As we all know, virus can enter your computer through multiple ways. Therefore, we are here with a cool method to remove virus manually from your computer. We are going to mention 5 methods that will help you remove virus manually without installing any antivirus.
What is a computer virus?
A computer virus is a program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge or permission. Some viruses are merely annoying, but most viruses are destructive and designed to infect and gain control over vulnerable systems. Just like a biological virus passes from one person to another, a virus can spread across computers and networks by making copies of itself!
Where a PC virus comes from?
Computer viruses are usually hidden in a commonly used program. For example a game or PDF viewer, or sometimes you may receive an infected file attached to an email or from another file you downloaded from the Internet. As soon as you interact with the file and you run the program, click on an attachment or open the file, the virus runs automatically. The code can then copy itself to other files and make changes on your computer. It would be a great disaster.
How to recognize a computer virus?
In order to detect malware on your computer there are some clear signs. Your Internet connection might be slow or non-existent. Also, it’s common for your antivirus or firewall protection to disappear or be disabled. Computers infected by viruses are even capable of acting on their own, and conducting some actions without you knowing. The best way to identify if you have been infected is to use a virus scanner which found in any virus remover software.
How to remove virus manually?
Before we start our program for searching and removing the existent malware, I recommend you to read this part.
It may be possible to remove it yourself from your infected computer, but it depends on the programming of the virus, spyware or other unwanted program. However, it can be a long, tricky process, and can damage your files if some step does not work exactly as planned.
Therefore, I strongly recommend you to do what you can to back-up the information you have in your computer before you go through the steps below. But if you still choose it and you don’t have a complete back-up, follow the instructions below at your own risk then.
Ideally you should always have a complete back-up of your computer. The back-up allows you to run a system restore, which will restore your computer to a previous state if all else fails. Moreover, a back-up will help you identify any new files that you did not install, which may be malicious.
I also must advise you to use good virus protection software, like Malwarebytes, in order to remove malware. This solution would be faster and safer for your data.
1. Detect the malware program
Always try to be careful about any security messages that pop up, because these usually provide the exact name of the virus that has infected your computer. If it gives you a security message that says “For More Info Click Here,” or something else to click on, and it is not asking you to enter personal financial information or install anything, you may want to go ahead and click on it. Be prepared to write down any product name it gives you, or any file name and directory path like C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\LocalLow\Temp\Virus. Remember, never ever give out your personal financial information in these dialogues with malware.
Now if you were lucky enough to catch a security message and get the name of the virus itself, then you can continue on to Threat Expert and get all the information you can on that malicious software.
If you were only able to get a product name, then you need to do a search on it. Most likely, you’ll find out that the product is “fakeware”. It means that it is a malicious software that calls itself an anti-virus program.
In your search, it’s a good idea to pursue results that link you to a forum. For example you may find the information you need in discussions there like the name of the virus infecting your computer.
Once you have the name of the virus and the report from Threat Expert you can begin your job. It won’t be a long hunt if you were able to get the directory from the “security” message, because that is where that malicious software is hiding.
2. Block the Virus from the Startup List
You can’t kill the virus unless you put it to sleep first. So in order to put the virus to sleep you should end all the processes created by the virus.
A first step is to block the malicious program from starting itself up along with your usual programs every time your computer starts up. You can use System Configuration for doing this. One way to do this is to tap the “Start” button on your desktop. Then type “System Configuration” into the “Search” field, and select “Start System Configuration” from the results. Or another way to do it, is to find it by going through “Start,” then “Control Panel,” then “System and Security”. Now here you will see “Administrative Tools,” click on it, then you should double-clicking “System Configuration.”
System Configuration opens the “General” tab, here in this tab you will need to select the circle next to “Selective Startup.” Next, choose the “Startup” tab and go through the list there. Now select all the programs that have an unknown manufacturer and disable them. Because programs with unknown manufacturers are almost always malware. So in this moment restart your computer in order to close any currently-running versions of the malware.
3. Stop virus-related processes
After restarting your computer, it’s time to open your “Task Manager” immediately, which can be done quickest by pressing the “Ctrl,” “Alt,” and “Delete” keys all at the same time. By doing this, some options will appear for you in the screen, select “Start Task Manager”. After that select the “Processes” tab and then compare the processes listed as running on your computer to the list of virus-created processes you got from the Threat Expert report or other research. You need to end any processes running on your computer that match the ones on the report. Keep doing this until all virus-created processes are gone.
4. Delete the malicious software files
Now it is time for you to seek and destroy the malicious software. Keep in mind that viruses like to hide themselves inside your “Temp” folder. If you got the directory path from the security message which the virus gave you, then all you need to do is open up your computer’s Explorer window. Then follow the path. For example, if you were looking for “C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\LocalLow\Temp\Virus…” you would click on the “C” icon in Explorer, for the computer’s hard drive. After that click the “Users” folder, then click the “YourUserName” folder, and go over and over, until you get to the virus. Now delete any file names that match the ones on the virus report.
5. Remove registry keys
At last, you should go and remove the registry keys in which the virus put. For going into the Registry, do this: tap the “Start” button on your computer desktop, click “Run”, now type “regedit” and select “OK”. Or you can do this in another way: type “regedit” in the search bar on your Start Menu, and the from your search result select the Regedit program. You can find the exact name and directory path of the registry keys created by the virus from the Threat Expert virus report. So you can delete the registry keys that the virus created. It should be noted here that you should be careful to delete the exact keys you have in mind, not others. Now you should be virus-free at this time.
Now that you got rid of the malware in your computer, you need to change your passwords. This is because you don’t know which personal or private information of yours the malware may have stolen from your keystrokes. Moreover, you don’t know to whom the malware may have sold this information. For such reasons mentioned above, please remember to change all of your passwords when the virus has been removed.
How to prevent viruses
Keep in mind, “better safe than sorry”. So at first you’d better to learn how to prevent viruses, because this process would be much easier than the process of removing the hidden virus from your computer. Here are some common tips for protection:
- Avoid programs from unknown sources.
- Don’t open attachments from unexpected email or in Facebook.
- Only download apps from legitimate websites or online market.
- Secure your computer with strong VPNs.
- Regularly scan your computer with a virus scanner, and remove all detected viruses by using virus removal software.
