Your PC is acting strange and you suspect that you may have
been infected.... What do you do?
Firstly you try not to panic.. after all
you do have a back-up yes?
Err.... anyways moving on.....
• If its simply that
your browser is acting strange and taking you to weird sites, then
it is likely that you have been "browser hijacked."
Download and install either/both Spybots
S+D or Adaware
After the program is installed do the update check to ensure all the
patterns are up to date and then scan your PC.
Both of these programs will give you the option to remove any malware
found.
Another couple of Programs worth trying are:-
Merijn's CWShredder and PepiMK's CoolWWWSearch.SmartKiller
removal tool.
• If you feel its something
more serious and you are likely to be infected by a virus:-
If your virus patterns are not up to date, it is not unknown for some
worms to disable installed AV progs.
Your first port of call would be to visit and on-line virus scan site
such as Housecall.
Let housecall do a full scan of your PC and if you are infected it
should tell you which particular virus you are infected with.
Since housecall is only a virus scanner, it will not be able to repair
the virus, but you should have enough information about it to be able
to hopefully clean it.
You can then either visit the symantec site and see if they have a
removal tool.. or if for some reason you don't have AV installed,
download and run an AV program.
• I
still cant clear the HiJack
If it is a fairly new malware infection, or
related to about:blank then this may call for tougher action.
HiJack This (HJT) is a fairly powerful
tool and its not for the faint hearted. You should only use it if
you are sure you know what you are about to delete.
There are several forums which specialise in
analysing HJT logs such as Net-Integration
or CastleCops
who will try and help you.
HJT now also has a self help HJT
log file analysis page which you may find helpful.
If you want to know more about HJT then check
out the following sites:-
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Excellent HJT tutorial |
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HJT Tutorial |
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About:Blank Homepage Hijacker Removal Instructions and Help |
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