Hi wyrmrider,
You are so right my friend. First establish IF there is malware infection. If so, update to virustotal to have the virus or infector identified. Or do a read up with the help of Google and the Internet.
Then like you yourself note: follow an appropriate approach, that could be scanning with various run-of-the-mill anti-malware scanners and run these.
If that does not deliver more drastic methods can be appropriate, but always under the guidance of someone that knows what he or she does. First again use forensics like hijackthis, a StartDreck scan, or silent runners- that cannot harm your computer.
And in the case of an established infection we give the right antidote in the form of a fix (hijackthis, comboscript, SmitfraudFix, and the various latest Hogwart-tools there are), and these also under strict guidance of someone who knows what is going on,
polonus
Agreed Polonus,
Another big step is too gain help from experienced experts on forums like these or BeelpingComputer so you dont have to pay a Computer Tuner, which can be very costly!
Also, never reformat unless you have tried everything as it might not even be malware, it could be a damaged system file. REFORMATING IS THE LAST OPTION!!
Excellent Programs to help remove malware that are free!
avast! antivirus
Avira Antivir
AVG Free 8.0
MalwareBytes
SUPERAntispyware
Spybot - Search and Destroy
Lavasoft Ad-Aware 2008
Or you could use a bootable antivirus disk
Also, MOZILLA FIREFOX is an excellent browser that is WAY safer than Windows Internet Explorer and in some cases, faster, and less resource consuming. You can download that here,
www.mozilla.com, and you can have awesome addons such as AdBlock and NoScript to keep protected even more!
Also, a firewall is STRONGLY recommended, some good ones:
Comodo
Sunbelt
PC Tools Firewall Plus
Or if you want to pay. here are some excellent ones!
Norton Antivirus (Excellent Malware removal, BUT BULKY AND RESOURCE CONSUMING)
Kaspersky Antivirus 2009
NOD32
AVG Internet Security
ZoneAlarm
BitDefender
Excellent Advice Everyone!
Dave