How to remove viruses, malware and spyware for FREE!

Viruses, spyware and malware are a huge pain, and can infect a computer easier than most people think.  You’ll know the telltale signs of an infection, when popup ads, strange programs running that you’ve never seen before such as “XP Antivirus 2008”, or even a fake “Microsoft Security Alert” start popping up randomly on your screen.  Most antivirus programs will catch these viruses and malware, but I have seen many computers with an active antivirus subscription become crippled to the point where they no longer boot properly.

One important note, not all viruses/malware/spyware can be removed completely.  Some infections require a complete “reimage” or restoration of the computer to its original factory settings, but these tools will give you a chance to remove the infection without spending a dime!  Also, just a standard disclaimer that I am not representing my ownership of any of these products, and all credit belongs to the owners of the websites that these products are linked to, since they are the ones who truly did all of the hard work in creating these helpful tools.  Please note that any of these types of tools can actually damage your computer so please be sure to backup your data, and if you feel like you’re getting in over your head, consult a professional (like us!).

Now, to the tools!  There are an amazing number of free utilities out there that work so well that they are the first tools that I use when cleaning up a machine.

Malware/Spyware removal tools only:

  • Malwarebytes – it works so well that many viruses are engineered to tell when this utility is installed so that it can block it from running.
  • SUPERAntispyware – works very similarly to Malwarebytes.
  • ComboFix – This is one of the more dangerous tools available, just due to the strength it has with regards to cleaning your system.  I will say that this tool has helped me eliminate some of the nastier infections quite well, but caution does need to be exercised, and the steps listed in the link should be closely followed.
  • RKill – and is essential for killing off the processes that the infection has launched so that they can be deleted.
  • Often these malware/spyware programs will disable your task manager or the ability to launch .exe files.  These tools actually edit your registry to restore this functionality.
    Enable Task Manager
    Fix EXE File Association

Antivirus/antispyware/antimalware all-in-one programs:

Now one thing to keep in mind with antivirus programs, is that only one can typically be installed on your system at once.  So installing AVG, Norton, McAfee and avast! would probably lock up your system, so you need to tread carefully here an only install one at a time.  With regards to the spyware/malware removal tools, they can be installed along with antivirus, which is actually my recommended action.  So you should have one antivirus program (AVG, avast!, Ad-Aware, Norton, NOD32, etc.) along with SUPERantispyare and Malwarebytes. Now while having these installed do not comprehensively prevent and infection, they will drastically improve your chances of successfully removing an infection.

Remember too that you are probably not the only one who has ever experience this problem before, and Google is your friend!  Just type in the name of the popup that you are seeing, or the problem you’re experiencing (you’ll probably need to use a different computer) and you’ll more than likely find websites showing how others were able to resolve their problems, again for FREE!.  Some of the more reputable sites you should choose include bleeping-computer.com, malwarehelp.org, techsupportforum.com, to name a few, but be careful, some of these hits can be for sites that contain even more spyware, so choose your links carefully.

So that leads right into why you would pay for a program when these free utilities are quite effective, the answer primarily being prevention.  While these tools are great for scanning and fixing an existing infection, your goal should really be preventing the infection in the first place.  Having these tools installed is certainly helpful and much better than nothing at all, but at the bare minimum you should install one of the more popular paid antivirus programs such as Norton Antivirus, NOD32, AVG, etc.  Now these programs will certainly pay for themselves if they save just one malware/spyware/virus infection, as you can imagine the time of reimaging your system or cost of a professional cleanup would be many more times the cost of the program.  That said, with some due care, cautious updating of your system with the latest security patches, and use a secure web browser (hint…Firefox), you should be able to get along just fine with these free options!