How to clean Windows 10

kah22

I normally use my iPad mini for day to day use: emails, Forums, music and the occasional game. Sometime back I bought a laptop for activity that required more detailed use eg creating documents, spreadsheets, general office activity, printing. That type of activity.

Hands up I downloaded something that created a virus or suchlike. In my case it was screens popping up all over the place. After a number of attempts at trying to get rid of the problem I closed the machine just in case it would do anymore damage. I'm assuming this could be one of these 'blackmail' type programs trying to force you to pay them to clean the machine.

It is a legitimate machine. It was set up by my nephew who is a senior software developer he took it away and set it up for me shortly after I bought it. He did install a licensed copy of Office but he didn't send me back any of the original software that came with the machine. In actual fact I gave him the unopened package so I don't even know what was in it all I got back was the laptop!

So what to do about this problem: a virus cleaner? Any recommendations. As there is nothing I really need on the system, the important stuff is in dropbox. Can I do a reinstall of any sort that will remove the offending program but leave my operating system? Or should I just bite the bullet and bring it to my local computer store, or wait till my nephew reappears.

I would indeed be thankful for your advice, maybe you could point me to a useful website or YouTube video

Kevin

agrinnall

To start with you could download and run Malwarebytes.

https://www.malwarebytes.org/antimalware/

I'm not sure that I'd do anything beyond that without having some idea of the cause, so you may need to create a HijackThis log by downloading and running HJT, then post the results on here for analysis.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/hjt/

Rubidium

If your nephew set up your PC correctly for you, he should have enabled System Restore so that you can simply restore it to a state before you download the crap on to it.

See here for instructions (1st Google hit for WIN 10 restore):

http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/computing/how-to-fix-windows-10-problems-with-system-restore-11364008291943

Robisere

If you don't feel confident about any of the above advice and you can leave the laptop alone for a while, wait for your nephew to help you. I have a grandson who is a network engineer and, although I have built my own and other systems and am quite computer-literate, I will call him if I come up against something I cannot handle. You would be asking for assistance from someone you can trust and someone who knows your laptop and how it was setup.

grumpycrab

Simplest - get to the Recovery Environment; this is done by holding SHIFT key and doing a Restart.

If the computer requires a password then you can get to the password screen and go straight to the Power -> Reset button.


Once in the Recovery Environment you can do a Refresh (KEEPS FILES) or System Restore to a previous "save point" which may be last week, last month etc.
Screens here http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5487-recovery-environment-use-troubleshoot-windows-10-failure-boot.html

kah22

Thanks everyone for your advice and a particular thanks to grumpycrab. Carried out a System Restore and installed a previous version of Windows. Seems to have cleared everything up for me

Kevin

GunJack

kah22 wrote: »

Carried out a System Restore and installed a previous version of Windows. Seems to have cleared everything up for me

Kevin

Eh? A system Restore would be the current version of Windows, why did you then install an earlier version? Or did you really mean an earlier version of Office?