As you know, computer viruses mostly attack Windows systems, and sometimes Android mobile platforms. In the "apple" OS and Linux modifications, they do not work. And threats to Windows users sometimes become a very serious problem, because they can not only engage in theft of personal data or block access to the system, but also load system resources, completely disabling Windows. How to remove a virus from a computer? For this, today you can find a lot of money. Next, we consider the most relevant methods of getting rid of virus threats, including software designed specifically for this and manual removal of some viruses that may not be masked in the system (most often these are browser hijackers belonging to the Hijackers virus group).
How to determine the presence of a virus in the system?
To begin, let's decide how you can detect the presence of a virus on a computer. It goes without saying that the first symptom is the increased load on the central processor and RAM, and sometimes a sharp decrease in free space on the hard drive. Of course, you can use all sorts of standard or portable scanners to detect threats, but sometimes they may not detect virus applets that penetrate the system under the guise of legal affiliate software or have the status of trusted applications with digital signatures and security certificates (alas, it happens and such).
How to remove a virus from Windows 7 or from any other version of the system in such a situation? It must first be identified. Usually, most threats tend to disguise themselves as system processes, in which ordinary users do not particularly want to intervene. Nevertheless, it will have to be done. The easiest way is to use the standard "Task Manager", in which you need to pay attention to the tree of active processes. Some system services and processes must be represented in a single instance. If two or more identical processes are noticed, these are clearly viruses. The same can be said about the svchost.exe process. But its copies can be started quite a lot, and the virus can be identified by the highest load on the processor and RAM.
Through RMB on the selected process you need to go to the file location. If it differs from the System32 directory, which is the main one for system processes and services, such an active process must be immediately terminated, after which either a full scan of the computer with the subsequent neutralization of the threat should be made, or try to delete it manually if a regular verification of the result fails.
How to find and remove a virus: possible options
As for the basic techniques for detecting and neutralizing viruses of any type, the following tools and methods are most often used:
- standard protective equipment;
- portable scanner applications;
- boot disk antiviruses;
- manual removal.
Verification by regular means
So how to remove a virus from a computer? Naturally, most users, at the slightest suspicion, immediately turn to using the installed full-time antivirus.
This is normal, although not always correct. For scanning in this case, it is recommended to use either an in-depth scan of all sections, including hidden and boot areas, or use the special functions of the SMART scan. If a regular third-party antivirus is not installed in the system, you can trust the means of checking the operating system itself and use at least Windows Defender, although it may not give the desired result.
Portable scanners
But why, then, checking the installed antivirus may be ineffective? Yes, only because he did not initially respond to the threat at the entrance or could be damaged as a result of viral exposure when the built-in self-defense system did not work on time. And how to remove the virus if the installed protection does not work? Nothing is easier!
Only in this case it is necessary to use portable applications like KVRT, Dr. Web CureIt, AdwCleaner, etc., having previously updated the anti-virus database to the current state at the start of the programs (such a procedure will be offered automatically at startup).
Disk Utilities
But it also happens that even portable programs cannot cope with the tasks assigned to them. So, for example, cases where viruses seem to be detected are very common, but it turns out to be impossible to neutralize them, remove them or simply quarantine them. For example, how to remove a virus that creates shortcuts at program startup or at system startup and is not deleted by any standard means? For such purposes, special antivirus utilities are suitable, with loaders in their arsenal, with which you can start programs from removable media, similar to how you do this using installation distributions or LiveCD recovery discs.
The most famous and most powerful is considered the utility Kaspersky Rescue Disk. With its help, you can boot before the start of Windows and perform a full scan, including even RAM. You can use it in DOS-mode, and at startup with a graphical interface that resembles the "Desktop" Windows.
How to remove the virus yourself: standard program removal
Finally, we consider the manual removal of threats, provided that they were determined by the user or the anti-virus scanner, but the neutralization of the threat was impossible. As an example, we will consider issues related to how to completely remove the hijacker viruses, which are advertising applets that are not masked in the system.
As a rule, such threats are presented in the form of official software, and you can even see them in the programs and components section of the standard “Control Panel”.
To get rid of the main components of the virus applet, just select it and perform the standard removal procedure using the built-in Windows uninstallers. True, this will be the removal of the main components, after which undeleted elements may remain in the system. They also need to get rid of.
Note: for some types of threats, you must first complete their active processes in the "Task Manager", and also exclude them from the startup section. In Windows 7 and below, the system configuration (msconfig) is used for this, for Windows with a rank higher (8, 8.1 and 10) - "Task Manager".
Removing registry balances
How to remove the virus entirely? The first step is to intervene in the registry with the regedit command in the Run menu.
In it, you need to call the search line (Ctrl + F) and set the search for keys by the name of the virus or, if known, by the developer (this information could be viewed when the main program was deleted). You need to get rid of all the results found. Only they will be issued not in a single list, but in turn. You can switch from one key to another through the "Find Next" button or by pressing the F3 key. And so on, until the system reports that the search is completed.
Residual Hard Disk Files
Speaking about how to remove viruses (of any type), after actions with the registry, a similar search procedure should be performed in the "Explorer", after enabling the display of hidden elements. If any of the found results is not deleted, you can try to remove the restriction of access using the Unlocker program.
Browser Actions
Now let's see how to remove the virus from the browser, since in most cases adware threats are built into web browsers. The first step is to uninstall all suspicious panels, add-ons, and extensions. After that, you need to change the search engine and the start page displayed when the browser starts. Finally, after completing these steps, you should check the properties of the browser shortcut.
In the field indicating the location of the browser executable file, after its name with the .exe extension, nothing should be assigned. For example, for "Chrome" it will be Chrome.exe, and for "Opera" - Launcher.exe. If after expansion something else is added, all this needs to be deleted and to save changes. And only at the end of the whole complex of actions associated with the manual removal of threats, can you finally reboot the system.
Note: if at any of the stages the actions to neutralize the removed threat turn out to be impossible or blocked, they should be performed when the system starts in safe mode. in some cases, you may first need to remove the registry keys, and only then uninstall the main software applet.
Uninstallation Programs
Speaking about how to remove the virus from the browser, to simplify the actions you can use uninstall programs, say, the iObit Uninstaller package. In it, you can not only perform the standard procedure of a virus application, but also get rid of residues in the form of files, folders and registry entries in automatic mode.
In addition, in such programs, you can completely remove the suspicious browser panels.
What should not be used under any circumstances?
We figured out how to remove viruses using standard tools or in manual mode. In the end, it remains to say a few words about what should not be done in any case. This applies to installing various kinds of advertised packages like SpyHunter. Not only can there be a huge number of false threats, it is impossible to neutralize detected viruses without activating the program (of course, for money), and getting rid of the application itself is even more difficult than removing some kind of virus yourself. Plus, the installation of completely unnecessary additional affiliate software, and in the background, which the user will not even know.