I think i have a persistant Virus

Platinum Pete · 20 May 2006 at 20:51

I am using AVG and windows XP firewall and i did a virus check the other day and it brought up 6 entries all of them trojan horse all of them in the windows folder. they were all succesfull removed (apparently) but im occasionally getting AVG automatically warning me of more viruses found. I never had this before

Is this a persistant virus or are there just more attacks coming in lately. also they come without me even downloading anything. is this normal??

What can these viruses actually do to my PC, is it safe to still use internet banking if my system is continually infected.

Please help...

bledd · 20 May 2006 at 20:56

turn off system restore, then run AV, (i'd reccomend against AVG, it misses a lot.. use the nod32 trial or pay for nod32)

and run Windows Defender (made by MS and is VERY good)

Duke · 20 May 2006 at 20:56

AVG isn't great as a AV program. I would recommend downloading a trial of NOD32 and doing a full scan

Platinum Pete · 20 May 2006 at 21:09

bledd. said:
turn off system restore, then run AV, (i'd reccomend against AVG, it misses a lot.. use the nod32 trial or pay for nod32)

and run Windows Defender (made by MS and is VERY good)

Why do i need to turn of system restore?

also nod32 demo: how long does the trial last?

Sputnik II · 20 May 2006 at 23:18

Platinum Pete said:
Why do i need to turn of system restore?

also nod32 demo: how long does the trial last?

Turning off system restore means that viruses can't hide in the restore folder.

I think the NOD32 trial period is about 30 days. But, it seems a nice AV. I'm trying NOD32 at the moment and it seems pretty good.

AtreuS · 20 May 2006 at 23:58

Deffinately get a proper AV trial program and run it. AVG is ok but its not good enough these days.

And as mentioned turn system restore off before running several full scans with NOD32 or Kaspersky ( trials).

Phate · 21 May 2006 at 01:00

update AVG for starters turns off system restore and delete all your temporary internet files and temporary files aswell

delete system volume information and RECYCLER they like to hide in their then run another virus scan

uknorthboy · 21 May 2006 at 10:40

Turn off sytem restore and do a free kasperskey online scan http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner, found it to be very effective.
Then turn restore back on.

Richdog · 21 May 2006 at 12:02

uknorthboy said:
Then turn restore back on.

Nah don't turn it back on, it does more harm than good and using it tends to break things.

To the OP, NOD32 + Adaware SE + SpywareBlaster will keep you clean.

Using Windows Defender with NOD32 isn't a good idea, as then you are running two real-time scanners together which is a big no-no. Keep your anti-virus real-time and your apyware 'on-demand', once you install Spywareblaster you'll barely get any anyway.

stoofa · 21 May 2006 at 18:07

Yes do turn System Restore back on.
It can be an absolute life saver.

If you've ever seen a machine riddled with viruses and then find that by using System Restore to take the system back two days you can totally clear the machine up.
Or, a machine that has been "tweaked" and a system restore from a day before people arsed around with it fixes things....

Just two situations I've seen - System Restore is a god send and if I'd had anything to do with writing XP I'd make it so it could only be switched off for a couple of hours at any given time so that an anti-virus scan could be run.

Richdog · 21 May 2006 at 18:15

stoofa said:
Yes do turn System Restore back on.
It can be an absolute life saver.

If you've ever seen a machine riddled with viruses and then find that by using System Restore to take the system back two days you can totally clear the machine up.
Or, a machine that has been "tweaked" and a system restore from a day before people arsed around with it fixes things....

Just two situations I've seen - System Restore is a god send and if I'd had anything to do with writing XP I'd make it so it could only be switched off for a couple of hours at any given time so that an anti-virus scan could be run.

lol restore can be a nightmare, I have to try and troubleshoot users that use it and break their programs almost every day. As soon as I hear thee words "my computers not working, I had a problem and used system restore to turn it back..." I groan inwardly.

bledd · 21 May 2006 at 18:21

the only part of system restore that is even remotely well designed is the driver rollback part, and thats not directly assosiated with it, just turn it off and leave it off, it slows down your pc and any change you make is written to the HD