If you reinstall your computer, your Windows is (still) clean of any viruses, adware, spyware, dialers, key loggers, Trojans, scum ware, malware, undesirable toolbars and other irritant invaders. I prefer to make a backup of your new Windows system, to solve these issues fast and easy in the future. If you notice something is wrong (eg slow computer, not able to remove start pages or toolbars, your firewall comes up with a sudden internet access by an unknown application), you need to do some cleaning if there is no system backup available.
Popular application you can use for this purpose are Ad-Aware (download: www.lavasoft.de), Spybot Search & Destroy (download: www.spybot.info) and a combination of all Hitman Pro (download: www.hitmanpro.nl). Browser hijacks can be solved by CWShredder (download: www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn).
TIP: With a system backup of a clean system you actually don't need these kind of tools. After a system restore, you a trouble free!
Make sure you download the latest versions of the mentioned applications, else they won't recognize the new threats.
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If a infection is still active, it will be difficult to remove it from your Windows. To solve this issue you can stop the process first on the tab Processes of the Windows Taskbar (CTRL-ALT-DEL). Actually it's better to do a scan in safe mode (press F8 at Windows startup).
After the setup of Ad-Aware (download: www.lavasoft.de) you will see the following screen. Click Scan now followed by Smart Scan for a quick scan or Full Scan for an entire scan to start the cleaning process. At the end of the search, you are able to delete identified items by activating the checkboxes and deleting them with the button Remove (on the tabs Critical Objects and Privacy Objects). After clicking the button Finish, a restore point can be created and by clicking the button Status you can return to the status-window. Ad-aware will always find something, so don't worry.
After the setup of SpyBot Search & Destroy (download: www.spybot.info) start Spybot. Probably, it's safer to run the wizard to create a back-up of the registry. Click on Search & Destroy, button Check for problems and possible spybots will be found and removed from your Windows system. With the repair option you can undo deleted spybots, if something did go wrong.
Many people have seen it: a browser hijack. Internet Explorer suddenly has an extra toolbar or undesired homepage. Whatever you try, they won't go away! There are many known types, CWShredder (download: www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn) can delete most of them (CWS=CoolWebSearch). At the same website you will find the application HijackThis. With this tool you can find (still unknown) infections and delete them (be careful, read the manual).
The application Hitman Pro (download: www.hitmanpro.nl) gives you an all-in-one solution. This tool does a total and automatic 'search and destroy' with above software (and more). Start the program and wait, at the end a report is shown.
Changing the HOSTS-file makes it possible to block malware and advertising because this file is checked before asking the DNS-server of your internet provider. If one of the known websites is requested, the request will be routed to the IP-address 127.0.0.1 (this IP-address corresponds with your own computer). Because adds are blocked, surfing the internet will speed up.
Before changing the HOSTS-file, back-up the original file. This can be done by copying the file C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC\HOSTS to as save location. The original file can be opened with a simple texteditor like notepad (be aware: the HOSTS-file has no extension!). At www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm you can download a new HOSTS-file. Open the link www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.txt, and copy the content(CTRL-A followed with CTRL-C), paste it (CTRL-V) into the original file and save the changed HOSTS-file.
REMEMBER: Don't forget you have changed the HOSTS-file! This file can cause problems like not being able to open websites. If you know which IP-address is blocked, remove the associated row from the HOSTS-file.
With a tool like RootkitRevealer (download: www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Security/RootkitRevealer.mspx) you are able to trace the newest threats: rootkits. There are different forms of rootkits but they have all the same propertie to hide themselfs almost perfectly. That's the reason why they are difficult to track without thr right tools. A file may look very small, but can actually be very big, full with harmfull code. You are able to trace rootkits, it takes some expertise to work with this tools.
For more information about FREE security see the pages about:
antivirus software and
firewall software
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