What do you do when you have a virus?

[Butterfingers]

I am no computer geek, but the first thing I do is run a scan, if that does not work I start in safe mode and scan again, if this doesn't work I start in safe mode and do a recovery to an earlier date, often this gets around the virus so a scan will clean it out.
If all else fails it's time to return it to factory settings, you lose everything including the virus (at least I always have).
It's important to keep back up files for this reason, don't create them after getting infected as the virus will be on the disks as well.

[mrex]

Opera here too.
People have said MSE has served them well.
But i guess people have something bad to say about everything.

im checking the site http://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/ whenever i need to buy/renew my protection.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

Since moving to Albuquerque I haven't gotten a single virus or malware on this computer.

Before hand the computer would mysteriously become afflicted will all manner of ugly-software of which my Ex/roommate swore up and down he had idea how it happened.

The first defense against all malware is to to use and intelligence when using the inter-webs.

Then there are many interesting programs out there to prevent catching the computer equivalent of the cold, flu or ebola.

When a computer has gotten sick, I have worked to get it all cleaned up, up to and including wiping the hard drive and reformatting it and reinstalling everything.

From past experinces of having a partner who was never mindful about his interweb activities, I got into the habit of backing everything up on a regular basis, cleaning the computer, and even using online virus scanning programs once a fortnight to really scan for potential malware.

Its sort of like wearing a condom - its a choice, if you do you are safer than if you don't, and if you don't you usually end up paying a much higher price than the price of a condom.

[Albie]

I use Avast. If one gets through, I am the IT guy that everyone calls when they get viruses, lol. Then they wonder why I hide.

[mrex]

im just wondering... how many have had a virus? people always talk about viruses but how many have had it? i had once on year 1998 or so. since then nothing. or was it a trojan horse... on that time there was a popular malware called Sir something...

[yousir]

Ive had 2 that have fucked my computer up. Because i didnt know how to look after it. Now im really on the ball. Nothing so far has gone wrong.

[Albie]

I've only had one major one. Most others I got were just spyware and they were easy to take care of. I've helped others with their viruses though.

[catshello]

What do you do when you have a virus?

Scream and run around?
Cry because you think you've lost everything?
Realise there is bigger sh*t in the world?

Or figure a way to fix it?

What anti-shitware do you use?

[shitware = virus, trojan, adware, spyware, malware etc].

I use:

Malwarebytes.
Microsoft Security Essentials.
CCleaner.
AdwCleaner.

A recent customer of mine had "cryptowall", the only way out of this malware was a complete wipe and reinstall win7. By the way, combofix ever work for you?

[yousir]

A recent customer of mine had "cryptowall", the only way out of this malware was a complete wipe and reinstall win7. By the way, combofix ever work for you?

Yes but I did it the wrong way. You should never use it without the guidance of an assistant online. Even then, its an absolute last resort. Fortunately my pc was fine.