Suspected Malware on PC

alldoors

I'm very careful about what websites I visit and went to what I thought would be a site that would be ok. (A parish council with a .gov domain name). I was looking for minutes to a meeting and opened word documents and also PDF's. Whilst in Chrome, another tab opened with a website about Crypto currency which I closed down immediately. I tried to do a scan with McAfee and it wouldnt load properly. I then removed the McAfee software, reinstalled it and ran a full scan of my computer which took over 24 hours (I disconnected from the internet whilst it was running). It put a file called "Adware - Cross B" into quarantine which I then deleted. Since then, I have had "McAfee stopped something dangerous trying to hijack one of your apps, dont worry we took care of it".  I am currently using windows 8.1.

I am in the process of moving stuff onto a new computer rather than updating my existing one to Windows 11 but I am a bit wary of transferring files from my old computer in case I end up with something dodgy on my new one. 

Does anyone know what "Adware - Cross B" does to your computer? I have tried to search for this online but cannot find any information about it. 

Grey_Critic

Download and run Malwarebytes (it's free)

flaneurs_lobster

Here's Malwarebytes take on Adware (and a link to download their product)

https://www.malwarebytes.com/adware

alldoors

Thanks both. Have run a scan and it found 303 items! 



Just wondering why McAfee hasnt sorted these files out? I am going to quarantine and delete them but still concerned at whether these are dangerous files that may have done harm.

ballyblack

get rid of useless Mcafee and use Windows Defender

debitcardmayhem

Oh and Windows 8.1 is end of life on 12/1/23 at least upgrade it to 10

alldoors

debitcardmayhem said:

Oh and Windows 8.1 is end of life on 12/1/23 at least upgrade it to 10

Thanks. I am in the process of setting up a new computer but am concerned that I will transfer infected files to the new computer and mess up that one as well

Grey_Critic

debitcardmayhem said:

Oh and Windows 8.1 is end of life on 12/1/23 at least upgrade it to 10

And as a reminder for anyone who missed it - Thanks to Neil_Jones for the link.

Windows 10 free upgrade still available:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

I upgraded a Windows 8.1 desk top the other day - painless experience. Took about two hours

I use Windows Defender on all 4 of my machines with no problems - McAfee is a pain some with Norton.

GDB2222

alldoors said:

debitcardmayhem said:

Oh and Windows 8.1 is end of life on 12/1/23 at least upgrade it to 10

Thanks. I am in the process of setting up a new computer but am concerned that I will transfer infected files to the new computer and mess up that one as well

I suggest that you reinstall all software from scratch on the new computer, so that you are only transferring data files, not programmes, to the new pc. 

Don’t transfer the files directly onto the pc. Instead, put them on a USB stick or drive, and then scan that with the new pc first.

I rely on windows defender, rather than mcafee. Seems to work. 

What sort of files are you going to transfer? 

alldoors

Im just transferring pictures, excel and word files plus PDFs

alldoors

Grey_Critic said:

debitcardmayhem said:

Oh and Windows 8.1 is end of life on 12/1/23 at least upgrade it to 10

And as a reminder for anyone who missed it - Thanks to Neil_Jones for the link.

Windows 10 free upgrade still available:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

I upgraded a Windows 8.1 desk top the other day - painless experience. Took about two hours

I use Windows Defender on all 4 of my machines with no problems - McAfee is a pain some with Norton.

Would I not need to purchase a licence though?