What's the best way to remove a computer virus without having to ..

take my computer in to a specialist. I'm not sure what kind of virus it is, but my computer has been running extremely slow lately.

If your virus software is up-to-date, it might be able to clean the virus of the computer.

If you have a virus and get the name of it, you can get removal instructions on the Symantec site.

If you don't already have the free spyware tools, Spybot-Search and Destroy, and Ad-Aware, download those and run them.

Clean out any temporary files you have on your computer and run Defrag. That could help speed up the computer.

For others who might be able to further answer your question, you might include what OS you have, what Anti-virus software you have, and what browser you use.

I also had Norton but that just expired. I do have a virus, but the software is unable to remove it. The virus is called "Trojan" something or another.

I do have Ad-Aware so I will run that again. It's been a while.

I have Windows XP and I use Firefox.

Even though I use AVG, I would recommend checking out the solution for getting rid of it at the Symantec site. I followed their instructions a few years ago when I also acquired a Trojan.

The AVG site probably also has easy-to-follow instructions that might involve editing the Registry, among other things.

Norton sucks and if you don't renew it, it will be even more useless.

Go to download.com and get ANTIVIR.

When you install it, be sure to uncheck the option to start the guard at startup. You don't want two active AV programs at the same time.

Let it scan and then go into config and change it to scan all files and repeat.

Antivir is totally free and I use it on a lot (several hundred in the past year) of computers and it always works great.

That said, some stuff is just devilish to get rid of. Google the info you can get about your virus and see if you can find some tips.

Keep using Ad-aware SE and now add SpyBot S&D run both of these programs once a week. One will pick up things the other don't.
I also use CWshredder , SpywareBlaster and CrapCleaner.
CWshredder will check your computer for CW Trojans.
You should write down the exact name of the Trojan and Google it for information on it and how to delete it.
Did you just download AVG and find this Trojan? You mentioned you were using Norton and you have this Trojan on your machine which does not surprise me. You should not use two different AntiVir programs on your computer at the same time. As a poster said above you would be much better off deleting Norton and going with AVG. For info on how to do this visit the symantics site. http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/
SpyBot S&D http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/
CWshredder http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
SpywareBlaster http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
CrapCleaner http://www.ccleaner.com/

Another thing you can do since you use FireFox is to clear the Cache everyday this will also speed things up.

* Note on CrapCleaner, I cannot say enough good about this program it will clean loads of crap off your computer that windows loads on for no good reason. The only problem I have had with this program is when I use it to clean ...ISSUES....it takes some things off my computer that I need for my speakers. I use the...WINDOWS..part of the program and delete about 25MB of garbage a day off my computer.

:rofl:

I downloaded this after reading a thread here on the DU about it. The person was really enthusiastic about it.

So, I downloaded it and ran a scan and guess what? It found a high risk trojan on my computer and another high risk similar type of thing on my other computer.

These had been around for awhile (One since 4/2005; the other since 11/03).

Anyway, CounterSpy got rid of them. However, warning, this is a free download and works for 15 days and it is really great actually but costs $20 ($30 for two computers).

My advice is that if you don't want to buy it, download it and run it for the trial period (it basically picks up the same things as Ad-Aware; sans that Trojan (yikes!)).

HOWEVER BE CERTAIN TO DELETE COUNTERSPY before the trial period ends. Otherwise it turns into a bit of a mess and I had to go into the SAFE MODE to delete it and I had to go into regedit also and search for the pieces of it.

Had I deleted the program before it expired, it would not have caused the problem on my other old laptop which has Windows 2000 Pro. on it. It simply "expired" on my other laptop with Windows XP Pro. on it and it did not cause a problem.

I ended up finding another program to run that picks up all sorts of stuff too, but it takes a very long time to run it (on a dial-up connection). Here is the link to it: http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ it is free.

I'll have to delete Norton AV and load AVG. I am running ClamWin on my old desktop with Windows 98 on it. It doesn't have enough RAM, etc. to run AVG on it. ClamWin I also have installed on my old laptop with Windows 2000 Pro. on it. It doesn't use the amount of RAM on it that AVG does.

Anyway, the main piece of this message is to download and run CounterSpy. You'll be shocked! Just make sure you delete it before it expires unless you decide to purchase it (good for 1 year I believe). I have Spy-Bot, Ad-Aware and Norton AV along with Zone Alarm as a free firewall. None of these programs detected that ugly Trojan that was messing me up big time nor the other high risk problem on the old laptop. Hmmm ...

Any other "tips" greatly appreciated.

I hope some of this helps someone out there! :D