Guidelines for the Manual Removal of Viruses and Adware


To see a list of current threats Click here:

This document is provided as guideline for the curious...if your system will boot or connect to the internet, inexpensive or free software such as Microsoft's (which is obviously best at knowing Microsoft® OS) Virus & Spyware Protection ONLY..., Microsoft® Security Essentials ~ For Microsoft® Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Windows 7 SP1 installs only... If you are still somehow using an End-Of-Shelf-Life version of Windows like: xp (SP2, or SP3), Vista SP2 or earlier then the stand-alone spyware program Microsoft® Windows Defender ~ For Microsoft® Current Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) 10, and 8, 8.1 installs as well...

And while you are at it... Grab the best, in our opinion, hand"'"s-down overall AdWare, MalWare, RansomWare, SpyWare & Virus protection, (if you have not already already heard of this, it's free so long as you do not click the Activate License or Upgrade Now buttons in the upper-right after install... Also available for Android, Apple, Linux and just about any device known!) Malware bytes. This coupled with the proven security of the Opera Browser which is one of the best kept secrets in the industry for its unsurpassed ability to block ads and a well known feature built-in called: VPN (Virtual Private Network) that allow seamless switching from VPN On/Off capabilities within the browser address bar!!! This also is the longest running browser being that it was first introduced way-way back (1995) when Netscape was first put into use, and has been around ever since Opera Download! It also has a built-in Side Bar which boasts a FaceBook Messenger & WhatApp shortcuts just to mention a few... Very similar to Google Chrome but without the (what, you did not know?) welcome mat/open-door policy for so many annoying and malicious extensions it so unknowingly allows installation of!!! (hrmmn? Did Google perhaps swipe this open source code and brand it with a google icon??? -- Did not hear that here!) but very clear once any other browser opened side-by-side which is the clear choice for your favorite web browser!!! (See below)

You will no longer need to worry about sites you visit or internet security ever again!

But if you are not using a Genuine Validated copy of Windows, you will need to rely on one of the following: LavaSoft Adware, Avast, Kaspersky Trend Micro, or McAfee? (which in our opinion McAfee? is hands down the best bet for your overall anti-virus/firewall needs!) , and lastly; but we highly advise against using Norton Antivirus or Spybot Search and Destroy. Unfortunately, if you are using Norton, or Spybot, you should remove it immediately and install one of the above instead. We highly suspect these two to be a major source of most adware/virus/spyware vulnerablilty!!! Usually one of the above will correct these problems with a lot less hassle and risk. Other likely suspects include: Auslogic, CCleaner (Microsoft's version of this - Disk Cleaner - is already included in Windows utilities as is Disk Defrag and runs automatically for Windows 7 and later), DriverUpdater, RegCleaner, anything from Piriform, any browser toolbars, fake adobe flash / acrobat installs (you know the ones, when you visit a site, it says you must install flash to continue? Usually is not the actual flash application but something packaged with a malicious intent included.) Besides all current browsers already have the ability to open flash and acrobat .pdf extensions without a risky download! But we should all be using Opera Browser right?!! Then no worries! To see if any of these have been installed and remove them just click your start button, click on RUN (for older operating systems) or find the Windows (3rd usually from the left bottom row of keyboard) and press the 'R' key to get the Run option, then type "appwiz.cpl" in the box marked OPEN and click OK. This opens up the Add or Remove Programs / Programs and Features.

But if you feel the urge to stick your fingers in the machinery to try to manually remove viruses and fix things, read on brave soul....

1. Click your start button, click on RUN (for older operating systems) or find the Windows (3rd usually from the left bottom row of keyboard) and press the 'R' key to get the Run option, then type "regedit" in the box marked OPEN and click OK. This opens up the system registry editor. Be careful using this tool...improper use of it can render a system unusable. At any rate, the registry editor will look something like this:



2. Next, we will navigate the registry editor to reveal the contents of its run key, where the vast majority of viruses start themselves as your system is loading windows. To do this, click on the little plus-sign-in-the-square next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. The plus will turn into a minus, and another group of cryptic looking folders with squares and pluses next to them will appear under it. These are known as registry keys.

3. Open the SOFTWARE key by clicking on its plus-sign-in-the-box.

4. Next, browse the keys under SOFTWARE and open the Microsoft key.

5. Browse the Microsoft hive and open the Windows key.

6. Browse the Wndows key and open the CurrentVersion key.

7. Browse the CurrentVersion key, and open the Run key. Most items that start as soon as your computer loads windows are told to start up by the entries in the right pane of the registry editor when you open the run key. These items are known as Registry Values. Note that this picture of the registry was from a healthy computer, which is overly clean. Typical home system running scanners, multifunction printers, or CD Burners will have many more registry values in the Run key



8. Next, we're going to create safety mechanism to undo what you're going to do to the registry in case you mess something up. This is known as Exporting the key. To do this, Click on the run key in the left pane of the registry editor. From the dropdown menu at the top of the registry editor, Click on File, then click on Export. The following window will appear:



You can save the file to any name you want....We like to call it runkeys, but that's just a personal preference. Click save, and this will save a file called runkeys.reg to your hard drive. The next step we'll take is to remove registry keys that are causing viruses to load. If, in the process of doing so, something gets messed up, you can get back any keys you deleted from the run file by double-clicking on the runkeys.reg file you created in this step.

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