Personal Computers Questions

How can I remove an invasive virus cleaning program?

by on April 2, 2009

Q: I have a “so called” virus cleaning program which I can not get rid of. It has made my computer unusable as it is so invasive. Is ther any way of getting rid of it short of having to re-format etc. I have tried to locate any files related to it with no success.

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9 Responses to “How can I remove an invasive virus cleaning program?”
  1.  

    Try running Spybot: http://www.safer-networking.org/ and AdAware http://www.lavasoft.com/single/trialpay.php to scan and clean the computer of malware.

    Also, make sure this invasive vius cleaning program isn’t listed in “Add/Remove Programs” in the Control Panel.

     

    Mark (Uber Geek) says: on April 2, 2009 at 10:52 am

  2.  

    As you suggested, I have downloaded Spybot which seems to have downloaded correctly but it seems that it is being prevented from starting. When I click on the icon, nothing happens. Even the XP defrag program will not run. Is there some way I can “force” the Spybot to start and run? Thanks for your help. Ted

     

    Tedconey (Newbie) says: on April 5, 2009 at 10:39 pm

  3.  

    You can try running in Safe Mode and see if you can run from there.

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315222

     

    Mark (Uber Geek) says: on April 6, 2009 at 1:32 pm

  4.  

    I tried running on safe mode and this did not work. I re-downloaded the program just in case some files were bad or missing but no change.

     

    Tedconey (Newbie) says: on April 7, 2009 at 3:06 pm

  5.  

    Does anti-virus program appear in your Add/Remove programs list in the control panel?

    Any idea what the name of this program is?

     

    Mark (Uber Geek) says: on April 7, 2009 at 3:39 pm

  6.  

    These programs do not appear in my add/remove program list.

    The worst one is called Win PC Defender with windows that pop up continuously. It seems to be the main problem. Another is called 10Bit and doesn’t cause much problem but I would still like to get rid of it .
    Thanks

     

    Tedconey (Newbie) says: on April 8, 2009 at 3:19 pm

  7.  

    Here are some directions to try for getting rid of Win PC Defender: http://www.2-spyware.com/remove-winpc-defender.html

     

    Mark (Uber Geek) says: on April 8, 2009 at 5:09 pm

  8.  

    I’m still not having much luck. I think the virus ihas gone too far and I think I will just wipe the hard drive and start from scratch. What is the program that writes zeros to the hard drive to ensure it is clean? Would it be better if I ran Firefox instead? thanks.

     

    Tedconey (Newbie) says: on April 12, 2009 at 4:27 pm

  9.  

    Don’t worry about writing 0’s to the hard drive, doing a format of the drive will clean the drive properly to start fresh. Make sure you have your drivers handy or a way to download them before you wipe the computer.

    I highly suggest you start using Firefox and be very conscious of what you download and install from the internet in the future.

     

    Mark (Uber Geek) says: on April 13, 2009 at 1:04 pm