How to Clean an Infected Computer

The truth is that it's a lot easier to keep a computer malware free than it is to clean one that is already infected. However, with the advice given in this article you should be able to remove any type of malware from your computer and get it back to working order. The main problem with most malware removal guides is that you have no way of knowing if all of the infections were removed. So I'm here to show you guys a way to make your computer clean and how you check if it's clean.

Before attempting to clean any infections from your computer it's important to make sure that the computer is actually infected. To do this please install Malwarebytes or Hit man pro. If the results of this do in fact show that your computer is infected then continue to follow the steps in the next section. Make sure that you follow them in order.

Please note that more advanced users may just want to skip to the last part to do a clean install and clean the computer that way. This approach is the one which is most powerful, but it is also one of the more time consuming approaches and you have to back-up your data or it will be lost. That said, if you wish you can jump directly to that section and then come back to the beginning again if the infection is not entirely removed.

For removing malware or adware we can use a free to use program called malware bytes. It's free to use and you get for 30 days a premium account. There are of course also other programs. One of them is HitmanPro. This program is free to use for 30 days and after that you have to pay for the services.

First try Malwarebytes to clean your computer.

Download the free version of Malwarebytes from this page. Note that it has chameleon technology which should allow it to even install on computers which are heavily infected. During installation I would advise that you uncheck the box to "Enable free trial of Malwarebytes Anti-malware Pro". Make sure that it is fully updated and then run a quick scan. Quarantine any infections that it finds. If asked by either program to restart your computer, make sure that you restart it.

If Malwarebytes didn't work as planned you could use HitmanPro

Download HitmanPro from this page. Install the program and run a "Default Scan". Note that if it will not install please continue to the next paragraph and install Malwarebytes. During the installation of HitmanPro, when asked I would recommend you choose the option to only perform a one-time check of the computer. This should be suitable for most users. Also, if malware prevents it from loading correctly then open the program while holding down the CTRL key until the program is loaded. Quarantine any infections it finds.

It's never a bad habit to scan your computer with more than 1 program. (not at once) So you make sure that every infection gets removed from your computer.

Download Emsisoft Emergency Kit from this page. Once it's finished downloading, extract the contents from the zip file. Then double click on the file called "start" and open the "Emergency Kit Scanner". When prompted allow it to update the database. Once it's updated select the option to go "Back To Security Status". Then go to "Scan now" and select the option to perform a "Smart Scan". Once the scan is complete quarantine all detected items. Restart whenever required.

If the above methods were not able to completely remove the infection, or you cannot even boot your computer, then you may need to use a bootable CD/Flash-Drive, also called a bootable disk, to clean your computer. I know this may sound complicated, but it's really not that bad. Just remember to create this disk on a computer that is not infected. Otherwise the files may be corrupted or even possibly infected.

I'm not gonna explain how to make a bootable disk because that's not the purpose of this article. If you want to know how to make a bootable disk please search on Google. There are Many good tutorials that explain how to do it and how to do it save.

Once you have successfully cleaned all infections from your computer, you should take steps to ensure that it does not happen again.

After securing your computer you can now restore any of the previously backed up files that were lost during the cleanup process. Hopefully this step is also not necessary. Also, before restoring them make sure that your computer is very well protected. If you don't lock the computer down strongly enough then you may inadvertently infect it and again have to clean the infections from the computer. In addition, if you used a USB drive to transfer any files to the infected computer you can now plug that back into the computer and make sure there is no malware on it. I would recommend doing this by deleting all files left on it.

If you have any problems or confusing feel free to ask me. Have a nice day :)