Comeputer people in the playground: I need virus help -Solved-

[Codemus]

I am at my wits end. My computer was infected by a virus, what looks like W32/Blaster.worm, about three or four hours ago. It has so far prevented every download ment to remove it, as well as shutting down regedit, command, and Task Manager before I get a chance to do anything. It also is spamming a pretty fake looking 'Spyware Protection' alert, and wants me to activate it.

I can't touch it. Everything I've read on it says that it's easy to get rid of, but they make no mention of what this one is doing. Kinda leads me to believe it's not exactly the same virus.

What do I do?

[Deathslayer7]

use a friend's computer to download avast or malware bytes. Save it on your USB. Boot your computer in safe mode and try running Malware Bytes/Avast from your USB drive.

See if that works.

To elaborate, any download/program you try running while it is infected won't work properly, so to circumvent it, you need to use the above method.

[Erloas]

First step with any virus that isn't simply removed by your virus scan is to boot into safe mode.
From there you can run MSConfig, regedit and all the other basic tools to keep it from loading on bootup. Its also really easy (most of the time) to then remove the virus manually, since you should already know what file name it is running under since you removed it from the bootup sequence.

[Codemus]

@ Deathslayer7 & Erolas:

Thank you for the swift replies. I'll try what you guys said after work.

[ZombyWoof]

The removal instructions should grant a list of registry keys that need to be deleted and files that need to be deleted. Delete those and the problem is solved.

Keep in mind they often have random file names, but just check to see when it was created. If it was created SINCE you started having the problem, chances are you should delete that. if it was created when you bought the computer or last reformatted, it might be a system file.

[Codemus]

Okay, I don't even know whats going on anymore. I'm in safe mode, rooting through the registry, looking for the dang thing. I don't find it. So I figure that maybe I wrote down the wrong entry to look for.

I shutdown and re-start in regular mode, go online to look for the info. Then, I suddenly realize that I'm not getting any error messages. To test it, I start up my anti-virus program. Works like a charm. Three seconds into a full scan detects the dang virus.

I have no idea why the virus failed to boot, but thank god that it didn't. Otherwise I'd have to work at it longer, and I'm too lazy for that.

Thank you very much guys for the help. You are all the best, and you deserve cookies.