It's getting more and more categorisation nowadays.

Some are called worm, trojan, rootkit etc - but to generalise it, I'd still call it virus

Few things I can summarise - in order to prevent those malicious program from infecting your PC

1) Don't double click the pendrive drive from "My Computer", after you get your drive back from your colleague - this will autorun the virus in the pendrive, and start infecting your PC

Instead, you should right click on the drive and choose "Explore"in "My Computer"

2) Don't use Symantec Antivirus - it's the worst (but very popular) antivirus you can get.

I've been using Kaspersky for 2 years, and am still happy about it.

3) Use better internet browser - instead of Internet Explorer

I'd highly recommend Firefox 3, which I've been using for the past 4 years.

Better still, the last but the best solution - don't use computer

So I said I need to find an alternative virus scan. And I found it, back in two months ago.

Kaspersky Antivirus 6.0 further scanned a few more threats that Mcafee VirusScan, AVG Anti-Spyware and Webroot SpySweeper couldn't even find.

Personal license would cost USD$39.95 per year. But personally found that it's worth it because, Kaspersky runs the update few hours once, to keep your computer away from the latest threat.

Pros: Ability to scan the virus/malware/trojan/spyware that famous brand like Mcafee or Norton can't. Low on memory consumption.
Cons: Slow scanning speed, but still faster than Webroot SpySweeper or AVG. Apart from that, slows down the computer while scanning.

Rating: 5/5

Last week, I accidentally 'welcomed' the trojans. It was because I accidentally clicked on the advert featured in the TVAnts (an online TV streaming software)

Then my McAfee antivirus started to pop up a lot of virus alert.
t
D*e la (CNY forbids such a word), a lot of trojans in my comp already.

So, recalling the last successful fight with trojans, which was like... last year, when I helped Emily to clear her laptop's trojans, at least there are no more annoying pop up while web surfing.

I downloaded AVG Antispyware (formerly known as Ewido), got it updated and performed full scan. It killed off some of the Trojans successfully, while others appeared again.


For example, the following trojan



Being clueless, I started the DSK work. Found that those China-made trojan (cos, obviously, it kept popping up China's ad), even those Chinese also clueless about it!

Most people, when they faced this problem they'll use HijackThis! to detect, then discusses it in the forum.

Somehow I chose to opt for alternative (i'm not sure, maybe it failed to delete off Emily laptop's trojan last time)

Then from another forum I found a software called Filseclab which can delete the file no matter it's being used or being stubbornly stationed there.

So, based on the lists I've got from McAfee, I used "Arrange Icon by -> Last Modified" then found the following creatures.


Without any hesitation, I deleted em' using Filseclab (NOTE: This action is dangerous. You've gotta make sure of what you are deleting, else your windows will be unusable! Cos I deleted wpa.dbl, which was not malware, luckily it's not that essential to startup my windows ;) )



Then I restarted the PC. Great! No more "virus detected" alert from McAfee!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Lessons learned:

1) Most Anti-Virus (note, here I mean virus, not trojan, malware, spyware) are clueless/helpless about other than virus, they could prevent it from running, but they can't stop/deeply remove them when you've welcomed it

One of the trojans was also known as Infostealer, which was one of the trojans made my customer in horrible situation earlier on.

2) Even the Anti-Malware software also failed (probably the software I used was lousy?) to remove all the malware/trojan/spyware successfully.

3) Therefore, manual removal rocks!! It worked and saved me from reformatting (you know, the famous action taken by most of the people when they can't solve something)

4) Is it time to change the good old McAfee? It's not exactly good old, cos I have frequent updates... One thing I like about it is that it uses minimal resources and fast scanning result. (oh ya, at least, better than the Symantec's...). FYI, McAfee had served me for the last 9 years. The reason I changed was because my Trend Micro was helpless about CIH virus

5) NEVER click on those pop up adverts.

6) IE sux again! Cos the ad was popped up in IE (well, my FireFox is already my default browser, ok), and subsequently, all the trojans came into my computer. Think the option is to either update to IE 7 or REMOVE IT!

Phew, yesterday managed to kill off 4-5 trojans from my laptop, which I accidentally 'welcome' them into my laptop.

The summary?

Manual deletion. All antivirus/anti-trojan/anti-malware is no better than human, when it comes to a situation which they themselves cannot handle!