Almost all users of the Windows operating system in one way or another were faced with the penetration of viruses, potentially dangerous or unwanted programs. Despite the concern of the developers of these OSs, which Microsoft specialists are trumpeting at every step, the operating systems themselves have not received a reliable anti-virus protection. Even the notorious Defender and the Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus package (which are almost the same thing) cannot fully protect the system from virus invasion. That is why most users have to solve problems associated with how to remove a virus from a computer on their own. Despite the apparent complexity of such operations, they are actually simpler than it might seem at first glance. Further, it is proposed to consider several basic integrated methods that, in most cases, allow you to get rid of threats of any type, even if any of the above methods in terms of identifying or neutralizing the threat does not work.
How to remove a virus from a computer: what tools can I use?
Today, anti-virus tools used throughout the world are very diverse. Basically, it is a software tool, but in some cases, even “iron” firewalls can be used to repel, for example, network attacks. Of course, we will not talk about them in our case. But on how to remove viruses from a computer with Windows 7 or any other operating system of this family on board, it’s worthwhile to dwell as much as possible (especially since many ordinary users simply don’t know about some of the solutions presented below).
Of all that can be used to detect and eliminate threats that have penetrated the system, mainly the following tools are preferred:
- established full-time antiviruses;
- portable healing applications;
- utilities for checking the computer before loading the operating system;
- adware threat detection modules;
- online verification tools;
- manual removal of viruses;
- the use of uninstallers for non-masking virus programs.
Staff Scanners
Needless to say, due to the lack of sensible security tools in Windows systems, almost all users immediately install third-party antivirus software immediately after installing any modification OS. We will leave aside preference questions, since even the standard anti-virus modules themselves are not equivalent to each other (some programs can skip viruses, others have the ability to issue a false alarm, etc.) But you should not neglect them.
So, we assume that some kind of virus got into the computer. How to remove it using a standard scanner? In general, it is quite simple. The only question is what type of scan to use.
Usually, Smart-scan is used to quickly identify threats that can be activated during the boot process, but if a virus is detected at a certain point (for example, when opening a file or starting a program), you can activate the in-depth scanning, marking for verification absolutely all sections, boot or hidden areas.
Still it is worth saying a few words about how to remove viruses from a computer with Windows 10, for example, for cases when you need to check only some external storage medium, a separate file or folder. As you know, all popular antiviruses embed their own commands in the context menus of Windows, for example, in the file manager - “Explorer”.
How to remove a virus from a computer in such a situation? Very simple.
Having selected the desired object through the PCM menu, the scanning tool is called, and after the result is issued, if a threat is detected, its removal can be performed automatically. If this does not happen, the user will need to select the desired action on his own. In some cases, you can immediately activate a scan with advanced options, using the same context menu for this.
Portable tools
Now let's see how to remove a trojan virus from a computer that collects sensitive user data or uses PC resources without the knowledge of the owner, if a regular tool could not neutralize it. For such cases, it is usually recommended to use portable utilities, for example, KVRT, AdwCleaner, Dr. Web CureIt! other.
Their use is advantageous in that you can run such applets from removable media, and they themselves will be "clean", while regular scanners can be infected. Usually, no user has problems with such applications. The most important thing here is to pre-update the anti-virus database, and then set the most complete scan. Of course, this can take time decently. But what to do? Will have to tolerate.
Boot utilities
With standard modules, portable applications against some types of threats, they are powerless. This can be expressed in the impossibility of detecting a virus, the impossibility of neutralizing it when determining, the absence of treatment or placing the virus applet and infected files in quarantine, etc. But this is far from the saddest thing that could be. Here's what to do if, when the system starts up, the computer turns out to be locked due to the ransomware virus? Access to antivirus tools is impossible.
And how to remove a virus that blocks a computer? There is one remedy. You can’t even dream about starting in safe mode or with a rollback of the system. Nothing will work out anyway. But you can boot from removable media and clean the system.
There are special programs for this called Rescue Disk. After writing to an optical disc or to a regular USB flash drive, the media should be set first in the boot priority in the primary BIOS / UEFI I / O system, then load the antivirus interface and set a full scan. I must say that such applications are almost the only means of removing threats that are not detected or isolated by conventional methods. By the way, it is these utilities that can track and remove even those viruses that choose RAM as the place of their deployment.
Advertising modules
Quite often, among all kinds of threats, you can find very unusual types of them, which are modules that fill both browsers and the operating system interface with annoying advertising in the form of banners or constant redirection to sites of dubious content, resources with offers to buy something unnecessary, to install some kind of software of unknown origin.
How to remove a virus of this type from a computer? It is believed that Malwarebytes software products are the best at identifying and neutralizing adware threats. Their only drawback is that for the most part they are paid.
But the aforementioned AdwCleaner utility, which can be found in the free version, is also suitable.
Note: in general, in this case, you can use all applications of this developer, since even in the trial period their functionality is usually not limited. But overly aggressively advertised tools like SpyHunter can not be installed in any case. Not only will viruses not be deleted without paid activation of the application, it will be quite problematic for the average user to get rid of the utility itself (it cannot be deleted using standard methods).
Online scanners
Now consider how to remove a virus from a computer using online scanners. Almost every anti-virus software developer has such programs; they are portable utilities that do not have their own anti-virus database, but access remote servers during the scan process.
In a sense, this is similar to cloud technology or the use of the so-called Sandbox, which is provided as a standard tool in the Panda Cloud antivirus.
Internet virus removal tools
Unlike online scanners, “clean” Internet resources are not intended for a full scan of a computer system.
Basically, such online services (for example, Kaspersky Virusdesk) are used to scan single files. After entering the site, just add the desired object (you can use the most common drag and drop), activate the scan and wait for the scan results.
Network programs
Remote terminals connected to local or virtual networks can be checked in two ways. For the first option, the antivirus is manually launched on the child terminal through a connection to a remote computer. In the second case, special server programs, for example, Kaspersky Small Office Security, can be used.
How to remove an advertising virus from a computer: an approximate procedure
Consider the principles of manual disposal of viruses when, when using the above options for action, a positive effect is not achieved. How to remove viruses from a computer without antivirus? Simple enough, but many do not know about it.
The basis of the procedure for threats that are not masked and visible in the system in the form of installed programs, extensions or add-ons of browsers (and such viruses act specifically on web browsers) can be as follows:
- We remove the virus application in a standard way through the programs and components section.
- We set the registry to search for residues by the name of the remote program and delete all the keys found.
- We search and delete residual files and folders in the "Explorer".
- Disable or uninstall extensions and panels in browsers.
- We change the default start pages and search engines in browsers.
- We check in the shortcut properties the full paths to the executable files of the browsers, so that after the name of the launch file of the browser with the .exe extension, there are no posts.
- Reboot the computer system.
Note: sometimes if it is not possible to uninstall the virus program, you first need to delete the corresponding keys in the registry, and only then proceed to uninstall the main application.
Using uninstallers
The above procedure can be significantly simplified and shortened by using uninstaller programs (iObit Uninstaller) to remove the main virus files, residual objects, entries in the system registry, and browser panels to remove the aforementioned virus applications.
But there is no escape from checking the paths to executable files and changing the initial pages with search engines.
What is the result?
If you draw a line, it’s worth saying that relying on only one means to completely eliminate threats would be extremely naive. Therefore, for the most effective approach, several tools should be used in parallel. This, incidentally, applies to the manual removal of viruses. Upon completion of all processes, it is advisable to scan the system with a portable utility, otherwise advertising threats are capable of simultaneously clinging to a bunch of nasty things.