How to remove a Trojan, Virus, Worm, or other
Malware
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Dialers, Trojans,
Viruses, and Worms Oh My!
If you use a computer, read the newspaper, or watch the news,
you will know about computer viruses or other malware. These are those
malicious programs that once they infect your machine will start causing
havoc on your
computer. What many people do not know
is that there are many different types of infections that are categorized
in the general category of Malware.
Malware - Malware is programming or files
that are developed for the purpose of doing harm. Thus, malware includes computer
viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spyware, hijackers, and certain type of adware.
This article will focus on those malware that are considered
viruses, trojans, worms, and viruses, though this information can be used
to remove the other types of malware as well. We will not go into specific
details about any one particular infection, but
rather
provide
a
broad overview
of
how these infections can be removed. For the most part these instructions
should allow you to remove a good deal of infections, but there are some
that need special steps to be removed and these won't be covered under this
tutorial.
Before we continue it is important to understand
the generic malware terms that you will be reading about.
Adware - A program that generates
popups on your computer or displays advertisements. It is important to note
that not all adware programs are necessarily considered malware. There are
many legitimate programs that are given for free that display ads in their
programs in order to generate revenue. As long as this information is provided
up front then they are generally not considered malware.
Backdoor - A program that allows a remote
user to execute commands and tasks on your computer without your permission.
These types of programs are typically used to launch attacks on other computers,
distribute copyrighted software or media, or hack other computers.
Dialler - A program that typically
dials a premium rate number that has per minute charges over and above the
typical call charge. These calls are with the intent of gaining access to
pornographic material.
Hijackers - A program that attempts
to hijack certain Internet functions like redirecting your start page to
the hijacker's own start page, redirecting search queries to a undesired
search engine, or replace search results from popular search engines with
their
own information.
Spyware - A program
that monitors your activity or information on your computer and sends
that information
to a remote computer without your knowledge.
Trojan - A program
that has been designed to appear innocent but has been intentionally designed
to cause some malicious activity or to provide a backdoor to your system.
Virus - A program that when run,
has the ability to self-replicate by infecting other programs and files on your computer. These programs can have many effects ranging from wiping your hard drive, displaying a joke in a
small box, or doing nothing at all except to replicate itself. These types of infections tend to be localized to your computer and not have the ability to spread to another computer on their own. The word virus has incorrectly become a general term that encompasses trojans, worms, and viruses.
Worm - A program that when run,
has the ability to spread to other computers on its own using either mass-mailing
techniques to email addresses found on your computer or by using the Internet
to infect a remote computer using known security holes.
How these infections start
Just like any program, in order for the program to work, it
must be started. Malware programs are no different in this respect and must
be started in some fashion in order to do what they were designed to do.
For the most part these infections run by creating a configuration entry
in the Windows
Registry in order to make these programs start when your computer
starts.
Unfortunately, though, in the Windows operating system there
are many different ways to make a program start which can make it difficult
for the average computer user to find manually. Luckily for us, though, there
are programs that allow us to cut through this confusion and
see
the
various
programs that are automatically starting when windows boots. The program
we recommend for this, because its free and detailed, is Autoruns from
Sysinternals.
When you run this program it will list all the various programs that start
when your computer is booted into Windows. For the most part, the majority
of these programs are safe and should be left alone
unless
you know
what you are doing or know you do not need them to run at startup.
At this point, you should download Autoruns and
try it out. Just run the Autoruns.exe and look at all the
programs that start automatically. Don't uncheck or delete anything at this
point. Just examine
the information to see an overview of the amount of programs that are starting
automatically. When you feel comfortable with what you are seeing, move on
to the next section.
How to remove these infections
We have finally arrived at the section you came here for. You
are most likely reading this tutorial because you are infected with some
sort of malware and want to remove it. With this knowledge that you are infected,
it is also assumed that you examined the programs running on your computer
and found one that does not look right. You did further research by checking
that program against our Startup Database or
by searching in Google and have learned that it is an infection and you now
want to remove
it.
If you have identified the particular program that is part
of the malware, and you want to remove it, please follow these steps.
Have a problem and would like to ask us for help? To learn how to ask your question Click Here!
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