I would really appreciate it if anyone could let me know what the next steps are in making my computer safe again and getting rid of these threats. Thanks in advance. Peace.
If a virus is replicant (coming and coming again), you could follow the general cleaning procedure:
1. Disable System Restore on
Windows ME or
Windows XP. System Restore cannot be disabled on Windows 9x and it's not available in Windows 2k. After boot you can enable System Restore again after step 3).
2. Clean your temporary files. You can use
CleanUp or the
Windows Advanced Care features for that.
3. Schedule a boot time scanning with avast. Start avast! > Right click the skin > Schedule a boot-time scanning. Select for scanning archives. Boot. Other option is scanning in
SafeMode (repeatedly press F8 while booting).
4. It will be good if you download, install, update and run
AVG Antispyware. Some users recommend
SUPERantispyware,
Spyware Terminator and/or
a-squared (take care about false positives).
If any infection is detected, better and safer is send the file to Quarantine than to simple delete than.
5. If you still detecting any strange behavior or even you're sure you're not clean, maybe it will be good to test your machine with
anti-rootkit applications. I suggest
AVG,
Panda and/or
F-Secure BlackLight.
6. Also, if you still detecting strange behaviors or you want to be sure you're clean, maybe making a
HijackThis log to post here and, specially, scan and submit to on-line analysis the
RunScanner log would help to identify the problem and the solution.
7. After you're clean, use the immunization of
SpywareBlaster or, which is better, the
Windows Advanced Care features of spyware/adware cleaning and removal.
8. Finally, when you're clean, check for insecure applications with
Secunia Software Inspector to update insecure applications and avoid reinfection.
P.S.- My virus chest also has some other files in it but they're not identified with the skull and crossbones virus symbol. I'm guessing since they're in the virus chest that they're viruses and how can I remove these as well? By the way, my PC is working just fine but I still want to play on the side of caution.
Leave them in the Chest (they can't do any harm there) for a week or two so as to ensure that there are no harmful effects from them having been moved there (incorrect detection, etc.). This gives you time to investigate if at all possible (Google search, ask here, etc.) to confirm. You can then delete, restore or move them from within the chest, whichever is appropriate. Right click the avast icon and select Program Settings... then select Chest.
You will notice the avast Chest is in three sections:
1. Infected Files, speaks for itself, any files detected by avast that you chose Move to Chest as the action.
2. System files, back-up copies of important system files. There are (generally) files in the System Folder of the Chest: command.com, kernel 32.dll and wsock32.dll. During the installation, avast! copies some critical system files into the Chest, under the "System files" category. Those files might cause the operating system to crash if they get infected by a virus. If needed, those files can be restored from the Chest to their original location. Should an unknown virus infect the computer despite the extensive protection from the avast! antivirus package and alter an important system file, it can then be easily restored to its original state.
3. User Files, an area for the user to import suspicious files that haven't been detected so they can do no harm and can be sent by email to Alwil for further analysis.
