My computer's infected with a virus, how do I clean it up?

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Hi Leo-
As the poster of this problem, I want to thank you for your candor. Sure, I'm sad/frustrated that it's happened and the reversal of the problem is arduous, but I now I have somewhere to start.
Thanks Again!

Hi Leo -- Another excellent article and advice. I would not allow anyone, regardless of age, to use my computers if I did not know they were competent and careful. And I would get the "kids" their own computer so that they could learn the hard way the results of carelessness. -- Al

Great answer Leo!!! And I agree with Al, the easiest way to stop kids from messing up your PC is never allow them to use it. Get them their own PC.

Then, to reduce Malware by 90%, put their PC somewhere where you, Mom, can watch everything they do on it, like the dining room.

You do know they are going to Porn, illegal music and illegal video websites because no one is watching them and that's where most of the malware is coming from.

* Choice I
1. Update your virus definition (symantec,mcafee,avg)
2. restart your computer and go to safe mode
3. run virus scan
3. clean up registry by use "registry clean expert " software
4. reboot
* Choice Two :
1. Take out your hard disk
2. connect your hard disk as slave hard disk with other computer that have no virus and make sure the other pc virus scan up to date
3. scan your hard disk
4. clean registry entry

Mom of teens here, this all sounds so very painfully familiar. I found the worst offender for the kids downloading viruses and such was an Instant Messaging program, in their case it was MSN Messenger. I set it up to run all incoming files through my Norton AntiVirus, but more importantly I taught the kids not to accept ANYTHING from anyone they didn't know and to check with me first if it was someone they did know. Even files that look legit can be infected and one of their friends was infected and didn't know it so her machine was sending out files unbeknownst to her. Hope that helps, we usually think of web pages and email as being the culprits (and they can be) but with the way teens rely on IM programs, you might find that's where your security leak it.

Sure, but creating a Local Restricted User account without any administrator Rights should take care of the problem upto 80%. She shoul password protect the system. Or Go for Vista, It has a lot to defend / combat such things,

Anyways those are my views.

Ravi.

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While I agree that the behavioral problems that led to this compromise need to be addressed, you do not address remedial procedures that may remedy the situation short of a reformat and re-install.

"mustafx2.exe" is a variant of the Trojan.Virantix.B malware (a blended threat that shuts down most antivirus/spyware programs, modifies system files and registry entries, hides itself with rootkit tools and monitors your browser activity . . . that is, if it is not continually forcing your computer into a restart.

Symnatec has a writeup here:

http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2007-122607-2738-99&tabid=3

including advice on how to use the Recovery Console.

In the event the computer reboots continuously, try issuing the 'shutdown -a' (minus the single quotes)command from a command prompt to abort the shutdown and allow you to clean your computer.

The minimum age requirement to be president is 35 - there's a REASON for this. No one under 30 years of age should EVER be allowed to touch a computer!

What about using a live operating system CD like...Ubuntu,PCLinuxOS,Mepis,Etc Etc that way anything you pick up will disappear when you reboot.
Stuff can be saved to another drive like a USB one.

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