How to remove a Trojan, virus or spyware program from a computer

My anti virus program says it’s detected a Trojan on my work computer, and then requested delete, but the computer is still behaving strangely and the warning keeps happening. Is there another program that may help?

Simply deleting the Trojan probably won’t work. The problem with these programs is they are designed to hide in system files and reappear at the first opportunity.

Fixing a Trojan infection can be a very difficult process. The first step is to backup your data. It may be necessary to wipe your computer and reinstall everything.

Once you’ve backed up all your data, download as many spyware removal tools as possible to remove the trojan. We’d suggest starting with Malware BytesSpybot and Adaware.

A good anti-virus is also important. We’d recommend installing one of the free virus protection tools which we discuss at Which Free Anti-Virus is Best.

Each of these programs should be installed and their update routines run so they are fully up to date. DO NOT SCAN YOUR COMPUTER OR TRY TO REMOVE THE TROJAN YET.

Shutdown your computer and restart in Safe Mode. This will start the computer with the basic settings and, hopefully, without the Trojan starting, this is essential if you want to remove the trojan from your system.

With the computer running in Safe Mode, run all the anti virus and anti spyware programs you previously installed. Do one at a time and be aware this will take many hours.

This will clear all but the worst Trojan, virus or spyware infections, but what you should be aware of is modern malare is very good at hiding itself and if the problem persists you either have to call a technician or wipe the computer. This may be necessary to remove the Trojan from your computer

After any spyware or Trojan infection, you should be aware that any online services you’ve accessed might be compromised. We highly recommend you change all banking and other sensitive passwords and monitor your financial statements closely after finding an infection.


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    43 Responses to “How to remove a Trojan, virus or spyware program from a computer”

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