Removing 1000+ Viruses

[sparky2009]

i have a Dell Dimension Desktop that's about 3 years old i think and has Windows XP Home Edition on it. It only has 25% of its disk space used, but it's so slow. Up until today it's had Norton Anti-Virus on it and not once has it reported a virus... yet when i did a scan useing a trial version of TrendMicro Internet Security 2005 PC-cillin... it said i have 1868 viruses on my computer. the first scan i did yestderday, which was by TrendMirco House Call i do believe.. it said i had 2222 viruses, but only showed the names and everything of 500 of them :bang head . then i used the PC-cillin one and got that reading and not sure if it removed those or not because it doesn't look like it did. I recently found out Norton is bad stuff. I heard from one guy that it decreases the preformance of your computer by 20% each time you (im not clear on this...) but he said each time you scan, start up norton, or start up your computer.. but again, im not sure which one of those it is.

so basically, im asking for some recommendations as to what i should look for to put the desktop as anti-virus protection. luckily, i dont have any Trojan Horses. The computer is slow in all areas, even outside the internet and my friend who's a comp geek said that the viruses have "eaten away at my task manager" because when i hit alt+ctrl+delete, the window for Task Manager doesn't appear. and i've tried going to Start>Run and typing in: taskmgr but that doesn't work either. someone help!! i really want to save the comp somehow without calling in the pros first. i know we may have to in time but i need a good virus protection program as well!!

if you have any advice for me, email me at alecia_09@hotmail.com im new to this forum so im not real sure how to check if someone's replied to my post or not. just email your advice there please. thanks!

-*!!Sp4rkY!!* :cool:

[Benvanz]

I think the BEST way to elimnate all traces of everything is just to reformat. Complete reinstall of windows XP

[Fathom1990]

I think the BEST way to elimnate all traces of everything is just to reformat. Complete reinstall of windows XP

I'd have to agree with Benvanz.

[JigPu]

^^ What he said. At that point, it's really not worth it to try to clean it up. Backup all your important stuff (and remember to scan it on a computer with a working antivirus!) and reformat.

As far as after the reformat, there are several good (and much ligher-weight) antivirus programs to choose from. A while ago there was a huge roundup (http://www.overclockers.com/articles1260/) of programs, and points out some winners and losers. I'd start there since the reccomendations are good :)

JigPu

[schnikies79]

format c: /u

happy trails..

[twoeyes]

def a reformat... trust me you dont want to get into this, takes to much time ;)

[coin]

it is very unlikely that you will get rid of all the viruses and the damage may be irreperable (sp?!?) to the OS, repartition, reformat reinstall. You can save some important documents but I would advise just cutting your losses and starting blank. Some viruses will disable Norton especially if you dont password protect it so the infection may not be all Nortons fault. :)

[autolex84]

It would take just as long to remove all that crap as it would to reformat.

another vote for the format and reinstall!!!

[sup3rcarrx8]

Reformat and install. Start new. =)

[Stoanhart]

get a shotgun and shoot it... ;)

[BigDan3131]

Reformat then not only get a really good anti-vi but use a very good firewall. I had Mcafee and didnt like the resource eating properties of it and switched to AVG Free I went with Zone Alarm Free for my firewall. I also use both Ad-Aware SE and Spybot S&D.

[Stoanhart]

Zone alarm is awful. I hate programs that are too "user friendly" and in the process make it hard to make any manual changes.

After searching the web for a while, I decided on safety.net. Its free, very very low on resource usage, and is completely configurable. You can use it quite simply but turning on the firewall, and getting a simple notification in the bottom right hand corner of a screen when a app tries to access the web like with ZA. However, you can see full logs, add your own rules, define services that are allowed, track bandwidth usage on ports and applications, and many more features. Very good program!

As for Virus scan, I decided on AntiVir based on the big roundup we had here a while ago. Free and low on resources. However, I may be dumping it because it has recently fcked up two computers after an update. My mom's doesn't work at all anymore (i am going home in a week, so I will have to fix it), right after the update. My friend's computer still worked, but doing anything, even just clicking on the start menu, would take about 5 minutes to complete. Needless to say, it was a very slooooooooooooooow uninstall process.

So I am for now just not letting it update on my PC. In the future I will probably try to find a new free alternative.