My Dell home desktop computer got infected with a virus when (or perhaps before) I finally gave in and clicked "Yes" to a "Windows Command Center" dialogue box. Having done this, it turned UAC to the lowest setting and would no longer run firewall, antivirus (McAfee), Malwarebytes ANtimalware, or anything else.
I lost an entire day trying to find out what was wrong and/or fix it. Eventually managed to get antivirus software to run by booting in Safe Mode. Tried RKILL but it didn't find anything to kill. Malwarebytes found and removed a couple of minor issues, but the system behavior was still poor (e.g. no Mcafee in Normal mode). Finally found eset online scanner (suggested by Broni), managed to run it without getting all the accompanying garbage software and toolbars by using Custom installation and unchecking all the extras, and it seemed to work -- finding and removing 3 instances of RAMNIT.AS.GEN as well as 2 instances of Softonic Downloader (may be actually the same company that makes eset which is just plain weird?)
HOWEVER, further reading about RAMNIT made me realise I probably still have trouble, just cannot find it. Sure enough, McAfee runtime antivirus screening will no longer stay on. Could just be a damaged McAfee (have not found my access details to reinstall it so have not done that), BUT given that it's RAMNIT I am inclined to just give it a clean sweep. I have read about programs like Combofix but I really am not enough of an expert to mess with something like that.
My Question #1 is: can I save time by using the Dell recovery partition (which may well include purchase software e.g. MS office, as well as McAfee and Dell specific tools), or am I pretty likely hosed with the only sensible option being to try find the recovery DVDs I made right after purchase?
My Question #2 is: is there a way I can safely save my data without reinfecting myself when I restore it, and if yes, what is the best medium? I have bought a 64 GB USB drive but heard that those drives are easily infected. However, if there is a safe way to use USB it woudl be a lot easier than purchasing and burning about 15 DVD-ROMs to save my music.
Thanks and best regards
Keith
P.S. I will be only occasionally on-line for the next couple of days, but I am grateful for any assistance provided even if I will not be able to provide thanks as quickly as I would like.
I lost an entire day trying to find out what was wrong and/or fix it. Eventually managed to get antivirus software to run by booting in Safe Mode. Tried RKILL but it didn't find anything to kill. Malwarebytes found and removed a couple of minor issues, but the system behavior was still poor (e.g. no Mcafee in Normal mode). Finally found eset online scanner (suggested by Broni), managed to run it without getting all the accompanying garbage software and toolbars by using Custom installation and unchecking all the extras, and it seemed to work -- finding and removing 3 instances of RAMNIT.AS.GEN as well as 2 instances of Softonic Downloader (may be actually the same company that makes eset which is just plain weird?)
HOWEVER, further reading about RAMNIT made me realise I probably still have trouble, just cannot find it. Sure enough, McAfee runtime antivirus screening will no longer stay on. Could just be a damaged McAfee (have not found my access details to reinstall it so have not done that), BUT given that it's RAMNIT I am inclined to just give it a clean sweep. I have read about programs like Combofix but I really am not enough of an expert to mess with something like that.
My Question #1 is: can I save time by using the Dell recovery partition (which may well include purchase software e.g. MS office, as well as McAfee and Dell specific tools), or am I pretty likely hosed with the only sensible option being to try find the recovery DVDs I made right after purchase?
My Question #2 is: is there a way I can safely save my data without reinfecting myself when I restore it, and if yes, what is the best medium? I have bought a 64 GB USB drive but heard that those drives are easily infected. However, if there is a safe way to use USB it woudl be a lot easier than purchasing and burning about 15 DVD-ROMs to save my music.
Thanks and best regards
Keith
P.S. I will be only occasionally on-line for the next couple of days, but I am grateful for any assistance provided even if I will not be able to provide thanks as quickly as I would like.