Clean It Up! - Part 3 - Some notes before scanning

Whew...OK. So now begins that task of cleaning your machine. But first, some notes from yours truly.

I remember hearing this in a class I took: "Security is a process, not a program". You'll see that this will ring true soon enough for you.

You may be able to go into Safe Mode with Networking to access the Internet and download files that can clean your machine that way, however, I would recommend downloading the utilities listed from another computer and putting them on a CD. Do not use a USB flash drive as that may become infected. Try and keep the infected computer off the Internet or your home network as long as possible. Not rebooting will also keep the virus/spyware at bay because it may want to undo some things each time you reboot.

WHEN SCANNING WITH A PROGRAM:

• The arrows are there to show you what you should do if one operation doesn't work: (see below)
  • If it's virus scanning software that's being used: Repair -> Move to Chest/Quarantine -> Delete
  • If it's spyware/malware/adware scanning software that's being used: Delete
• Normally anything found in these directories can be safely deleted:
  • C:\Document and Settings\All Users\Local Settings\Temp\
  • C:\Document and Settings\All Users\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\
  • C:\Document and Settings\YOUR_USERNAME\Local Settings\Temp\
  • C:\Document and Settings\YOUR_USERNAME\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\
  • C:\WINDOWS\Temp\ (WINDOWS might be different on your machine, such as WINNT)
  • C:\System Volume Information\
• All of the utilities I am going to list are free to use and provide free updates. :-)
• Before using a program, please make sure it is updated fully before scanning.
• I would print up this page up and reference it later if need be.
• Click here to continue the guide