Taking computer to a professional place for virus-worm-trojan removal?

Question

seriously, what do they do differently than the average person who buys a $80 anti virus program such as Kaspersy, run for scans, and delete the infections that show up?
I'm thinking of going to a "professional" but they charge about $100 and I don't understand what they're going to do that I haven't already done? And also I reformatted and I still think my computer is reformatted! Is it worth going to a professional?

Answer 1

Okay. First thing's first.



A "professional" would just simply boot up some kind of pro, fully-purchased version of some random anti-virus, make a scan, delete-without-caring any files that pop up on the scanning window, give back to you the computer, and ask for his hundred bucks.



The funny part is; you can do the same thing a "professional" can do for free. That is, of course, excluding the price you pay to your Internet Service Provider.



So, if you are looking for a good anti-virus to remove a virus-worm-Trojan...thing, I would recommend some free, fully functional anti-viruses or anti-malware programs that work and are confirmed to work by many other users. Let's name a few, shall we now?



1) There is avast!, which I use and LOVE for it actually works very well

2) AVG, which I know a lot of people tend to download, but I wouldn't recommend it, for avast! is starting to (well, it actually already did..) beat it

3) Avira

4) Hitman Pro

5) Malwarebytes



And that's just to name the most popular ones. For more information on each separate program, check my sources. All of the links are approved to have Excellent trustworthiness by Web of Trust (WOT for Firefox)



Good luck!

Answer 2

It depends on how professional they are. Their anti-malware software won't be much if any better than yours. However, a good pro can spot malware without the programs. A serious review using HijackThis will generally catch anything the anti-malware software misses. They should also have some other software that you may not have but it is all free to download and use.



Using HJT is both dangerous and surprisingly easy. The dangerous part is that you could remove something that you actually need. Best advice where HJT is concerned, Google anything that loads using random appearing file names. Often as not, these are not so random and you can quickly tag them as being malware or not even if they go undetected otherwise. It helps to have extra eyes looking at HJT log files and possible malware files. To that end, Google for the various help forums that offer assistance with HJT log files. Be sure and follow the instructions for the forums as most require that you start a new topic with an HJT log file posting.



Run a software firewall such as Zonealarm that checks permissions for outgoing connections. Again, Google any programs that try to make connections that you don't know what they are. Just about every piece of malware needs to connect somewhere or it wouldn't be very useful to the malware user. This is another way malware that was otherwise undetected may be found and removed.



Live CD's usually with some form of Linux may be used to access your hard drive without booting the native operating system. I usually suggest Puppy Linux as this is one of the smaller user friendly live CD's. This allows you to search the web with a malware free operating system as well as manually find and remove stubborn malware. Usually the best course here is to simply rename the suspected file by adding an XX at the beginning and see if it causes any problems. If it turns out to be a file you need, you can go back and change the file name back.



There is a lot of things here. I taught my sister to do all this with her computers. My rescue trips went from several times a year down to zero and I rarely even get a phone call about a computer problem now. It isn't hard to do and she is using free software to keep her systems clean. This isn't a small feat since there can be up to 4-6 teens (family and friends) and a few adults abusing the various computers. You can learn to do it all as well. You only need to take the steps outlined above and ask questions on a good help forum. Sadly Yahoo Answers is not a good help forum since you can't post even a small HJT log.



Shadow Wolf

Answer 3

2

Answer 4

I do these sort of "professional" cleaning jobs from home myself...and usually, yeah, it's exactly as you say, running a virus scan/malware scan and removing infections. Usually booting into safe mode to really get in and clean the machine up with programs like Malware Bytes Anti-Malware...at last resort a reformat will always do the trick. Completely wiping the machine and reloading windows helps a machine run like new. It's all a matter of knowing how to do it and having the tools to do it. I can clean a computer up from viruses no problem, where as a person who has antivirus running on their machine thinks its nothing more than that, it's just a lot more in depth.

Answer 5

Most of your run-of-the-mill computer technicians (no offence to them) simple have a workstation setup that they can easily hook up another drive and run the anti-virus software from there. Me personally I have a usb 2.0 external drive case that the drive just slides into.

If a hard drive is infected already, most anti-virus software will not detect or will not be able to remove virus/trojans from an active drive. By hooking it up to an external source on a computer with an active anti-virus, there is no danger of infection of the other components in the system before the anti-virus has a chance to become active and catch them.



Simply put, YES they use pretty much the same programs that you do, they just pull the drive and run them on another active computer so that they catch the virus as soon as the drive becomes active.

And YES you pay dearly for it.

Answer 6

A professional computer shop will only scan your drive with a different computer which has the advantage over scanning your system drive on your own computer. Sometime scanning your system drive on your own computer won't be able to delete all virus's.



If you want to do what they do then just use a different computer that has a professional anti-virus program and then pull the hard drive out of your computer, and plug it into the second computer externally and then scan it from the second computer.



No need to go to a professional.

Answer 7

There are quite a lot of Trojan removers and anti virus programs and so on that are available as freeware or 30 day evaluations....use some of them. Make sure you are using at least two.



I reformat my PCs every last day of the month (after backup), install the evaluation / free versions of AVG and Trogan remover. So my PCs give peak performance, and I save money by using evaluation copies.



No professional can do what an educated user cannot do.

Answer 8

initially, the time period "pc" stated someone who done numerical calculations, many times via a mechanical calculating gadget or analog pc. Examples of those early gadgets, the ancestors of the computer, protected the abacus and the Antikythera mechanism, an historic Greek gadget for calculating the moves of planets which dates from about 87 BC. the suitable of the middle a lengthy time period stated a reinvigoration of ecu mathematics and engineering, and Wilhelm Schickard's 1623 gadget grow to be the first of numerous mechanical calculators built by technique of ecu engineers. In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard made an progression to latest loom designs that used a chain of punched paper playing cards as a application to weave complicated kinds. The ensuing Jacquard loom isn't considered a real pc even though it grow to be an substantial step interior the style of contemporary digital pcs. Charles Babbage grow to be the first to conceptualize and layout a completely programmable pc as early as 1820, yet through a mixture of the bounds of the technologies of the time, constrained finance, and an lack of ability to resist tinkering consisting of his layout, the gadget grow to be by no skill rather built in his lifetime. by technique of the suitable of the 19th century a range of of technologies that could later teach functional in computing had regarded, at the same time with the punch card and the vacuum tube, and tremendous-scale automatic documents processing employing punch playing cards grow to be done by technique of tabulating machines designed by technique of Hermann Hollerith. in the course of the first 1/2 of the 20 th century, many clinical computing needs were met by technique of increasingly more desirable state-of-the-paintings particular-purpose analog pcs, which used an instantaneous mechanical or electric powered form of the project as a foundation for computation. those grew to grow to be increasingly more desirable uncommon after the style of the programmable digital pc.