
  How To disinfect your windows operating system!

Disclaimer

This guide is merely for tutorial purposes and all information held within are merely suggestions and are not guaranteed to solve your problems. Furthermore, I the author will not be held responsible for any errors or damages that may result from use of this guide and/or the programs found within this guide. Any results good or bad are the sole responsibility of you the user. Finally this guide has been tested on Windows XP and Windows Vista. This guide has not been tested on Windows 7 though in theory it should work similar to Windows Vista. Proceed at your own risk!

Table of Contents

Disclaimer
- Introduction
  - Entering Safe Mode WITH NETWORKING
    - Cleaning Your Machine Of Malware
      - Follow up

Introduction

A lot of people seem to have a hard time managing to keep their PCs clean. Most of the time it's simply from trusting and using the products which came with your copy of Windows Operating System. The likes of Norton, McAfee, and various other trial before you buy junkware that isn't worth piss to begin with, much less with a price tag. There is good news however in that you DO NOT need to purchase ANYTHING to make your PC safe, secure, and speedy. This guide will help you fix most infections with little to no effort.

*Note*

Windows Vista users may encounter UAC prompts while following steps in this guide. Just click Allow to let the applications run.
*Note*

Entering Safe Mode WITH NETWORKING

In order to enter Safe Mode you simply restart your PC and as it starts back up just tap the F8 key before the Windows Logo appears and it will bring you to a little menu. The menu should have some options for how to boot windows, you will notice two distinct options "Safe Mode" and "Safe Mode with Networking". You will want to select "Safe Mode with Networking" and press ENTER. Select your operating system which usually is the default selection. After sometime the Safe Mode with Networking will pop up, pick YES from the pop up box, and congrats you have entered Safe Mode.

Cleaning Your Machine Of Malware

Open your browser of choice and download these programs;
ComboFix: Just select save, and let it download.
SuperAntispyware Portable: I selected the portable scanner because a lot of viruses prevent installation of apps.

*ComboFix*

Now that you've done that you'll want to start off with ComboFix. Normally I would post a tutorial at this point to show you how you use it, but the folks over at BleepingComputer have made a flawless step by step that I could only equal through plagiarism. So I recommend following it first and then make sure you RESTART your PC back into Safe Mode with Networking before returning to this guide.

*SuperAntispyware*

Now then is your computer on fire......JOKING <_< Seriously I am. Let's continue with SuperAntispyware Portable. Begin by double clicking it and telling it to run. After that you'll be greeted by a window like this,

Press Click here to start

Click OK

Click Check for Updates

Let it update and you'll receive this window when it's finished.

Click Close after the update is finished. You'll be brought back to the main menu.

Click Scan your Computer.

Make sure Complete Scan is selected. Select your Drive which is usually Drive C: and press Next.

Now it will scan your system and find most of the stuff ComboFix left behind.

After the scan has finished click OK and Next to move on to the next step.

Make sure all infections are checked and click Next.

Click Yes to restart your machine and click Finish. Now after it reboots you should be clean. Though I would recommend installing some software to keep your machine from becoming infected again. I will list some recommendations in the next section.

Follow up

Ok in order to keep your machine clean you will need to have an active Antivirus Software, a Firewall, and some Malware Protection. You can add other things such as Hostfiles, and special tweaks to be even more secure but for this guide let's just stick to the basics. I would also recommend that you uninstall any current antiviruses and other malware software before installing any of the suggestions. Just in case of conflicts.

Personally I use a nifty little program called Revolution Uninstaller to uninstall my programs. It tends to get more of the left over keys that the default program uninstaller misses. Anyway here is a list of suggestions which should help keep you secure.

*Note*

Be sure to verify that Windows Update and Windows Firewall are Enabled and try to keep your software up to date as much as possible.

*Note*

Anti-Viruses

Windows Essentials: Comes with both antivirus protection and antispyware protection and is probably the easiest to use.
Antivir Antivirus: Probably the best heuristic scanner of all the free AVs on the market.
Avast AV: Very good scanner, but requires you to register it for FREE once a year.

Spyware & Malware

Malwarebytes: Amazing definitions and a great product.
Spybot S&D: Great scanner and immunization helps protect from future infections.
SuperAntispyware: IMO The best scanner on the market today!
Spyware Blaster: Adds prevention settings to your current system.