Malware Removal Process
This time round, rather than a hardware repair, we’re going to show you some of what goes into a virus and malware removal.
As usually happens, a customer brought their computer in to our Dundee store complaining of popups and slow performance. It turned out that the computer was chock-full of spyware, malware and unwanted rubbish like “adware”.
Some of these programs were outright malware. Others operate in a legal grey area, being what antivirus sellers euphemistically call “Potentially Unwanted Programs” or “PUPs” to avoid being sued. Don’t be fooled; their makers may claim that they’re legal, but this is open to question- in reality, most PUPs are at best worthless, and at worst just another form of malware. Many PUPs get onto your computer through dubious means, scamming you into installing them, pretending to be a bit of fun software then spying on you and shoving ads in your face, piggybacking onto other unwanted programs, etc.
This customer’s computer was cleaned of viruses, malware, PUPs and adware and returned to them in clean condition with a new, more effective antivirus software package installed.
(Note: Some details have been obscured or removed (and others omitted) for reasons of privacy, our trade secrets, or simply not wanting to publicise dubious websites or telephone services.)
This customer came to us complaining of pop-ups and slow performance on their computer. Note that the antivirus has run out.
Some unwanted programs can be uninstalled the usual way, but most can’t. (Note the advertising popup at the bottom left; this is due to the “HQ-Video-Pro-2” adware).
“Advanced System Protector”, a typical fake antivirus. It claims to protect your system, but in reality, the program itself is malware- it deliberately stops your system working and generates false virus reports- in order to con you into paying to have them “removed”.
Do we want “Advanced System Protector”? Er…. how about “no“.
Checking the hard drive itself to ensure that none of the problems are due to faults with it.
Vosteran is malware that hijacks and changes your search engine settings to its own, and tries to force its own adverts on you.
The full horror becomes obvious- three “PUP” programs. “RegClean Pro” is scareware, “Pro PC Cleaner” is more rubbish we don’t want, and “PC Speed Up” isn’t required either.
“Reimage repair”, no, we don’t want this either.
Despite the heading, these “non-malware Items” are PUPs, i.e. probably unwanted at best and malware at worst. We’ll be getting rid of them.
More nasties detected by another useful piece of software in our toolkit.
Now that everything has been removed to the best of our knowledge, we do a final scan with another piece of software to confirm this.
Bingo! Everything’s clean and the customer can now get their computer back.
