Has your computer been acting funny, crashing, running slow, or displaying unusual error messages? Have you been promiscuously clicking on Web links and opening up attachments from strangers? You could have a malware infection. I get questions all the time from readers and friends asking what to do when they think their computers are infected. Here's a primer that should help. It's focused on Windows-based PCs because that's where most of the malware is targeted.
What are the warning signs of an infection? An infection may cause the computer to run more slowly than normal, stop responding, or just crash. Applications may not work properly, and disk drives may be inaccessible. There may be unusual error messages and distorted menus and dialog boxes. If spyware or adware is on your machine, in addition to it running slower, there may be new toolbars and links in your browser; your home page, mouse pointer, or search engine may be changed; you may be redirected to a different Web page from the one you typed in; and there may be pop-up ads even if you are not connected to the Internet.
But slow downs and other problems don't necessarily mean your computer has an infection. It could mean that there is some other problem with your system. Your disk could need defragmenting, you could need to add memory to your machine, or there could be some other issue.
To deal with noninfection slow-down and other issues, there are some tools. CCleaner , is an excellent free utility for tune-ups, browser track remover and dead registry keys. Windows 7 tends to not need defragmenting help the way that XP does.
System Mechanic is another helpful maintenance tool. Typically, fake antivirus is the only malware that shows itself and that's because it's designed to trick you into thinking you have an infection so you will pay money to have it cleaned up, said David Perry, global director of education at Trend Micro. What are the chances I'm infected? Even if you practice safe computing and don't click on random links that lead to malicious Web sites or open unsolicited attachments hiding a virus or Trojan, you could get infected.
Searching for free stuff and using porn and pirate Web sites can also increase your chances of encountering malware. Legitimate Web pages can be hiding malware that gets stealthily dropped on your computer in so-called drive-by downloads. More than 1 million Web sites were infected with malware during the second quarter of this year, many of them innocent sites whose administrators are unaware of the hidden malware, according to antimalware service provider Dasient.
Given that an estimated 40 percent of computers are not running antivirus software and that some malware disables security software, which opens the door to additional infections, there are many more infected computers than people realize.
There are a many free online scanners that check your computer for viruses and other malware, including Trend Micro's HouseCall , and Malwarebytes , which is designed to catch malware that traditional anti-virus software misses. For the Mac there's the free ClamXav virus scanner. Every major antivirus vendor offers scanners.
Trend Micro's Perry suggests getting a second opinion if the scan fails to detect an infection and running a second scanner from a different vendor. Chances are that if one scanner misses an infection the other one will catch it since they use different technologies. These games always have a lot of fans.
So you can see why it can still be a problem for avid gamers not to redistribute them on Windows How do I fix connection error in Games for Windows Live? Download the installer here.
Install and run the client. Run GFWLive. GFWL should now work for you. How do I get Gfwl to work? Choose any game from the list of Steam games. Right click and go to properties.
Click the Updates tab. KAs you know, we recommend using a tool for the uninstaller first of all — Revo Uninstaller. This is only done so that this process works completely and does not leave traces on your system, which can lead to problems in the future.
RKill tries to kill any known-bad processes running on your PC, which may be preventing other programs from running or finding malware. TDSSKiller finds rootkits. There are also lots of tutorials on the site to explain how to do things.
This has been developed by Bleeping Computer to tackle hard problems, and is used by many other anti-malware forums. You should create an account at Bleeping Computer or a similar website such as Geeks To Go , select the correct forum for your problem, and start a new query as explained in the Welcome Guide.
This will often involve running RKill and ComboFix and posting logs from your PC, but you need to be familiar with the area to make sense of the logs. When you run a new program, SmartScreen creates an SHA hash of the executable code and sends this gibberish to a Microsoft server, which looks to see if the same hash is associated with any malware.
Importantly, it provides protection against social engineering attacks eg fake codec updates and drive-by downloads. SmartScreen has been part of Internet Explorer but is now plumbed into Windows 8. How can I remove redirection malware from my PC? There is plenty of free software that will locate and remove malware hiding in Windows. Preparations Start by making a list of your useful Firefox extensions and then uninstalling and re-installing Firefox.
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