Help please - virus, reinstalling OS

chopandchange

Hello. Please can some clever geeky people help me out?

I suspect my computer has a virus and I am totally paranoid I'm being spied on. Mic volume turning itself on, a photo moving itself to my web browser. :mad:

I've downloaded three different AV softwares and they all find different things. There was a trojan in there that my previous AV didn't find, but none of them will find 100%, right? I want to be rid of it ALL.

Due to my increasing paranoia I have also changed from IE to FF, backed up my photos etc (I stand corrected - I have only "moved" them, see below!) to an external HD to get them off the suspect laptop, changed all my passwords, oh, and my webcam is covered with black tape but what's the use of doing all that if it's still not clean and they could be reading every word I write? Hello, hackers, yes, you, if you're reading this. You're MEAN. Go away. And what else did I do - oh, yes I read online about deleting programs I don't use. I did that. I read about closing open ports. I did that. I deleted files I don't use. I re-formatted. I checked if I have something called a Firewall. Apparently I do. The Windows one. And my reuter will apparently have one built-in. I scanned my HD for corrupt files. Gosh, I'm learning how to do all these geeky things but I am totally worried the spies are STILL THERE!

What I want to do is deinstall Vista but I don't have a disc to reinstall it so would have to try something free like Ubuntu instead. The trouble is, I am not very technically knowledgable AT ALL so I need an idiot's guide to how I go about this - pretty please!

All the instructions I find online say things like "burn a CD" from a downlaod of Ubuntu and assume people like me know how to do that, and we don't!

Please help. I am way out of my depth and geeky OH has run off with another woman.

USM

If you don't know things like how to burn a CD, I'm afraid Linux will blow your mind - stick to Windows.

chopandchange

Thank you for managing not to be too scathing in the face of my non-geekiness, USM.

But the problem is, the Windows I currently have seems to be infected. That's why I want rid of it. And I don't have the disc to install it again. MY OH took it with him.. So saying "stick with Windows" is not very good advice really, if it means sticking with the virus as well.

I will ask around to see if anyone can lend me a disc with Windows on it.

Browntoa

download this

http://www.filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/

Download
Latest Version
7.38MB

install and update it , then do a FULL scan

it will find and delete any nasties for you , and at the end will produce a Log file, if you copy that and post it here then will will identify any additional steps required to clean it up (if required at all)

we can remove anything nasty thats on there and retain Vista for you , and advise of some further steps to take to "beef up" your security but to avoid overloading you with too much information now we will leave that until we know you are clean

if you look back through other threads on here , particularly ones that say "system tool infection" we do this on a regular basis for many users of the forum (and if you look at the "stickies" at the top of this part of the forum I wrote the malware removal guide)

chopandchange

Oh thank you.

I have already downloaded Avira (which found four things but didn't say what they were) Ad-Aware (which found a Trojan) and Superantispyware (which just found tracking cookies). I deleted useless AVG, which all this time had been telling me I was fine. :mad:

So I have three already. Is the one you recommend any different from the above and will it run OK if run alongside them, or should I uninstall some, before they all start piling up and conflicting with one another?

Thanks again.

Edit: oh, I see. I clicked on it and it's Malwarebytes. I read about that one. It's one of many. From what I've read, no single AV will ever find 100% of them - right? So I could just keep going on and on like this for ever, running scan after scan and never knowing if I'm finally clean. Waaaaah! I will try it out and hope it works...thank you anyway.

chopandchange

Browntoa wrote: »

download this

install and update it , then do a FULL scan

Thank you.

I did the quick scan just now, and it found nothing. I am now setting it to do a full scan and see what it finds. Gosh my poor computer must be knackered. It's been scanned with this, that, and the other all day long. I hope it doesn't blow up.

closed

moving your photo's to an external drive is not the same as backing them up, as many other people on here have found, it's a good way of losing them sometimes.

links to scanners in step 3

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2436849

your machine may have a factory restore partition or a means of creating a windows disc

chopandchange

closed wrote: »

moving your photo's to an external drive is not the same as backing them up, as many other people on here have found, it's a good way of losing them sometimes.

links to scanners in step 3

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2436849

Oh no! Really? Panic, panic...

How do I "back them up," then?

Thanks for all being so helpful...

closed

a backup is 2 or preferably more copies on different media.

1 copy on c: drive
1 copy on external drive
1 or more copies on dvd (dvd+r/-r are read only, and therefore don't get infected once written)

chopandchange

Oh I see. Thank you. But I didn't want them to be left on the laptop in case the hackers were stealing them.

closed

If they have full control of your pc, and were interested, they've probably got them already.

most hackers are after money, not photo's