Introduction

Reading this page isn't necessary to your being able to use the malware-removal steps.

You may never get a computer virus, trojan, or other significant malware. As far as I know, I didn't get any infection from the time I got my first computer, in 1999, until mid 2008. But then, within one three-week period, I got three bad trojans (XP Security Center, Vista Antivirus 2008, and Antispyware 2008 XP). The infections were completely independent of each other. Each infection was my fault, though of course, I share that fault with the users who created and spread the malware. I learned several lessons and am better prepared now to avoid future infections.

When I got the first infection, I spent a lot of time and effort figuring out what to do. I tried a lot of recommended, manual removal steps, but they didn't work. My computer manufacturer recommended that I do a system recovery. But I knew that it would take a lot of time to reinstall and set up everything I'd want back on my computer after a recovery, so I didn't want to do one unless it was absolutely necessary. My computer manufacturer also recommended a restore to a restore point, but because I had had a lot of software conflicts after a restore that I once did to a restore point, I also wanted to avoid that step. In the end, I proved that neither one of those steps was necessary. The solutions that I found worked great to completely eradicate my first infection. They were just as successful with my second and third infections. I want to share the solutions with you, in case you ever need them.

What worked? A set of certain good, free, malware-removing software. I had tried several anti-malware applications. A few were pretty useless, even ones that were said to be effective against the trojans I had. The programs that I recommend are effective and are recommended by reliable others also.

None of the steps that I recommend are a substitute for running good basic anti-virus software and a firewall virtually all the time.

Didn't my anti-virus program protect my system from getting the trojans in the first place? No. My understanding is that, in a lot of cases, your regular anti-virus software won't protect you if you click on a bad link or download an infected file. In fact, the first trojan immediately crippled my anti-virus software. For days, nothing seemed to be able to fix it. And then I ran Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. Instantly, my anti-virus program was back to normal. And for the first time since the infection, the pesky tell-tale icon from the trojan was gone from my system tray. And now, finally, the stubborn bad files I knew best were gone from my Windows folder.

Why do I recommend running four different spyware-detection-and-removal utilities? Because though Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware was a big fix, each of the other three utilities that I used detected and removed trojan-related components that the others didn't. Apparently, no anti-malware utility has all the definitions necessary to detect and remove every infection, let alone every bit of every infection. But in my experience, some anti-malware utilities are much better than others are.

If in addition to your anti-virus program and firewall, if you want an anti-spyware program to always run in the background to help give your computer active spyware protection, I recommend that you use Windows Defender's Real Time Protection (if your computer meets the system requirements to install Windows Defender). Neither Malwarebytes nor SUPERAntiSpyware Free Edition offers active protection. Spybot-S&D has an component called Resident TeaTimer, which does active protection, but I recommend not activating TeaTimer, because it issues too many unnecessary alerts.

I don't set my anti-spyware programs to perform automatic scans. Instead I initiate scans manually from time to time, and not very often at that. My system seems to stay free of spyware as long as I don't do something careless. I'm just glad to have these programs in case I ever do get another infection.

IMPORTANT: Always update anti-malware definitions (check for updates) before scanning.

Be patient while a scans progresses. It can take a long time. I have a big hard drive with lots of stuff on it, so each of the first three anti-malware programs can take over three hours on my computer. Spybot takes a little less time.

When a scan is running, you can minimize the scanner's window and do other things on your computer or on the Internet.

You can set your computer's power options so that your system won't go to sleep for at least five hours (just in case a scan takes that long on your system), and then you can let a scan run overnight or while you're otherwise away from the computer.

Related Pages
Help with Security
Steps for Removing Spyware, Trojans, and other Malware