How to clean your computer from viruses with free software. How to cure your computer from viruses yourself

The content of the article

• How to check your computer for viruses
• The best utilities for cleaning your computer from viruses
• How to clean your computer from viruses yourself
• Cleaning and formatting a hard drive
• Using a special antivirus program
• Video instruction: how to remove a virus from a computer manually

More and more often, users are attacked by trojans, malicious files that change browser or system settings, constantly display advertising sites or viral ads. Windows protection does not always work out, and there is a need to clean your computer from viruses for free. There are several ways to do this..

How to check your computer for viruses

Threats can penetrate the operating system via the Internet, along with someone else’s flash drive or when installing dubious software. The development of anti-virus products has provoked the appearance of more cunning, sophisticated spyware or malicious codes. Now they can be recorded in autoload, automatically restored after deletion. Curing a computer is getting harder. Here are ways to clean your laptop from viruses:

1. The most radical, tough way to clean your computer from viruses is to reinstall the operating system. Together with malicious files, files from system partitions or from a logical drive will be completely deleted. This means that the programs and documents that were on it will be lost. You can save data on other disks, but there is a risk that the infected file lives on them too.
2. Formatting a disk. A good way if you know that the virus is not located in section C.
3. Return to recovery point without malicious files. The operating system is able to roll back to its previous state, for example, yesterday, when worms or trojans have not yet penetrated into it. When using a backup all new files, folders will be deleted and replaced with old ones. Suitable if only system data and directories were affected..
4. Use any good antivirus, for example: Doctor Web (Dr.Web), Kaspersky or Nod32. The scanner will detect threats, offer to remove, treat or quarantine them.

Some viruses are not so easy to clean: they open windows in the browser with advertising pages, carry out hidden actions. One of them is blocking the operation of antivirus utilities. In such cases, online services can help with the initial launch of the scan. Here are some popular and effective options:

• BitDefender QuickScan – directly on the site, online verification through the cloud service is enabled;
• Panda ActiveScan – a special module will load, which through a cloud service will check the computer for security risks;
• HouseCall – conducts a spyware and virus scan online;
• Microsoft Safety Scanner – a one-time check from the company;
• Kaspersky Security Scan – a computer is treated for viruses by a special utility. It needs to be downloaded, but the software works through a cloud service.

The best utilities for cleaning your computer from viruses

To clean the computer, full-fledged antiviruses are better suited, but you can also use special utilities. The best ones are listed below:

1. DR WEB CUREIT is a simple free portable utility. You just need to run the program and click “Start Scan”. This can take from 1 to 6 hours (according to the number of checked objects).
2. NORTON SECURITY SCAN is another additional protection tool that will help clean your computer from viruses. Distributed for free. It works and is accessible to the user online, controls the PC in real time.
3. Kaspersky Anti-Virus is a full-fledged program that is distributed for a fee. There is a special utility that you can download for free – Kaspersky Security Scan.
4. AVZ is a powerful, popular utility that allows you to solve even the most complex problems with pests. Very useful in cases when you can’t log in to Windows. Run it in safe mode when the system boots. The current version is updated automatically for free..
5. ESET ONLINE SCANNER – Another option is how to clean your computer for free from viruses. Installation is not required, you just need to download and run the executable file.
6. AVIRA REMOVAL TOOL is not the best option to clean your computer from viruses, but they use it because the utility is distributed for free.
7. AVAST! VIRUS CLEANER TOOL – additional protection against Avast antivirus. It works autonomously in a cloud service. Searches for and removes spyware, malicious files.
8. Malwarebytes is a very effective program for removing adware viruses that successfully hide from Kaspersky or Dr.Web. The first month can be used absolutely free, but then you will have to purchase a license.

How to clean your computer from viruses yourself

If you wish and have free time, you can clean your computer yourself. It is recommended at the very beginning to remove everything from the basket, use the CCleaner program, which will destroy unnecessary and unnecessary information from the registry, all kinds of garbage. The easiest way to clean your computer from viruses is to format the hard drive. If it is important to save data on it, you should choose a more complex path using antivirus and special programs..

Cleaning and formatting a hard drive

It should be understood that disk cleaning and formatting are two different things. The first is often carried out in order to free up space on the desired partition by removing garbage, temporary and broken (non-working) files. This action does not directly affect the removal of malicious files. You can execute it as follows:

1. Go to My Computer.
2. On the disk that needs to be cleaned, right-click.
3. Select “Properties”.
4. In the window that opens below, find the “Disk Cleanup” button and click on it.

Formatting completely removes the entire contents of the section along with malicious code. Be sure to copy all important data to a temporary medium. To execute, you need:

1. Open My Computer.
2. Right click on the desired section.
3. In the menu, select “Format”.
4. Uncheck “Fast”.
5. Click the “Start” button.

Using a special antivirus program

Before you remove viruses from your computer, you must enter in safe mode. To do this, press F8 when booting the computer. Before that, you must have downloaded the AVZ program and installed a full-fledged antivirus, for example, Kaspersky or Nod32. When switching to safe mode:

1. Launch AVZ immediately.
2. Go to the “File” menu, select “System Restore”.
3. Confirm all items, click “Run”.
4. After finishing, go to the “Service” section and click on “Process Manager”. Remove anything that is not highlighted in green..
5. Go to the “File” menu section and click “Troubleshooting Wizard”. Clean the system.

These first steps on how to properly clean your computer from viruses will help to identify problems in the system, the location of infected files and neutralize them, but not delete them. Need a complete antivirus program. AVZ paves the way for its efficient operation. Select a full test and wait for the results. All threats found must be deleted. If after that the advertisement continues to load, the pages spontaneously open – use “Malwarebytes”.

See also: how to scan a document to a computer through a scanner.

Video instruction: how to remove a virus from a computer manually