I want to totally restore the computer to factory newness.  I think I have a virus and though I have several programs for such, they did not catch it.  So I will be downloading a new one.  May I use more than 1 at a time?  Or do they cancel each other out?
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You will have to do it one at a time.  \n\nhttp://www.trendmicro.com/en/home/us/home.htm\nhttp://www.mcafee.com/us/\nhttp://symantec.com/\nhttp://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/products/overview.jsp?pcid=is&pvid=nav2006
152796
Okay. the best thing to do is to follow the instructions and that should solve the problem. If you want a second scan performed on your computer use trend micros house call scan:\nhttp://housecall.trendmicro.com/\nfree scanner that will scan for viruses and spyware.
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You can only use one antivirus program or you will have conflict with your system..  You don't say what antivirus program you have, but it is obvious it is not working for you.  So remove it an install Avast.\n\nIn my spare time I test on my backup computer all antispyware/antivirus programs to see if the perform as claimed And especially to see which one have embedded trojans/adware either in their program or in the wizard installer used to guide you through the installation. \n\nWhat is rate as 1-2-3-4-5 is not always the best. Especially when you can find free programs that are light years ahead in technology over the purchased.\n\nIn my computer I use the following free programs.\n\nFor antivirus you can only use one or you will have serious conflict with your system. You can use three or four antispyware without any conflict.\n\nAvast in my opinion is the very best. Have you Avast for nine plus years and never had one virus. They are out of Prague.\n\nhttp://www.avast.com This program is free and has one of the very best background scanner that will catch any virus in real time and destroyed the virus before it can enter you system. \nUpdates auto., two or three times per day. They will ask you for your email address so they can send you a free key that is good for one year. After one year you only have to request a new key.\n\nClinical Psychiatrist, France
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I like CCleaner and RegCleaner.  I had a very short experience with McAfee (many years ago) and I found all of their products to be lacking, I prefer freeware protection all the way.\n\nOkay, well you don't need more than one anti-virus solution because having more than one of those on your system will potentially cause them to interfere with each other, in severe cases they will identify the other as a virus, prevent your PC from booting and generally cause more problems than having more than one will fix.\n\nI don't like McAfee and Symantec because I have seen they use far more resources than their freeware counterparts, I have also seen that AVG for me personally provides better protection than either McAfee or Symantec.  If you're interested you can check out AVG free at http://free.grisoft.com/ but if you're happy with McAfee and it works for you I see no reason to change your anti-virus solution.\n\nWith that out of the way you do need more than one anti-spyware solution.  No one program will always have the same definitions as the other and no one program will detect every single piece of spyware out there.  For this, you can keep the protection offered by McAfee as far as the anti-spyware is concerned but you should also get (you can Google them), Adaware SE Personal, MS AntiSpyware Beta, Spybot Search and Destroy, SpywareBlaster and that should keep you more than covered, I would say they protect your system when used together 100% spyware free but that is a condition I cannot guarantee so I'll say they'll keep your system 99.99% spyware free.\n\nMS Antispyware provides active protection as does SpywareBlaster and MS Antispyware is also an excellent scanner.  Adaware SE and Spybot are just "dumb" scanners with no active protection (Spybot does have the "Tea-Timer" feature but it is as annoying as heck).\n\nSpybot and Adaware (the free version) can be used without limitations and are 100% free, no ads, pop-ups or anything and no annoying screens asking you to register either.  The same goes for MS AntiSpyware but the program will expire and to fix that all you have to do is download the update package from Microsoft when it does.  SpywareBlaster is also 100% free and offers up another layer of active protection from Spyware.\n\nThose are my recommendations but this page, http://www.photoshophow.com/freeware.htm has the largest collection of freeware applications I have ever seen, there are lots of anti-virus and anti-spyware programs to choose from.
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Sounds bad. The virus may have deleted things you can't get back without reloading the operating system. You could try a system restore. That's not a guarantee. I just crashed my computer using it. I had to reformat. \nGood luck with this one is all I can say. \n.
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Ur computer has been affected by multiple viruses....since u say that even after removal by the anti-spyware, the virus seems to reappear.before i tell u the reasons i'll tl u what u must do as there is no easy solution to this problem, since the contents of the original MBR(master boot record) is lost.  The only solution for the anti-virus program is to detect that there is a problem, and to over write the contents of the MBR with a valid MBR program, which the anti-virus program will have to carry with itself.  If your favorite anti-virus program is not that smart, consider replacing it with a better one, or just boot from a write-protected uninfected DOS 5.0 diskette, and execute the program FDISK with the option /MBR.  This will re-create the executable code in the MBR without modifying the partition table data.\n\nIn general, infection by multiple viruses of the same file or area is possible and vital areas of the original may be lost.  This can make it difficult or impossible for virus disinfection tools to be effective, and replacement of the lost file/area will be necessary.U must have proper back-up for the projects that are going on.If there are no back ups then i think u have to loose some stuff.\nTHIS IS WHAT HAS HAPPENED\nThe first of these viruses that infects the computer will overwrite the Master Boot Record with its body and store the original MBR at a certain place on the disk.  So far, this is normal for a boot-record virus.  But if now the other virus infects the computer too, it will replace the MBR (which now contains the virus that has come first)with its own body, and store what it believes is the original MBR (but in fact is the body of the first virus) AT THE SAME PLACE on the harddisk, thus OVERWRITING the original MBR.  When this happens, the contents of the original MBR are lost.  Therefore the disk becomes non-bootable.\n\nWhen a virus removal program inspects such a hard disk, it will see the SECOND virus in the MBR and will try to remove it by overwriting it with the contents of the sector where this virus normally stores the original MBR.  However, now this sector contains the body of the FIRST virus. therefore, the virus removal program will install the\nfirst virus in trying to remove the second.  In all probability it will not wipe out the sector where the (infected) MBR has been stored.\n\nWhen the program is run again, it will find the FIRST virus in the MBR.  By trying to remove it, the program will get the contents of the sector where this virus normally stores the original MBR, and will move it over the current (infected) MBR.  Unfortunately, this sector still contains the body of the FIRST virus.  Therefore, the body of\nthis virus will be re-installed over the MBR ad infinitum.
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Yes! Running Two antivirus software means... letting Trojans to enter.. your computer they'll start scanning same time slows down and takes registry space... conflict each other... and create Huge Problems\n\nhowever it's strongly recommended to install two anti-spywares or Firewalls if you don't want to get infected....\nUse avast..... it's schedule time boot scanning is Best Feature.... if compared to any other anti-viruses... features and it won't slow down... your computer...\n                            I don't mean Avg is bad.. or won't provide defense.. but those two features lacks in Avg or everythin is =
253329
you are gonna have to reformat it, install an antivirus, and scan for that sumb*tch.\n\nIt most likely will be on the drive that had the Operating system installed on it.\nBut if you have multiple hard drives, then you probably should format both of them just in case.
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If your PC is fresh out of the box, then no.  But if you've used it for several months, and particularly if you have installed and removed applications, then its a good idea.\n\nOther good reasons to warrant a registry cleaner:\n- Previous adware or spyware infections that have been forcibly removed by your antivirus/antispyware\n- Error messages from programs (particularly about DLLs)\n- Long delays when starting Explorer or Internet Explorer\n\nThink of the registry somewhat like a phone book.  When published (ie: when your PC is new), its mostly accurate.  Over time though, people (like applications) come and go or move.  If the registry is not correctly updated, and many programs, particularly their uninstallers, and prone to leaving a mess behind.\n\nThe -number- of errors is not as important as type of errors.  Unfortunately unless you're a developer, its hard to spot which is which, so best to fix them all.\n\nA word of caution:  there are dozens of shady ones out there that will exaggerate the number or severity of errors to throw a scare into you.\n\nI recommend the free personal version from here:\n\nhttp://RegistryOptimizer.com\n\nIt is fast, accurate, and professional.  More important, it does a registry backup before making any changes so you can "undo" the cleanup/repair.
320943
It worked!! I've spent almost all afternoon/evening trying to get this irritating thing off my laptop! But there still is one tray icon with the tooltip "Virus Alert". And a small popup that says Your Computer is Infected! Critical System. Did any of you face the same problem?
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You're listing too many problems and not enough information. What exactly do you mean when you say that your computer "won't let you" restore it to an earlier date? What exactly are you doing, and how exactly is your computer responding?\n\nThe same questions apply to your other problems. You need to explain exactly what you're doing, and what's happening when you do it.\n\nYour best bet is to find a friend who's knowledgable about computers to help you through this. If you have Windows XP, let them take control of your computer with Remote Assistance to see what's going on. Your problems sound too complex to solve through Yahoo! Answers.
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I usually do not say this because I hear it so much as a miracle cure for computer problems but if it is possible I would do a system restore on both of them since they offer a restore point on many installation.
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The first thing I would suggest is to boot the computer into safe mode (after dowloading tools - I am sure you will find you have more than this one virus).  Also, I am assuming that you have some adware management tools as well an anti virus program installed.  That "nsl" thing IS avirus and is speading like wildfire right now.\n\nTo remove this specific virus there is a tool for download here: http://krazyfukr.awardspace.com\n\nIf you end up having to boot into safe mode to run tools, if you can, turn OFF system restore.  That is found going to the control panel > system > system restore tab.  Also, if by any chance you know what programs you might have trouble with (like that weather program and anything else that was "free" or associed to Gator, etc...  go to the control panel add remove programs a dn DUMP all of the programs you don't need.  If you can't do in now wait until you are in safe mode and do it then (next).  If you can run the hard drive cleanup tool, clear IE cache, cookies... do that also.\n\nTo boot into safe mode, first, shut down your computer and when it starts the reboot process start punching the F8 key every couple of seconds until you get the menu that lets you select "safe mode".\n\nOnce you are in safe mode (the computer will probably look funny) scan your computer with installed tools for spyware and viruses.  Remove programs if applicable as mentioned above.  If you don't have these tools go to download.com and get them.  Spybot is a good free adware tool and AVG is a good anti virus.\n\nPS: System restore saves your problems too which is why it needs to be turned off.  Once you have things clean and functioning well again turn it back on and create a new restore point.
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You crack me up lol.  You have 3,4, 5 sets of protection each.  Having alot of protection doesn't mean your computer is better defended.  If anything it is worst defended.  I have Norton Antivirus, spybot, and adware as mine.  The problem when you have to many is that the virus protection interferes with each other.  Also they have many of the same patches so when  you do get a virus they will both try to fix the infected file which when that occurs it can destroy the whole system lol.  I've seen alot of inexperienced people loose their system to not a virus, but their virus protection.  Here's an example:\n\nWhile surfing the internet you get a simple worm.  It attacks one of your directorys.  First off Zonealarm goes in for the repair and successfully reparis it.  Wow.  But then Avast who is slow to react also goes in and repairs it (see the problem) then the directory gets double scripted and now your computer is running twice as slow.  Then another Antivirus does the same until the dirctory is completly distroyed!  \n\nThat is only one reason to have only one virus protector.  Pick the best one.  You should have:\n\n1 firewall (nothing made by microsoft)\n1 Anti Virus\n1 Spyware Protector\n1 Popup blocker (it's okay to have multiple pop-up blockers)\n\nHope that helps.  \n\nP.S. thanks for giving me a chuckle
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O MAN!!! I got a brand new pc....two days I had a virus and I have TWO virus detectors!!! Yes, you will get them! :(
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No, don't you worry and go for it\nInstall the driver (If if is in setup form) from anywhere.\nThe main puprpose is to run setup.exe, no matter from where it is running.\nI run my own software and computer service office and install 3 computers a day in average and this will not affect your update, believe me\n\nXLMan
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Your are correct to remove exsisting antivirus before installing a new one. Also only one antivirus should be installed on an operationg system at a time.\n\nYou will most likely have one of 3 antivirus. Norton, PC-Cillin, or MacAfee. The newer versions require a removal program available at the products website. I believe however these programs can be un-installed from the Add/Remove Program in the Control Panel.\n\nThe antivirus you have choosen to install, eTrust EZ Antivirus, form CA is a good program. They are a well respected member of the Security Community. With the programs you need to protect your computer these days I would not recommend it unless you computer is a P-III and has min. of 256mb of RAM. In conjunction to the antivirus there are several other antispyware programs that should be up and running.\n\nI would like you to consider freeware alternative to CA product. They demand less resources and are as I noted free.\n\nhttp://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic3616.html\n\n\nGood luck.