Removing Computer Viruses

You must already have a virus scanner on your computer or you probably won't even be aware that a virus had infected or attempted to infect your machine.  If you don't have a virus scanner the University provides one for download.  Read the instructions for downloading and installing a virus scanner.

After disconnecting the computer from the network, the first step would be to scan your computer with the virus scanner to determine how many files are infected.  If there are infected files, you should instruct the virus scanner to clean them.  If the cleaning fails, you may choose to delete the file, or to keep it in quarantine (Updates to the virus scanning software may allow the file to be cleaned later. If the file is unimportant, you may delete it).

There are often stand-alone tools provided by virus scanner software manufacturers that will remove the virus when other utilities fail.  You can use these tools even if you have another brand of virus software installed, or don't have any virus scanner.

Symantec offers a number of these tools at

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/tools.list.html

McAffee has a few for download also.

http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=vrt

Other virus scanner companies offer similar tools.

Download the tool appropriate to the virus that has infected your computer.  Some of these tools may require you to enter the Windows "Safe Mode" in order to be effective.

If you do not have a virus scanning program installed on your computer, the University has licensed this software for limited use.  Visit the Eraider logon page at

http://www.eraider.ttu.edu

and log on with your account.  Choose "Software", and then choose the virus scanner for windows.  Be sure to read the license agreement before downloading the software, and you will be asked to agree to its terms.  After doing so, download the software to your computer.  Run the software, and use the default settings provided.  It is also a good idea to set the virus scanner to automatically retrieve updates from the Internet.  This will protect your computer from the newest viruses and worms as soon as there is a fix for them.

The newest computer worms can attack and infect your computer if you are simply connected to the Internet.  It is essential that you have the latest Windows patches to harden your computer against these attacks.

Instructions on keeping your computer up-to-date.