I don't know about you, but for me other than my telephone, my computer is my lifeline! I am disabled and have no money to spare, so imagine my horror when last night a virus snuck into my computer and I knew I couldn't afford to pay anyone to remove it! This particular new virus is called System Tool 2011 and it's a rogue Trojan that completely takes over your computer if you allow it to finish its scan!
At first, it looks like your personal security system alert has popped up to tell you that your computer has become infected but this is a tactic to trick you into thinking you've got a virus and need to remove it when, in fact, the virus alert is the virus. It's not like the old "ignore it/don't click on it and just reboot immediately to get rid of it" viruses of days gone by. Oh no, this one is already automatically downloading. Oh, and if you do try to reboot, it doesn't matter because what comes up on your screen are nasty "HA, HA in your face" comments that basically say, "Tell your boss, your family, and friends that no matter how careful and safe you are that we can get you!" (I almost took a screen shot of it but decided I had better not waste time keeping my computer on while allowing the virus to continue taking over my computer) Anyway, this virus will not allow you to access "any applications whatsoever" including your security system or even your documents!
So now what? Thankfully I already have extras beyond my McAfee like Malwarebytes, C Cleaner and Spybot downloaded on my computer and a desktop shortcut for each. So what I did was turn off my computer, take a deep breath with lots of prayer and restarted while constantly clicking F8. I chose 'safe mode' and then ran Malwarebytes via the desktop shortcut first. Yep, it found the virus and I clicked to delete. Then I used Spybot and it also found a bad registry and I deleted it. Then on to CC Cleaner to get rid of any other possible hidden items and finally did a full McAfee scan. Bessie is now clean as a whistle ;-)
Should you choose not to download these three completely free programs now (and make shortcuts for them on your desktop for easy access) please don't panic should you happen to get an infection! Just print this tip, keep it in a safe place, and instead of when turning off your computer and restarting by clicking F8 and choosing 'Safe Mode'; keep clicking F8 and choose "Safe Mode With Networking" and type in the links in your search engine for downloading and running the programs one at time (in this order) Malwarebytes, Spybot and C Cleaner.
Here are the links to download for virus (and junk in general) removal help:
Malwarebytes: You do not need the full 'pay for' version! Also, once you've run it on full search the first time you will probably not ever need to do more than a quick search ever again :-)
Spybot: Do not worry about a donation to start because you can always donate 'if you want' at a later date. Just scroll down until you see the download button for Spybot Search and Destroy.
C Cleaner: (Used to be known as Crap Cleaner. Seems everything has become politically correct - LOL):
By Deeli from Richland, WA
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
There are many virus programs available for your computer and I highly recommend you have a virus program.
What anti virus does everyone use? Has anyone found that Norton slows your computer down?
