Well it's finally happened. After years of not bothering with anti-virus shizzle, I now am the proud father of one.

I keep getting pop-ups down near the clock in windows (XP) saying that I'm infected with Spyware, Trojans and something else.

So I head down to Office Works to get me a anti-virus program to clean it all up. Big mistake buying Norton Internet Security 2009 as the thing won't even install on my machine. After a lengthy online chat with the tech support they say they have to remove the virus before Norton can be installed, all for the low price of an additional $139.00. No mention on the box that this program wil lbe useless if you already have a virus. Awesome.

So what are best options? To format (which is my preferred method) I need to back-up all my MP3's, photo's etc of which I don't have the HD room to do so. Therefore I will be up for another $100-200 for an external HD to copy all my goodies over to before I nuke C:.

Is there any free programs that will scan and delete a virus? If I go buy another anti-virus there is no gurantee that will install also.

Not have having one before I don't know what to do :(

buying norton :(

its really not much drama to run free virus scanning software (avg/avast)

everyone should at least do that

u can try doing an online scan to work out what you've been infected with
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

and then google to remove it

probably wouldnt hurt to run adaware and spybot as well

Yeah I was cursing myself the moment I put into the CD Drive.

I have already filled out the product return crap and sending it back tomorrow. I'm downloading avast now and see what that does for me.

I'm downloading avast now and see what that does for me.

Avast is pretty damn good, I have it on almost all my machines now.

Also grab Spybot: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

and Adaware: http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php (click "More download Sites" instead of Download.

Generally if I find more than a couple of active viruses on my system, I'd just go for a format to be on the safe side - I don't want to risk my bank accounts through key-logged netbank sessions, etc. 640GB drives are $100 these days, not bad at all.

last edited by parabol at 14:48:33 19/Oct/08

NOD32 is f***ing great, I would def recommend.

Post some details about these "popups" you're getting.. or just google the text from one yourself. No doubt you will find a thread in a forum not unlike our own where someone has solved it.

Most likely solution would be -

1. Install NOD32
2. Install Spybot
3. Disable System Restore (viri like to hide here)
4. Boot into safe mode
5. Run full scans with NOD32 + Spybot + disabled random s*** from startup using msconfig
6. Profit

^ Is there a free version of NOD32?

The original post asked:

Is there any free programs that will scan and delete a virus?

All I see is a time-limited (30 day) version.

Okies, running Avast now and after the install reboot, its scanning and has so far deleted 4 trojans.

The pop ups are from down near the clock where the XP security icon is. In the same format as teh Windows 'Updates Ready to Install' type thing. So it looks like an official MS XP message although I suspect it isn't, as I've never seen or heard of these message before?

It says to click on it to upgrade/download XP Spyware Remover.

The normal topics are 'Your computer is infected', 'Trojan Detected', 'Spyware Detected' etc.

last edited by mission at 15:08:14 19/Oct/08

well at least it tells you that you have a virus...:P

Yeah Windows is very considerate of its users.

Now running through a second scan with Avast and its still finding goodies.

This is exciting stuff.

You can sometimes do it manually. Over the years I've learnt which processes are normal and which are foreign. What you do is go through and google the strange ones and most of the time you will get some info about removing it.

This might not actually remove the virus but stop it from annoying you. Also, get hijackthis. A little program that lists all the processes that run on startup. Again go through and select ones that you suspect of being a virus (especially HBO ones), but just be careful because you could f***up windows with it.

malware bytes has done nicely for me just this week after being on broadband for about 6 years, almost 24/7 with no anti virus software. oh well, had to happen sooner or later. and as soon as you get one, you've got 50.

hijackthis is probably the best spyware remover out there. Though not very user friendly, there are many forums out there that will help you analyse your text file and tell you what to delete.

So what are best options? To format (which is my preferred method) I need to back-up all my MP3's, photo's etc of which I don't have the HD room to do so. Therefore I will be up for another $100-200 for an external HD to copy all my goodies over to before I nuke C:.

After you done removing the malware, get yourself an external HDD anyway and backup you files. Then backup regularly.

Well good news.

Avast seems to have solved the problem(s).

Awesome program for free. It took a few hours and scanned several times but all the pop-ups etc haven't been seen since.

And yeah, I think I will get an external HD and back-up to that and only have it connected to the pc for back-up. Will any old one do or are those 'On-Touch' back-up type ones the go?

After 8 odd years on broadband with no anti-virus stuff, this is my first encounter with one, so I've been pretty lucky. Although I do format reasonably regularly so I probably had crap without knowing it.

Three cheers for Avast!

you've probably been running a keylogger for years matey and some russian dude has logged every keystroke you've made since you got your computar;

I didn't have a virus scanned installed on my media box, but after my gfs bank account was tried to be logged in too many times and it having a trojan I kinda got with the program and installed a virus scanner on every computer! So i'd probably be changing my bank details and s*** too mission!

it boggles my mind, that supposedly savy computer usars, woudlnt run free virus scanners at least on any machine that is connected to the net

I like to live dangerously.

code for 'i'm foolish'?

you don't need to spend anything extra on the one touch backup hard drives.

Just buy any old external, and use pathsync, it's nice and free.

And yeah, I think I will get an external HD and back-up to that and only have it connected to the pc for back-up. Will any old one do or are those 'On-Touch' back-up type ones the go?

For home use, any plain old USB drive with lots of capacity will do, then just get yourself Synctoy from Microsoft (it's free) and schedule that to run everyday :).

Well I haven't run Anti-Virus for the most part and I've never noticed anything wrong.
I did run a free copy I got of Norton (3 month trial or something) when I bought a new mobo but had it turned off half the time cos it f***ed with my networked xbox and every other program I loaded just about.

Just d/l and ran spybot and ad-aware for s***s and giggles and came up with a few minor disturbances in the force but nuked them and kept truckin.

So yeah, I am sure viruses are out there but how can you tell you have someone fiddling with your innards unless your whole bank account goes ass up or something? Are any of these virus protection progs foolproof? I doubt it. Someone could be stealing my cash or watching me type this right now and I wouldn't know. The boss does all our banking and we have money flying everywhere each month so it would be hard to track.

Spose it's better to have than to have not, but I can't help wondering whether there is a bit of paranoia about "hackers" and "viruses". Still, if IT people on here eg Spook are saying it's an issue then I guess maybe it is more serial than I suspect.