Malware/Spyware/Virus Keeps Coming Back; how to remove Malware/Spyware/Virus from your computer for free…

To fix this, you must follow all these instructions without missing even one.

Note: do this at your own risk, these worked for me and if by doing these something
happens to your computer, I’m not responsible!

Preparing

0 – Remove your browser’s proxy settings: http://www.library.kent.edu/page/14299 if you have special proxy settings, make sure it wasn’t altered…
1 – Restart your computer, hit f8 while booting and login to “Safe Mode With Networking”
2 – Download and install the free version of: http://www.superantispyware.com/
3 – Download and install the free version of: http://www.malwarebytes.org/
4 – Download and install: http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/
5 – Download and install: http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
6 – Download and install: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/chaslang/files/MGtools.exe
Save this file to c:\MGtools.exe and run it.
7 – Download and install: http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

Updating

8 – Launch superantispyware and update it to the latest version.
9 – Launch malwarebytes and update it to the latest version.
10 – Removed for now due to potential error…
11 – Goto c:\MGtools and double click on DisableUAC.reg confirm the action.

UPDATE:

These additional steps were added on 6/9/2010 and must be taken at this stage
a – You must rewrite your MBR (master boot record) this won’t delete your files but it’s required.
b – Instructions on how to do it could be found here: (or you could search on Google)
http://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/fix-mbr-xp-vista/
http://www.ehow.com/how_4836283_repair-mbr-windows.html
c – *After this stage, do not boot into normal mode.*

Continue

12 – Restart your computer to “Safe Mode” (no networking this time)

Scanning And Cleaning

13 – Run ccleaner, don’t touch the options just hit “run cleaner”
14 – Launch superantispyware and run a “complete scan” if asked let it remove everything
15 – Launch malwarebytes and run a “full scan” if asked let it remove everything
16 – Restart your computer to “Safe Mode With Networking”
17 – Run hijackthis, hit “scan” and then “save log” a notepad window opens, copy and paste
the contents into the textbox here: http://www.hijackthis.de/ and hit analyze.
18 – You will get a list of entries with a check box, or another icon in front of it, the ones
that get an X mark are problems so go back to hijackthis and check the box next to those
and hit: “fix checked”.
19 – Restart your computer to “Safe Mode With Networking” again.
20 – Launch trendmicro housecall and run a full scan, let it clean everything.

Updating Your Computer

21 – Restart your computer to “Normal Mode”. Don’t open anything…
22 – Uninstall Java (all instances) then go here and download and install the latest version: http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp. Don’t restart yet.
23 – Go to: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ run the update, update *everything*. Don’t restart yet.
24 – Update your browser to it’s latest version if you use IE, then step 23 should take care of it
but if you use other browsers go to www.google.com and search for: “update X” where X should be
whatever browser you have, like: update google chrome
25 – Goto: c:\MGtools and double click on EnableUAC.reg confirm the action.
26 – Turn off system restore so that it deletes the old restore points then turn it back on right away: http://www.pchell.com/virus/systemrestore.shtml
(Make sure that you create a new restore point right away)

Final Cleanup

27 – Restart your computer into “Normal Mode”
28 – Run hijackthis, hit “scan” and then “save log” a notepad window opens, copy and paste
the contents into the textbox here: http://www.hijackthis.de/ and hit analyze.
29a – If you don’t get any Xs then you are probably safe and you should run a full system scan using
superantispyware and malwarebytes over night; again…
29b – If you get Xs then you will need more help, a good place to seek help is here:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=35
30 – If this doesn’t take care of it, then goto: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=35 and
seek help.

I hope this helps someone…

Good Luck