under attack

[MuleKicker]

Trend Micro House Call. It operates remotely. I have had good luck with it on some real bugger viruses. But I aint no computer wiz...

[rad14701]

I've got over 25 years of computer repair experience and I haven't found any one software that can keep a computer clean nor clean a infected computer all by itself... Most computers get infected by blended threats and as such require a blended detection and repair regimen to fully clean them up... I almost never see a single scan of any software fully repair an infected computer... The only times that happens is when a customer calls me at the first indication that there is a problem and I have them either leave the computer alone or perform a forced shutdown until I get there to attempt a repair...

I do the whole safe mode, disable all processes in msconfig, perform a disk cleanup, turn off system restore because it virtually never works anyway, turn off remote assistance, delete browser temporary files because disk cleanup doesn't get them all, and go from there... It goes on and on, even for what appears to be a simple threat... When the computer is definitely clean to my satisfaction I install any and all available operating system and software package updates... If you don't do the updates you're just leaving security holes wide open for potential future attacks...

LWTCS can attest that it isn't as easy as most people make it out to be... I wish it was that easy but unfortunately it isn't... I honestly lose money cleaning threats from computers compared to other work that I do... Hours invested versus realistic billable charges just don't jive... If all of the time was billed I'd either have to tell my customers that it would be cheaper to buy a new computer, which would still need to be prepped and data transferred, ect., or they'd have so much money invested that they'd hesitate to call if they needed additional work done...

I have a customers laptop hard drive being scanned by my test machine right now as part of its cleanup process... It has a tough one on it that Malwarebytes, Spybot Search & Destroy, SupaerAntiSpyware, McAfee, and a few additional tricks haven't removed... When a threat is so new that there is no definition signature for it or known payload I've gotta dig deep in order to fully clean the computer without having to backup the data, wipe the drive clean, and reinstall the operating system... A reinstall is a very last ditch effort option in my book... But, then again, I've been doing this day in and day out on far more computers than I care to think about... It's not at all uncommon to be working on four or more infected computers at the same time...

My customers often state "They need to catch those bastards writing these things and string them up by their balls!"... Personally, I think they should have their public executions broadcast live, like the royal wedding, so the rest of those bastards get the hint that it's time to stop...

But I digress...

[Ono Nadagin]

That is what I meant to imply that you need both a virus and malware scanner/removal tool and a root kit removal tool as well... but not a lot of people get infected with root kits unless they really neglect cleaning their system.... I stand by my comments and advice.. it is sound.

But having said that 99+% of my calls for non hardware or networking related computer issues are malware infections and can easily be fixed by the steps I laid out in my original response to this post... less than 1 in 100 I come across do I have to run a Highjackthis on to get to the nitty gritty of the infection... and most people dont want to pay me what I want to get paid to get to the bottom of a seriously infected machine, so they will often chose to have me do a back of of personal stuff and docs and then wipe and reinstall.

Also I totally agree with you on losing monies for cleaning calls thats why I try to teach people how to do it themselves... and relate to them that it can be a savings for them if I dont have to come out and do it.

[aqua vitae]

rad, have you any experience with Lavasoft Ad-Aware (the free version) for spyware scans and removal? Or is malwarebytes the better option?

[Prairiepiss]

I use a BFH. This renders the infection noncontagious. Don't want to spread it. And it makes me happy. Then I ditch the carcass!