Laptop virus

I wonder if anybody has any advice to give me on how I might clean my laptop. I have free anti virus in the form of AVG at present and it appears its not worked and my laptop is now infected by whatever means and so its comes up with messages across the screen as the screen background, the spyware rushes into action opening loads of windows before it all shuts down. It all works fine in safe mode though. Does anybody know any way of clearing virus while in safe mode. I did an AVG run of the system last night but it seems to be still infected. Is it gone or can it be restored and repaired?

Thank you.

try spybot search and destroy: http://www.safer-networking.org/index2.html

Thanks Tets. Can I do that from safe mode. I cant open anything in normal mode at the minute but thank you. I will try that later.

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Originally Posted by Harpsbear

Thanks Tets. Can I do that from safe mode. I cant open anything in normal mode at the minute but thank you. I will try that later.

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It's been a while since I had to install it,
off the top of my head there was a problem installing from safe mode, but I think you can't install anything in safe mode
one thing to try is to start in safe mode and click Start -> Run -> msconfig
this is the system configuration utility
Click the Services tab, and select the "Hide all Microsoft services"
you're going to have to go through each entry and try to figure out if it's legitimate or not. If not, then clear the checkbox next to it
Do the same on the Startup tab
Then restart the machine normally into Windows
with any luck the changes will have stopped some of the infections from starting, and you will be able to install SpyBot normally
It can take some time to run, usually I let it run overnight and remove anything it finds in the morning

Thanks for that Tets. I'm not great on doing these things and I end up trying everything. One of the IT guys at work cleaned it for me before but he's off work and out of action for some time now so can't call on him.

I'll try that. I'm sure I can do as you have instructed above in normal mode but great advice. I'll let you know if it helps.

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Originally Posted by Harpsbear

Thanks Tets. Can I do that from safe mode. I cant open anything in normal mode at the minute but thank you. I will try that later.

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Do you have access to another computer? If so, download it on to a flash drive. I believe you can install in safe mode from that. Download malwarebytes while you're at it. You can get it here. It's free and safe to use.

Thanks for the advice. Still operating off safe mode at the minute. The main Vista Home Screen has stopped flashing virus messages and warnings are no longer popping up. Nothing works on the main screen in normal mode. I've tried opening programs and nothing opens.

Tried some of the instructions above. Some of that spyware requires subscription and didn't even find run and msconfig on activating the start button. Think thats a Vista thing.

You didn't mention Vista, that was your first mistake. It's riddled with security issues
try windows key + r to open the run dialog box, I think that's how it works on vista. Been ages since I used it.

Here's another one. Download the free one. Superantispyware

Is reinstalling Vista an option here Harpsbear? Do you have the original Vista CD-Rom? Personally, I'd never trust an infected machine no matter how well it cleans up. The little leftover issues will probably break your heart trying to fix too. I'd backup any important files to a USB drive and start over if possible.

There are a good few options here. kaspersky and avg along with ad-adaware in safe mode would get you a long way. There is also the option of dual booting, by installing -> http://www.ubuntu.com/ you can even run it from a CD so if you download it and burn it onto USB(if you can boot from USB) or CD and run it off that. From there you could install it, or you could clean the drive labelled "OS".

I seriouslly suggeset for people who are prone to getting viruses, looking up porn(and people dont say you dont cos the statistics off that site at home put it 4th and 6th behind the likes of vodafone/o2 etc), movies, images/whatever to install linux, ubuntu forums are great, very helpful and they are decent multimedia machines too. MOst importantly they are not susceptible to your standard windows bots/viruses/malware whatever.

In the long run I would go with the format all and reinstall. Even writing 1's and 0s to the drive if necessary - because in the long term it can slow down yer pc not too.

You won't go too far wrong, by following these instructions:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=139681

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Originally Posted by Sullivinho

Is reinstalling Vista an option here Harpsbear? Do you have the original Vista CD-Rom? Personally, I'd never trust an infected machine no matter how well it cleans up. The little leftover issues will probably break your heart trying to fix too. I'd backup any important files to a USB drive and start over if possible.

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Thanks for that. I have to say I am clearing some stuff out at the minute and if ever there's a chance of coming across the original Vista CD Rom its now but in the meantime I'll try some of the other suggestions and thanks.

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Originally Posted by dcfc_1928

You won't go too far wrong, by following these instructions:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=139681

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Fantastic. At the minute I've gone through one stage of it and have a working laptop in normal vista mode so thank you. I'll go through that link again to do a little more shoring up of the system. Good work mucker and thanks.