I was called by a local hospital to fix their computer earlier this afternoon. The PC according to them is showing pop ups, advertisement and nasty pictures when you open up Internet Explorer. THere are also programs that keep on coming back even if you uninstall them. When i got to the site, there are also other problems that need to be fixed. Task Manager is disabled. Run command is missing, MSconfig is opening up but it won't let you change the startup items. So what do i do with computers like this one?
First, i will start in Safe Mode and fire up system restore, ask the owner when the infection happens and restore the PC a day or two before that date. Sometimes, the problem can be fix by just doing this. You only need to get rid of rouge files left in your PC afterwards. You can use Spybot search and destroy, or adaware. (These two are the best combination of AntiSpyware around)
You can also use Hijackthis to see what files/programs are running on startup. If you are familiar with the startup items of a normal Windows Xp installation and other popular programs, you can get rid of 90% of Spyware on your PC by just using this program.
But what about the other 10%? I personally use Smitfraudfix to get rid of those. I always encounter very stubborn spyware hiding on dll files. What your favorite programs can't fix, Smitfraudfix can.
With the combination of these five FREE tools, you can eliminate those nasty spywares and prevent them from coming back.
List of Tools
1. System Restore
2. Spybot Search & Destroy
3. Adaware
4. Hijackthis
5. Smitfraudfix
Any suggestion, question or violent reaction? Feel free to leave a comment.
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