? I can get Symantec for free from my ISP. I don't even bother.

Jim O'Dell
07-05-2010, 5:17 PM
I also understand that it's a good suggestion to run these anti spy ware programs in Safe Mode. I've heard that somehow it keeps the spy/mal ware from being able to stop the removal. Jim.

Eric Franklin
07-05-2010, 6:33 PM
From my experience, majority of malware/trojans/viruses are very difficult to remove without on going problems. You're best bet is to backup up your hard drive and format and reinstall windows which can be a lot of work.

paul cottingham
07-05-2010, 6:43 PM
Two things more. Make sure you inoculate with spybot. If you can, avoid IE. Firefox (or Chrome) is far less vulnerable than IE. You should be able to remove most spyware and viruses without ongoing problems, The removal can be tough but it is usually benign. If you have problems afterward, windows was probably already damaged. Windows starts being damaged when you boot it for the first time.....(there I go again, darn zealot....)

Chuck Wintle
07-05-2010, 6:48 PM
Two things more. Make sure you inoculate with spybot. If you can, avoid IE. Firefox (or Chrome) is far less vulnerable than IE. You should be able to remove most spyware and viruses without ongoing problems, The removal can be tough but it is usually benign. If you have problems afterward, windows was probably already damaged. Windows starts being damaged when you boot it for the first time.....(there I go again, darn zealot....)

some could argue that MS products are nothing but big viruses. :D

paul cottingham
07-05-2010, 7:11 PM
some could argue that MS products are nothing but big viruses. :D
Indeed I think I am arguing that.:D

Chuck Wintle
07-05-2010, 7:16 PM
Hello,

Has anyone found a good malware remover program that works well and that can be downloaded free? I think that I have malware on my windows XP desktop computer. I don't have a virus or anything that's stopping me from using the machine, but I do have something on this machine that's causing problems from time to time, and I'm pretty sure that it's malware.

Thanks,
Louis
Reformatting and reinstalling windows has worked for some people ;)

Brian Elfert
07-05-2010, 7:39 PM
The workstation management team where I work spend upwards of a third of their time removing malware. They use Malwarebytes mostly. We have Symantec corporate edition installed, but it sucks on malware.

It is mostly laptops used outside of the office that get infected. We use a constantly updated software product on our firewall to block access to website with malware. Due to the nature of our business we mainly only block malware sites although we could block many more.

Louis Brandt
07-05-2010, 8:20 PM
Try www.malwarebytes.org (http://www.malwarebytes.org) . Excellent

Norberto,

Thanks. Based on your suggestion, I downloaded and ran malwarebytes. At this point, the problem seems to have gone away. I'm holding my breath that it remains fixed.

One interesting thing about this software is that many of the "so-called" free malware-fixing software on the internet only scans and finds the bad files, and they require you to purchase the software before it will actually delete the files. This one just asked me whether I wanted the files deleted, without asking me to make a purchase.

Thanks again,
Louis

Jerome Stanek
07-05-2010, 8:28 PM
I use the trial version of Viper.

Ronald Blue
07-05-2010, 8:44 PM
These are two separate free programs that work well with each other. They both find things the other misses. Google CCleaner and Spybot Search and Destroy.

Mike Hollingsworth
07-05-2010, 9:06 PM
You're best bet is to backup up your hard drive and format and reinstall windows which can be a lot of work.

:confused:
Macs take all of about fifteen minutes to install a new operating system.

Flak jacket on

Louis Brandt
07-05-2010, 9:29 PM
Try www.malwarebytes.org (http://www.malwarebytes.org) . Excellent

Norberto,

Well, the problem came back just a few minutes ago. Maybe it really never went away, but for a while it seemed to be gone. The problem that I'm having has been discussed on the internet, and it's the "about:blank" screen that pops up. The malware has somehow infected Internet Explorer, and every so often, an Internet Explorer screen comes up with the words "About:Blank" at the top.

Interestingly, before using the software, I had not been able to run "regedit.exe", but after using it, I'm able to run it again. And now, even though the malware is showing up again, I'm still able to run "regedit.exe". Sometimes, you can remove malware by locating it in the registry, but at this point, I don't know where it is.

Thanks anyway,
Louis

Brian Elfert
07-05-2010, 10:39 PM
Installing the OS with Windows is not the problem. The problem is the amount of time required to reinstall all of the programs.

I had to do this earlier this year and it was a pain. I need to do it every few years anyhow to get rid of all the crud.

Bob Turkovich
07-05-2010, 10:47 PM
Try aumha.net. I've used them to help remove malware from two different computers. They're a group of Microsoft-trained computer experts who moonlight helping others with problems like these. They're free.

When you go to their website, go down to the security discussions section and go into the malware removal forum. Malwarebytes is only one of the tools they use. There have been over 4000 instances in which they have helped others.

Some suggestions: Be patient. It may take a couple of days to get to your issue. There will be a lot of give and take with their moderators. Follow their instructions completely to the letter (they can get surly if you don't). The process will take time as they will likely have you run multiple steps, including installation and subsequent removal of tools like malwarebytes, to fix your problem. (You can view one of the 4000 posts to see what I mean.) But chances are, if you have malware, they'll help you get rid of it.

Good luck.

Curt Harms
07-06-2010, 9:52 AM
some could argue that MS products are nothing but big viruses. :D

That you gotta pay for!!! See, the company that infects your computer then charges to fix their infection is not original at all. :mad: I haven't used Windows in months but I have at least 2 accounts--administrator and a restricted user account. I spent 99% of my time logged on as a restricted user and never had problems, knock wood. As I understood it, most-not all-crapware needed administrative privileges to install itself. I was also using spybot & free Avast antivirus.

Michael MacDonald
07-06-2010, 9:57 AM
Try www.malwarebytes.org (http://www.malwarebytes.org) . Excellent

+1 on this. free, but no auto-protection with free version. I combine this with free MS security software for auto-protection, I just update/run the malwarebytes every once and a while...

Kent A Bathurst
07-06-2010, 11:10 AM
Not free. $40/year. ESET Smart Security. Automated on-line updates constantly throughout the day - sometimes 1 or 2, sometimes a half-dozen - I assume they send the update out whenever they find something new that needs to be nuked. I rummaged around with a variety of free malware products over a number of years - good deal of success with any of them (all mentioned above), but none of them were 100% bulletproof. No personal way of knowing if ESET is 100% bulletproof, but I can tell you that, at $40/year, it is the best PC protection, dollar-for-dollar, I spent in the past 2+ years, and it has been 24kt-solid-gold-bulletproof in my experience. Great product.

Also - slightly off topic - I paid something under $30 for Acronis True Image - it creates an image of the hard drive (in my case on an outboard hard drive), for use if there is a fatal hardware failure. Easy settings means that it creates an updated (not full) image whenever specified (in my case, Fridays at 7 am, or upon startup if the PC is not turned on at 7 am). The initial image takes a fair amount of time - as you would expect - but the weekly updates surprised me at taking only a few minutes, and you can work, with no obvious performace issues, while it operates in the background

Moral of the story - you get what you pay for. I was spending way more than the equivalent of $40/year in hassles and time (the traditional BS+G factor, where the G is "grief" - you already know what the BS stands for). Heck - I spend more than that on sandpaper, or on Fein Turbo disposable bags, or shellac flakes, or one lousy Japanese bench chisel, for goodness' sake.

I have no association with either product, other than as a very, very happy user.

Norberto Coutinho
07-06-2010, 11:48 AM
Louis
My son instaled this one yesterday. He said me that is better than malwarebytes, but I am unsure about this. Try this too. I will run it today in Complete Scan mode, but this will take a long time. After I will return here with coments.
.
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/default.aspx?mkt=en-us

greg lindsey
07-06-2010, 12:35 PM
I had one of those malware issues also, the one that wants you to pay them to remove it, I was so frustrated I actually paid them the $49, then was able to get a number for thier tech support, called them and it sounded like some russian guy sitting at his home ( could hear tv and kids in the back ground) I asked him where thay were located, he replied we are an offshore company. Well I went off on him telling him his C**p had screwed up my computer and I wanted my money back, he asked for my email address and WOW he actually sent me a link to remove it and refunded all my money. BTW, when i looked at my bank statement the payment went to Moscow Russia.

Larry Browning
07-06-2010, 1:28 PM
I have had pretty good luck with http://www.superantispyware.com/
This program gets good reviews, plus, the paid version is only $19.95, which get you scheduled scans and automatic updates.

Chuck Wintle
07-06-2010, 2:51 PM
try combofix and see what happens. It sounds like you may have a rootkit.

Larry Frank
07-06-2010, 7:51 PM
I agree with backing up your drives on a regular frequency and do image backups. There are a number of good programs for making the images. If you get something that you can not remove, then you can reformat the drive and re-install the image from when you did not have the problem. It is also much easier than re-installing the operating system and all of your software. I started doing image backups religiously a year or so ago when I had a similar malware problem. I have a couple of external drives that I routinely back up to so that I always have a backup less than three months old. It is some effort but probably the most effective.

It is difficult to remove some adware/malware from your computer. I do not think that any of the programs mentioned are anywhere near 100% effective. When I had a major problem, I actually used the Geek Squad and they did it over the internet connection. It was not cheap but in the end it completely solved the problem and they also cleaned up a lot of old junk on the computer that was slowing it down.

The cost of an external drive and software to make drive images is cheaper than using the Geek Squad. But, the best thing is that it would be very difficult to valuable files.

Any software that can cure all malware/worms etc would be worth a zillion dollars and nobody would give it away for free. I would be willing to pay a considerable amount of such software but alas it is not available.

paul cottingham
07-06-2010, 8:17 PM
I gotta say, I would never, ever let someone I didn't know remotely connect to my computer with admin access. In my business we refused to do it for clients. It just seems like a really bad idea.

Spybot is very good, btw and its author is ideologically committed to keeping it free. he has the same attitude as many authors of free open source projects, many of which are far superior to any paid product. A couple of examples include Apace web server, or the qmail mail server. Both are far superior to any commercial product and both are free.

Dave Lehnert
07-06-2010, 9:57 PM
I.m kinda cheap and have never paid for any computer program for security.
I have only used free programs off the net. They have found problems and got rid of them. Never seen a need to buy something.

I have a friend who spends hundreds on security software over the years and would say he has had more problems than me.

Eric Franklin
07-06-2010, 10:05 PM
:confused:
Macs take all of about fifteen minutes to install a new operating system.

Flak jacket on

I wanted to make a similar comment but I thought I would be nice. The first post to this thread was on an iMac and this was done on an iPhone 4 which are malware free :)

paul cottingham
07-06-2010, 11:53 PM
Linux is damn near as fast to install.

Sorry, darn near.

Curt Harms
07-07-2010, 9:08 AM
is an EXCELLENT idea. Reinstall Windows, apps, drivers, utilities and then create an image. Restoring that image will get you right back to this point, you don't have to reinstall windows, drivers, try to find the program disks and keys, etc. etc. etc. Then make new images periodically to account for new and updated stuff. DVD-Rs are cheap these days.

I like this imaging program (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-linux.htm). it's a linux program where the Operating system and program are all on one CD. Windows is not running at all when creating the image. My thinking is that pictures(images) are clearer when nothing is moving. I know windows imaging programs lock files but still..... . And the restore disks are self booting. Here are some freebie imaging tools. (http://lifehacker.com/5303067/five-best-free-system-restore-tools) I haven't used any of them but have read some good things about clonezilla.

Chuck Wintle
07-07-2010, 9:53 AM
I I haven't used any of them but have read some good things about clonezilla.
I have used clonezilla and it works well, the interface is fairly intuitive and, best of all, it is free.

Don Alexander
07-07-2010, 2:39 PM
there is a pretty simple , FREE, and rather effective way to prevent malware from getting on your machine in the first place

create a user account that is NOT an administrator account and use that account for everything only use the admin account when its necessary

you will effectively prevent malware

+1 for creating a backup image of a clean install with all applicable drivers and software installed makes it quick and easy to reimage your drive and if you habitually store your files on DVD/CD or external HDD its relatively painless as well :)