Home » What to do if you have a Computer Virus

In my social circles, I am commonly thought of as the Resident Geek.  What this means is that if a friend has a technical problem, I am the one they call.

 

The most common problem I get asked about is what to do if they have a virus on their computer.  I thought I'd post my standard response here so that the next time I can just point them to this page, and hopefully others can benefit as well!

 

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Hey, sorry to hear about your computer... here's my advice....

The very first thing to try is to restore Windows to a previous state, before you had the virus.  Most computers running Windows have a system restore which is incredibly easy to use.  Click "Start", "All Programs", "Accessories", "System Tools", then "System Restore".  You will then be given the option to choose a time and date to restore your computer back to.  Make sure you choose a date back far enough to ensure that the virus didn't exist then.  The process takes a few minutes and will require that your computer reboot, but it is easy and it works probably 75% of the time.... I think this is the best feature in Windows that no one ever knows about.

If this doesn't work, you're going to have to download some software to remove the virus.  The two best programs I would recommend is Spybot - Search and Destroy and AdAware which are free and can be downloaded from numerous places on the Internet.  Just Google their names.

If these programs don't completely fix the problem, the next thing to try is HiJackThis (Google it).  This is a powerful program which can really mess up a computer, so use it as the last resort.

If all else fails (and sometimes it will) you will need to format the hard drive and re-install windows.. but hopefully you won't have to do that.

Good luck!

Bruce