Where do virus's and worms reside?

[carogator]

when you get a worm or virus on your computer, where does it reside? on the hard drive or in the memory? Malwarebytes has about 78 quarentined items and I don't know how to get rid of them yet. But for info later on , would changing the hard drive or just the memory be the thing to change?

 

[stock]

Down load this the free version and run it it should separate the cream from the milk

http://www.superantispyware.com/download.html

 

[CrushScreen]

when you get a worm or virus on your computer, where does it reside? on the hard drive or in the memory? Malwarebytes has about 78 quarentined items and I don't know how to get rid of them yet. But for info later on , would changing the hard drive or just the memory be the thing to change?

The best thing to do is wipe the computer clean and start again.
you should have got a recovery disc with the comp when you bought it, or with the newer ones it asks you to make the disc yourself.

what you should have installed on the computer is
1) Antivirus...... avg,avast,avira,nod32,
2) Antimalware,......malwarebytes, superantispyware, spybot S+D
3) Firewall turned on or downloaded one, Zonealarm.

Out of those I have installed.
avira, malwarebytes, and zone alarm. I disabled avg and s+d as I found it was slowing down my computer a lot. since then no problems. touch wood!

A big NO NO is... having two antivirus running as they both kinda nullify each other out, so you are left with an antivirus which is less than useless
same with malware and a firewall.

anyway to answer your question virus can hide in files, folders .exe programs and documents like word and excel, bascially everywhere on the computer

Run your spyware, antivirus weekly, be mindful of sites you visit, you know the ones im refering to!!! aslo p2p sites are infected with a lot of virses and should be avoided ie limewire etc... and you should be fine

 

[ez1]

would changing the hard drive or just the memory be the thing to change?

Neither of those are an option you should be looking at, those are Hardware. Virus's/trojans etc are software issues.

Malwarebytes should take care of the majority of your virus/malware issues. You'll still need an antivirus program to clean up the non threating virus's.

CrushScreen has given you solid advice, only thing different i would recommend to people is NOT to install avg, it's bloated and worthless for the most part. I recommend using Avira for your antivirus, if you want to use a free one.

CrushScreen instead of just disabling AVG, you should just uninstall it completely, so it's not running any of the many services that comes with it.

just my 2 cents worth

-Jeremy

 

[Grader4me]

Neither of those are an option you should be looking at, those are Hardware. Virus's/trojans etc are software issues.

Malwarebytes should take care of the majority of your virus/malware issues. You'll still need an antivirus program to clean up the non threating virus's.

CrushScreen has given you solid advice, only thing different i would recommend to people is NOT to install avg, it's bloated and worthless for the most part. I recommend using Avira for your antivirus, if you want to use a free one.

CrushScreen instead of just disabling AVG, you should just uninstall it completely, so it's not running any of the many services that comes with it.

just my 2 cents worth

-Jeremy

Well I took your advice Jeremy..got rid of AVG and downloaded Avira. Seemed that AVG worked well for me in the past, but if I can get better protection with Avira.....

 

[Grader4me]

Run your spyware, antivirus weekly, be mindful of sites you visit, you know the ones im refering to!!! aslo p2p sites are infected with a lot of virses and should be avoided ie limewire etc... and you should be fine

My wife has Limewire pro (paid version) and gets songs off there all the time with no problems...but I'm glad she does this on her laptop..I'm not a trusting soul when it comes to file sharing...

 

[CrushScreen]

My wife has Limewire pro (paid version) and gets songs off there all the time with no problems...but I'm glad she does this on her laptop..I'm not a trusting soul when it comes to file sharing...

It doesnt matter grader if its pro or not.
So, its not a matter of if she'll get one. Its a matter of when.
She is still downloading the exact same file, and heres the sticky part, files/songs/movies etc... that are labeled safe, MIGHT not be safe, "the virus installed has tricked the label to say safe".
music studios, have been known to distribute songs on limewire infected with virus.
And yes I have limewire but on an old good for nothing modified comp, with wifi so WHEN i get a virus it cant travel by wires back to the other comps to infect them as well.
Virus dont need to crash the computer now for you to know that you have a virus. Instead they work in the background using min resources, and you dont know they are there.

dont forget Skype, msn, ym, all those instant messangers can be used to send virus,
eg if I am talking with someone on skype and they send me a word/excel file, or any other file, I ALWAYS request that they send it by email so my mail will check for virus.
Just be careful out there, thats all im saying.

 

[CrushScreen]

Jeremy, opps meant to write uninstalled, dont know what I was thinking when I wrote disabled, I was probably thinking of the teatimer exe that I had disabled on start up from s+d, and that got me to thinking, malware, from that to thinking about virus, then thinking about avg,
Ah the mind is a funny thing !!!

 

[Chris43156]

when you get a worm or virus on your computer, where does it reside? on the hard drive or in the memory??

To answer your original question, the hard drive.
When any program is run is loaded into RAM, it is loaded into RAM. What is in RAM is gone when you shut the computer down.
===
If after running a few different antivirus and antispyware applications and there isn't a noticeable difference in how the system is acting/running, you can reinstall the operating system. That would also be a good opportunity to upgrade your hard drive if you wish.

 

[td25c]

when you get a worm or virus on your computer, where does it reside? on the hard drive or in the memory? Malwarebytes has about 78 quarentined items and I don't know how to get rid of them yet. But for info later on , would changing the hard drive or just the memory be the thing to change?

We caught a virus two weeks ago.Screen pops up & says "A virus has infected your computer".Then it asks "do you want to fix it?" And td25c clicks to fix the virus.After that the computer shut down like a detroit diesel starving for fuel.We sent the hard drive unit to our computer teck feller and he gave it a good power washing.He dose a good job ,charged us 150.00 to fix the hard drive & install new "norton" security program on the computer hard drive.He allways gives me a stange look when I tell him to go ahead & set the rack on the hard drive while he has it tore down.

 

[95zIV]

If after running a few different antivirus and antispyware applications and there isn't a noticeable difference in how the system is acting/running, you can reinstall the operating system. That would also be a good opportunity to upgrade your hard drive if you wish.

After running those programs I'd also do a drive cleaning and a defrag and see if that helps speed up your system too.

 

[qball]

soooo, adult sites are bad for my puter?

 

[95zIV]

soooo, adult sites are bad for my puter?

Nope, the real key here is not to download anything from sites unless you are sure that you know what you are getting. There is always a risk no matter where you go but downloading is the major player. Most sites like youtube or such don't pose a big hazard because you don't move files off in onto your computer where a nasty can get a grip. I avoid anything that could get me in trouble because if I get a bug, my computer sends a message right to the IT department and I got questions I might not want to have to answer.

 

[tootalltimmy]

Originally Posted by qball
soooo, adult sites are bad for my puter?

Computers, huh? I've heard it all boils down to just a bunch of ones and zeroes.... I don't know how that enables me to see naked women, but however it works, God bless you guys. ~From the television show King of Queens, spoken by the character Doug Heffernan

 

[carogator]

Thanks guys. I am finally learning something. about got things cleared up and working better. one of my main problems was Spyware Doctor. Got it off the machine and works a lot better. Now have malwarebytes and Superantispyware professional.

 

[ez1]

We caught a virus two weeks ago.Screen pops up & says "A virus has infected your computer".Then it asks "do you want to fix it?" And td25c clicks to fix the virus.After that the computer shut down like a detroit diesel starving for fuel.We sent the hard drive unit to our computer teck feller and he gave it a good power washing.He dose a good job ,charged us 150.00 to fix the hard drive & install new "norton" security program on the computer hard drive.He allways gives me a stange look when I tell him to go ahead & set the rack on the hard drive while he has it tore down.

$150 ? ouch im guessing $75ish of that was for the norton renewal. I know everyone is different, and we all have our opinions, but i recommend to my customers to save their $75-$100 on the paid versions of antivirus programs, and use avira (free). Then bring me their system when they get infected with the bad ones. I know this might sound like a marketing ploy, but really the paid versions arent any better keeping the nasty virus's/trojans out. So in reality, they end up saving $75-$100 /yr.

The virus/trojan that 95zIV (i think it was him that said he got it) got, is one form of the very common one floating around, people being infected various different ways, from sites like facebook, myspace, pogo games, yahoo games, full tilt poker etc etc. Norton, Macafee, etc etc paid versions do not stop this virus/trojan from infecting you. So when you get it, and you will eventually if you visit those sites. You'll still have to take it in to get it cleaned up.

I have 2 clean ups, Basic and Advanced.

Basic is $19.95 and advanced is $65. The basic cleanup will remove 99.9% of the virus's, there is 1 or 2 out there that i just cant remove. along w/ the basic, i disable some unneeded start up items, among some other lil tweaks to help you get more performance out of your machine. The advanced is what i call a reload, backup your personal files, and wipe your drive, and re-install the os, and restore your personal files.

CrushScreen

If you have spybot installed, i would also uninstall that.

Chris43156

Your right, when a program is ran, it's ran in RAM, but the source program/virus/trojan resides on your Hard drive. You can turn your computer off as many times as you want when your infected, leaved it unplugged for several days.... when you boot it back up, you'll still have that virus/trojan. It would be nice tho to be able to just reboot to remove them it would make everyones life easier. Would prob put me out of a job too LOL

-Jeremy

 

[Grader4me]

Jeremy, I installed the lastest version of Adaware (free) from Lavasoft. Would this conflict with Avira? If not, do I really need this extra program? Thanks for all of your advice here!

 

[tootalltimmy]

We have Symantec from my wife's work. We update it daily. Haven't had a problem. Funny thing I read about Norton. It is very hard to delete from your computer if you decide to change your antivirus. Symantec has an application to help you get rid of the little bits of Norton that remain hiding out and popup later on.

 

[carogator]

Norton (Symantec) crashed my computer when I tried to uninstall the program. And they make it really difficult to get the uninstaller tool. norton insists that you aren't going to get it out of your machine. After my subscripton expired, norton went crazy telling me all about virus's and trojans attacking. Never a word before.

 

[tootalltimmy]

Here is the link to a Norton removal tool.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Uninstallers/Norton-Removal-Tool.shtml