Programs to Clean an Infected Computer

[Bill Bos]

All:

I have found a rather comprehensive article on cleaning an infected computer. It recommends using several anti-Spyware software programs in addition to Spybot. The article is rather old: written in 2004. I wonder if any of them do anything that Spybot does not do. The programs in question are:

CWShredder, ( I don't think it is available anymore.)
Ad-Aware,
Rogue Remover and
AVG AntiSpyware.

The article is titled "How to Clean an Infected Computer" by Randy D. Stafford. It is on the AVG Forum. Its address is:

http://forum.grisoft.cz/freeforum/re...,backpage=,sv=

I would appreciate any suggestions that anyone has.

Sincerely,
Bill Bos

[shelf life]

hi,

Cleaning an infected computer today has become harder than ever.

Even more so today. Malware is getting more and more invasive.

turning off system restore is not recommended.

always a good idea to run AV and anti-malware software after the fact. A better approach would be to learn how you can get malware in the first place and attempt to avoid those things. "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"

[Bill Bos]

Shelf Life:

Thanks for the information.

I still would like to know if scans by the programs other than Spybot and AVG are really are necessary. The article is dated. Spybot has come a long way since the article was first written. I suspect that the Spybot And AVG scans are sufficent now.

Of course, if one takes care, their computer should never become infected, but stufff happens. When it does, the system has to be cleaned. The procedure of the article is one way of doing it. However, as noted by the author of the article, you can never be sure that you have completly cleaned the system or repaired all of the damage it has caused with this type of procedure. The only way that I know of to be sure, is to reformat the drive and reinstall the system.

Thanks again,
Bill Bos

[shelf life]

hi Bill Bos

Spybot And AVG scans are sufficent now

i agree
i personally think that having two anti-malware apps on a computer is enough and of course Antivirus. they can always be supplemented with a online scan.
CWshredder and rouge remover are very limited in what they do and wouldn't be a good choice for "over all" malware scanning/removal.
many anti-malware apps now come with a real time component that runs in the background similar to antivirus. best only to have one active, that way no conflicts or resource hogging.
i think most of your generic malware can be removed ok. its the rootkits or a heavily loaded machine that i would "flatten and rebuild", as it can not be trusted anymore.

[Bill Bos]

Shelf LIfe:

Do you know if CWShredder is even available anymore?
If so, does it do anything that has not been incorporated into Spybot?

Thanks
Bill Bos

[shelf life]

hi Bill Bos,

yes it is still available as a stand alone tool;

http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract..._download.html

If so, does it do anything that has not been incorporated into Spybot?

i can say that i haven't had any posters download and use it(CWShredder) in a long time.
a few years ago the coolwebsearch family was a very popular home page hijacker among other things. over time malware apps can adapt to threats and incorporate "fixes" or the malware can simply die out as coders adopt new ways of infecting machines. whats "hot" now: legit website based infections and phishing and the popular social engineering. ie instant messengers, social networks.

cant say for sure but i believe SBSD could handle a coolwebsearch trojan.

shelf life