If i use system restore to get rid of a virus...

[Spurmwhale]

Do i have to run anti virus afterward, and if i do should i be catching that virus from before the restore?

Basically i was watching Breaking Bad on some random stream site when Vista Antivirus 2012 popped up and started giving me all of these warnings and ad's. It would not allow me to open up Malware Bytes and my Microsoft Essentials icon had disappeared. So i did a system restore to the day before i got the virus and everything seems normal right now. I'm just worried that Vista Antivirus 2012 is still on my computer somewhere. I just ran Malware Bytes but it didn't catch it, now running Microsoft Essentials. Last question is should i be running Windows Defender(microsoft) and Essentials, or do they do the same thiing?

thanks.

[OhpUldum]

Windows Defender and Security Essentials do the same thing, you should disable Windows Defender.

Visit this thread for a virus removal guide.

[Spurmwhale]

just to give a update, the only thing that could find and remove the vista antivirus 2012 trojan was combofix. i tried almost every other popular antivirus including malware bytes which could never find it altho it was a root kit trojan which i'm not sure your average AV can detect or get rid of. Basically after about a 1/2 dozen system restores and this thing constantly hitting me again eventually knowing it was still on my system even if every AV check couldn't detect it, Combofix was my savior. If you have the same problem i'd strongly recommend it and its a straight forward program it seems.


PS one other tip i have for those that get blocked out from running anything in windows is to restart it, and right when windows is loading up you can access programs before the virus starts blocking stuff again. thats what i did with the system restores since it was blocking me from even accessing it.

[flam]

Anytime I get a scare, I do a format and clean install. I had that stupid anti virus 2011 thing about a month ago. Took me some time to fully get rid of it, however it did change alot of registry files (couldnt turn on windows defender, windows firewall for example)

I intially was going to do a system restore point, but always came back as unsuccessful. Another thing about system restore, I believe some virii can infect your restore points, so you dont actually get rid of them at all.

My rule of thumb... virus = removal, system scan, data backup, format, clean install.

[Spurmwhale]

Anytime I get a scare, I do a format and clean install. I had that stupid anti virus 2011 thing about a month ago. Took me some time to fully get rid of it, however it did change alot of registry files (couldnt turn on windows defender, windows firewall for example)

I intially was going to do a system restore point, but always came back as unsuccessful. Another thing about system restore, I believe some virii can infect your restore points, so you dont actually get rid of them at all.

My rule of thumb... virus = removal, system scan, data backup, format, clean install.

Ughhh it JUST came back about 15 minutes ago so i might have to do what you did, but was hoping to avoid reformatting with a clean install. I'm trying to figure out if Combofix didn't work or if me uninstalling it afterward caused what it quarantined to come back. I did read root kits can be there forever and are very difficult to catch, odd thing is combofix identified it as a root kit and i would've sworn got rid of it altho the menu went very fast with that update.

this is so annoying. hate this virus stuff......

[nbm02ss]

If you decide to format the drive and start over again I suggest using Avast! antivirus. The free version has kept my computer clean since I built it last summer.

[Deleted]

If you decide to format the drive and start over again I suggest using Avast! antivirus. The free version has kept my computer clean since I built it last summer.

Honestly... not that I have anything against avast, but if your antivirus is shit, you might never even know the shit is there.