Adware are dangerous and nasty little viruses. You know the kind of virus where you find that you suddenly have some new program installed that is telling you that you have some type of Trojan virus and you need to go to some Spyware website to buy a program to remove it. Every program you try to run shuts down. The only program that is continually able to run is the one prompting you to buy the program to remove the virus the virus creators have installed on your computer!

Capitalism, supply and demand…well this one is a pain, but..  One quick fix that has proven to work in some situations is a freeware program called “Combofix”. Do a quick search and download the software (make sure you get the current version from bleepingcomputer dot com) and burn it to CD or DVD from another computer, if possible.

Installing Combofix To Remove Adware and Spyware Trojan Horse Viruses

Restart the infected box in Safe Mode by hitting the F8 key while booting (some computers have custom loaders that may use a different key so check your manual or their website).

Insert the CD/DVD and run the Combofix program and the software will do the rest. Make sure to follow the “On Screen Prompts” as the program works through the process. This is a quick fix and in many cases should be all that you may need to do to completely remove the virus. After the program has finished it will save a log file showing the results of the removed infestation. You may then want to check and make sure that your virus scanner is up to date as it is probably one of the first things that an adware program will target and disable. There is a helpful video below about how to use Combofix.

It is always a good idea to back up any data possible prior to running any type of program that could rename or remove system files. You can back up a hard drive that is infected with a virus. Viruses are usually initiated by the system process starting, specifically the ones that the viruses have taken over or use as call to start the virus. The circle of infestation is usually halted by making the infected drive a non-boot drive or a secondary drive. Booting from a non-virus infected system with up to date antivirus software will allow you to get to the data you would like to back up.

If you need help recovering data from a virus infected computer Call Toll Free: 1-866-438-6932.