Comments for How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Comment from Mr.Will on 2008-10-21

2008-10-22T01:42:14Z

I think I may be virused - very odd things have been happening, though I used AVG and other products!

Basically opening files seems to take much longer, and every time I open a folder the system hangs slightly. This never happened before, I got the system built to spec so I could do plenty of photo and music editing! I am running windows XP as well.

ALso folders on the desktop seem to just go missing. My concern is that nothing seems to pick up anything wrong - is there any way I can check for sure I am being virused and are the steps there what you would reccomend in this instance?

Thank you!

Mr.Will

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from JL on 2008-08-28

2008-08-28T17:53:33Z

Hello,

I got some Trojan Viruses by email, machine would not even boot up, ran system recovery instead of system restore.

Can I go back and run system restore now.

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Josh on 2008-06-13

2008-06-13T20:05:52Z

My computer started shutting down on its own after about 5 minutes. I was able to download an antivirus software that I bought from office depot and when it said restart, it shut down again but now it won't come on at all. It sounds like it is running and one green light lights up but that is it. WHAT DO I DO, PLZ HELP.

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Leo Notenboom on 2007-03-25

2007-03-25T17:50:13Z

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

I don't understand what's "gone". You believe you've cleared yourself from
infection, but things are still slow? Then I'd have you read this article:
http://ask-leo.com/why_is_my_machine_slowing_down.html

Your anti-virus and anti-spyware programs are gone? Reinstall them.

Leo
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (MingW32)

iD8DBQFGBrZfCMEe9B/8oqERAsavAJ9RiQvdYzIiR3HZ+ubQKlS+EB1ODgCfRm84
NsgwNrPmp+YX2aNe5/M8sZQ=
=IZUQ
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Laura on 2007-03-24

2007-03-25T04:32:14Z

My virus/ spyware is gone! My computer goes way slower now even though my virus is gone. How do I get back to normal?

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from sarah on 2006-12-22

2006-12-22T12:57:07Z

hey i need help i have had 22 trojan horses and now my pc is realy slow it wont let me do anthing on it and things kep going missing i dont thinnk that the viruses have gone i use McAfee. plz help thank you

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from charlotte on 2006-07-28

2006-07-28T15:26:40Z

a comment on my computer keeps sayin your computer is infected! windows have detected a spyware infection. what do i do about it please help

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from junelle on 2006-06-29

2006-06-29T22:48:49Z

i know this isnt in the article above but i dont know what to do!!! i use avg and have been told that sometimes it stops my internet connection.Can i fix this without having to buy a different security program

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Hannah on 2006-06-13

2006-06-13T09:50:40Z

Hi.
I recently got a virus from Msn messenger.
My friend sent this link and it send "hey check out these pics of us on myspace" and then had a link.
So I clicked it and now while I am on msn it opens all my contacts and writes in that same thing and I cant talk to anyone unless i sign out and back in agin. please help.
Hannah

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Lemana on 2006-06-12

2006-06-12T17:00:21Z

Hey. I have been trying to recover from this virus for a while. It makes my mouse click a million times at once and it makes screens dissappear as soon as they appear such as IM screens or the taskmanager and it erases everything i type on a website while im online. I have try ad-aware, spybot, i have a brand new version of norton but NOTHING is working. Please help.

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Leo on 2006-05-29

2006-05-30T01:49:54Z

My guess is that icon is, itself, a spyware or virus infection. These articles include links to some free scanners: http://ask-leo.com/viruses_how_do_i_keep_myself_safe_from_viruses.html and http://ask-leo.com/spyware_how_do_i_remove_and_avoid_spyware.html

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from shaw on 2006-05-29

2006-05-30T01:46:44Z

this isn't really about recovering but im asking how to get rid of one. the icon for microsoft will appear in the quick launch icons and then it will turn into a red circlewith a white x in it and a ballon will pop up saying "your computer has been infected" and then it will tell me about clicking it to buy an anti spyware program i dont have the money to get a new one and i can't logon to all password protected sites/accounts to anything nor can i watch any sort of movie on my computer. do you have somthing to help me?

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Aygen on 2006-02-16

2006-02-17T02:08:34Z

Hi leo
with attack of virus , my all files becomes 1kb and i couldnt open them!
Could u help me to recover my files?
i think i deleted the virus but files are still not opening
Thanks alot for your help
and greetings from turkey

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Matt on 2006-02-03

2006-02-04T00:32:27Z

I am having similar problems as described above except I am unable to access anything. That includes all my firewall downloads and ad-aware(which I have had on my computer for some time). I cannot even get into programs like MS Word. I just keep getting a message that Windows cannot open this file... Please help

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from elmer on 2006-02-02

2006-02-03T05:49:51Z

HI my name is elmer im trying to help a friend her sons computer has 200 virus's what do i do it has a worm in it. thats what it said when i ran a test and then the price . so i tried to run norton 2006 internet (she bought that) but can't get it to do the test so i was think of using the sfc to see if that works the pc is a dell and has 20gb hard drive and 128mb or memory can you help me(have windows xp homeon it know and she has xp pro how to undo this mess help me pull my head out. thank you p.s thank you lol and have a year

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Leo on 2005-11-22

2005-11-23T05:13:52Z

Try this article:
http://www.msn-problems.com/solve-msn-messenger-problem/sign-in/msn-7/msn-messenger-sign-in-80072efd.php

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from chantel on 2005-11-21

2005-11-22T05:38:00Z

hi
my windows messenger is working fine..but my msn messenger 7.0 is not working. i have tried uninstalling it from my computer, then re-installing it..but when i try to sign in, it says 'sorry, we were unable to sign you in to the msn messenger at this time. please try again later. 80072efd '...what am i supposed to do to get it working?! (why is it not fnctioning properly??) please help. thankyou..

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Leo A. Notenboom on 2005-10-29

2005-10-30T01:06:48Z

You might try this article: http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_resolve_my_msn_hotmail_sign_in_problems.html

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Vic on 2005-10-29

2005-10-29T22:29:21Z

Hi,
I came upon this site when trying to find a way to fix my msn. I'm having a similar problem to the like of the one that Phil O posted. I cannot open my msn (MSN Messenger 7.0), hotmail or any othe passport sites, and it is not allowing me to download from microsoft.com and a couple other sites once in a while.
When I enter my login and password to hotmail.com I get the "page cannot be displayed" message. When I log into Mesenger, it acts as if I don't have an internet connection, but when I click "help" it runs a test and tells me that I should be able to connect. What can I do? I tried following the help link that someone posted, but it's for an microsoft page and I can't access it. I've done numerous virus scans and nothing is coming up, and re-installing windows is an option I would leave to the utmost last if I can't fix this problem. No one else I knows is having this trouble...can someone please outline steps I can take to fix this problem?

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from jhovany on 2005-10-08

2005-10-09T03:59:44Z

how do you now that you have a virus and i need help getting rid of the trojan virus plz right back as fast as possible

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Leo on 2005-09-14

2005-09-15T04:04:41Z

I'm having trouble understanding your question, but it sounds like you simply need to run anti virus and anti virus scans. Review this article: http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_keep_my_computer_safe_on_the_internet.html

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Daniel Leather on 2005-09-14

2005-09-14T17:58:55Z

I have a question for leo when i was on msn people were sending me files and they could of been carying viruses ( might not have been ) and the next day i was downloading backgrounds for my pc and it suddenly just went of so i thought i would have a chat on msn without people sending me files and when i was half way through a conversation with one of my friends it just went of and about 5 internet explorers came up and i couldunt get back onto the convo unless i sign out and back in agen or someone sends me a nudge and it also affects internet explorer when i load something up it just goes straight of or onto and different wesite it is happening now so please help me from daniel leather

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from david on 2005-08-01

2005-08-02T02:30:03Z

Dear Leo,
I am a bit if a novice when it comes to computers. Recently, it seems like some nasty virus or whatever has invaded my computer. IE got a new toolbar and a whole bunch of programs kept trying to access the internet, but my firewall kept blocking it. I downloaded a few free anti virus programs(AVG, ad-aware se, spybot and hijack-this)and apparently it got rid of the whole system. Just today, however, the stuff has come back in more force, stopping all my anti virus programs opening and stopping firefox from working (I also have this problem with IE that it sais that my security doesn't allow downloading and i can't find the option to turn it off in the options dialogue box)I re-opnened firefox from the windows task manager and downloaded these anti virus programs, but now they just aren't getting rid if everything (adawre-se keeps on finding stuff, but half of my programs are still messed up. It does look like there are similar experiences here, however, I as I said I am a novice to computers and I don't want to mess things up.

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from David on 2005-04-17

2005-04-18T01:36:38Z

I have a computer that was running extremely slow and locking up from time to time.
I tried to do a restore but it won't go all the thru the install. It stops running in the middle.
I had a similar problems years ago and it turned out to be a boot sector virus. Is there anything out there that can be run on a computer without an operating system

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from kim on 2005-03-20

2005-03-20T13:24:41Z

i had a msn virus which i have now got rid of but when i got it, it took the sound and even though i have got rid of it the sound hasnt come back can u email plz letting me know what i can do

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Critter on 2005-02-19

2005-02-19T20:38:57Z

I just emailed you a reply, then realized your address is @hotmail, which you can't get into. I'll post again here in case you don't get to another machine to check your mail for a bit...

try start>run and type in:

regsvr32 softpub.dll

and click OK. If that doesn't work, check the KB article below:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=813444

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Phil O on 2005-02-17

2005-02-18T00:31:51Z

I have a question related to this one. I recently went away for a trip for 4 days and forgot to shut down my computer and most importantly my MSN Messenger 7.0 (terrible program when it came to security, I'm glad they pulled it!)and when I got back I was infected with over 200 adware and spyware items. I also had the WINIS.EXE virus and some REBATES.EXE program that would endlessly re-install itself.
Anyway, I have rid my computer of all virus and spyware infections, but the virus cause me to not be able to log in to MSN Messenger, Hotmail or any other Passport sites, and it is not allowing me to download from microsoft.com and a couple other sites once in a while. I can't reformat my computer as my CD-Roms were stolen from me and I also have an abundance of files that are near and dear to me.
When I enter my login and password to hotmail.com I get the "page cannot be displayed" message. When I log into Mesenger, it acts as if I don't have an internet connection, but when I click "help" it runs a test and tells me that I should be able to connect. When I open Outlook Express, I can check my emails from my ISP's mail, but once I click a Hotmail folder, I get an error in Shlwapi.dll and Outlook Express shuts down. I stupidly uninstalled Outlook Express and Messenger (I did back up my emails and my history for when I re-install) however, I didn't realize that now I cannot download anything from Microsoft.com!!! Then when I try to go to Windows Update, I'm told I clicked "no" to the trust certifcate or that my security settings are too high. This is not true, to the naked eye all these things should be working!
What kind of steps can I do (I'm very good with following directions on fixing things) to allow access to hotmail again and to allow MSN Messenger to work and to download from Microsoft. These problems don't occur on other machines, so I know it's only this one. Nobody can help me - can you? I beg you! Thanks!

]]>

A comment on: How do I recover from a bad virus infection?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.