How to clean a virus off a laptop.
October 19, 2010 8:56 PM Subscribe
My exchange student's laptop has a virus. Can't connect to the net. Is there some way to download something from my desktop so I can 'boot from CD' or whatever on the laptop?
Best answer: The best thing to do is to download something like AntiMalware, rename it, and copy it onto a USB thumb drive. Then plug that into the other computer, which you reboot into safe mode, and run it from the thumb drive. Then reboot, return to safe mode, and run it again. Keep doing that until it reports that the computer is clean.
(The reason you rename the tool is that some malware now knows its enemies by name and refuses to let them run.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:00 PM on October 19, 2010
(The reason you rename the tool is that some malware now knows its enemies by name and refuses to let them run.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:00 PM on October 19, 2010
...or you could do it his way. It's sure, but it's also slow and painful, and sometimes AntiMalware can handle the problem all by itself.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:02 PM on October 19, 2010
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:02 PM on October 19, 2010
Best answer: Download AVG free (pick the huge full download, not the small web-based one), burn to cdrom. Use on infected system. Once clean, force student to run under a restricted account and not a full admin account - this solves most (but not all) problems of this kind.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 9:02 PM on October 19, 2010
posted by Old'n'Busted at 9:02 PM on October 19, 2010
Assuming you have access to another computer as the others have,
Download one of the virus cleaner bootable cds; bitdefender ( Auto updates when booted if network found ); AVG ; F-Secure ( Updates if network connection detected) ; There are other as well.
The benefit of using the bootable cds is that you are not initially struggling to install the software on the infected machine and these may solve the problem or at least clean it enough to make that installation part easier.
Burn the iso image to a cd or install on a USB drive (unetbootin )and boot the infected machine from that.
After that follow the others advice for Anti-MalwareBytes ( I wish they made a bootable cd/usb version )
posted by stuartmm at 2:02 AM on October 20, 2010
Download one of the virus cleaner bootable cds; bitdefender ( Auto updates when booted if network found ); AVG ; F-Secure ( Updates if network connection detected) ; There are other as well.
The benefit of using the bootable cds is that you are not initially struggling to install the software on the infected machine and these may solve the problem or at least clean it enough to make that installation part easier.
Burn the iso image to a cd or install on a USB drive (unetbootin )and boot the infected machine from that.
After that follow the others advice for Anti-MalwareBytes ( I wish they made a bootable cd/usb version )
posted by stuartmm at 2:02 AM on October 20, 2010
With the no net connection the Avira iso would be the best to start with as it is updated daily. Although the others can be updated via usb as well the Avira cd would be simpler to start with .
posted by stuartmm at 2:23 AM on October 20, 2010
posted by stuartmm at 2:23 AM on October 20, 2010
Ultimate Boot Disc is what I use lately for troubleshooting machines with boot issues. AVIRA is on it for virus scanning, but generally once a machine is corrupted, it's best to copy the important data off of it, format it and reinstall everything. Even the best virus removal tools tend to have a time truly purging the crap off a machine once it's infected.
posted by inthe80s at 8:53 AM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by inthe80s at 8:53 AM on October 20, 2010 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks, all. Avira found one infected file, which got the desktop to behave long enough for Antimalware to find 330 and AVG to actually clean all those off. AMW and AVG originally wouldn't run.
posted by TheManChild2000 at 5:21 AM on October 25, 2010
posted by TheManChild2000 at 5:21 AM on October 25, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by deezil at 9:00 PM on October 19, 2010 [8 favorites]