You might be using your computer one day and notice that there’s some weird behavior occurring.
Maybe, it’s the random popups or system crashes, strange warnings or dialog messages, excessive network activity, and programs start misbehaving (randomly opening, crashing, or strange error messages), you might be infected with malware.
Here are some basic steps that you can take to remove the malware. Note, you are responsible for your own data so please be sure to perform any backups before attempting any malware removal.
These suggestions are not effective on all types of malware (crypto and others), and you should seek professional advice/help for serious infections.
What is malware?
‘Malware‘ is an umbrella term used to refer to a variety of forms of hostile or intrusive software including computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, ransomware, spyware, adware, scareware, and other malicious programs. It can take the form of executable code, scripts, active content, and other software. Source.
How do you get infected by malware?
Usually, it can be very difficult to determine the cause of infection. Take care to inspect any file or link before running/clicking on it when browsing the internet, and avoid unsafe websites which can contain exploits.
Don’t give permissions to unknown programs to run and make sure to keep programs updated – developers will patch exploits and other vulnerabilities through updates.
These steps can be run in normal mode without booting into safe mode. These steps assume that you can boot your computer normally without issues.
Removing Malware
- Run rkill (download and run). This will kill running malware processes, fix and repair your registry and other file extensions. Do not reboot after running this.
- Download and run Malwarebytes Anti Malware. Set these settings and run the scan. It will repair damage done and remove most malware.
- Then, run AdwCleaner. Scan first, then clean any infected results. It’ll prompt you to reboot after successful cleaning. This will remove malware on your system.
To prevent future infections, make sure to avoid opening files you might not know the source of and visiting websites that don’t appear legitimate.
Obviously, its not always possible to avoid infection especially if a website you regularly visit gets compromised, but you can follow these simple steps to remove the malware!
