hey, i caught a virus on my laptop yesterday because i was stupidly downloading software from download.com which i found out is full of viruses. This virus keeps trying to delete my start-up entries and i'm afraid it will delete an important file for windows. luckely i have spybot-serch and destroy which is blocking it but if i turn off my computer, i'm afraid it will delete all my start-up entries before spybot loads on start-up, so i use hibernate instead but i can't use it forever! any ideas?????

plz help..tnx

Honestly, I highly doubt you got a virus from download.com. This site is owned by Cnet and is very reputable. They have strict policies against spyware and software.

Tech Alpha Computer Forums

Statistics show that 63% of all Windows tools are malware orientated. (SANS referencing over 54,000 packages available)

It's highly possible especially since the majority of problems are related to 'misleading applications'. Honestly it's been a long time since I've seen a real virus, but malware encompasses a great deal of similar unwanted activity which I'll just lump together for ease of discussion.

CNET is not immune to this behavior.
There was a Chinese company that is STILL shipping MP3 players that are infected right from manufacturing! Anyways...

That all said, WHAT did you download?
If you can't state what you downloaded or if you were download happy and clicking everything, then make a list and post it here please. Most browsers should have a list you can review.

If you can't tell us what you downloaded, then I'd say you shouldn't be making claims like this. To fix your problem/infection you'll need to do some basic stuff. Start with this:

Download a copy of Dr.Web CureIt. http://www.freedrweb.com/cureit/

Reboot your computer in "SAFE MODE" using the F8 method. To do this, restart your computer and after hearing your computer beep once during startup (but before the Windows icon appears) press the F8 key repeatedly. A menu will appear with several options. Use the arrow keys to navigate and select the option to run Windows in "Safe Mode".

Scan with Dr.Web CureIt as follows:

* Double-click on cureit.exe to start the program. An "Express Scan of your PC" notice will appear.
* Under "Start the Express Scan Now", Click "OK" to start. This is a short scan that will scan the files currently running in memory and when something is found, click the Yes button when it asks you if you want to cure it.
* Once the short scan has finished, Click Options > Change settings
* Choose the "Scan tab" and UNcheck "Heuristic analysis"
* Back at the main window, click "Custom Scan", then "Select drives" (a red dot will show which drives have been chosen).
* Then click the "Start/Stop Scanning" button (green arrow on the right) and the scan will start.
* When done, a message will be displayed at the bottom advising if any viruses were found.
* Click "Yes to all" if it asks if you want to cure/move the file.
* When the scan has finished, look if you can see the icon next to the files found. If so, click it, then click the next icon right below and select "Move incurable".
(This will move it to the C:\Documents and Settings\userprofile\DoctorWeb\Quarantine folder if it can't be cured)
* Next, in the Dr.Web CureIt menu on top, click file and choose save report list.
* Save the DrWeb.csv report to your desktop.
* Exit Dr.Web Cureit when done.
* Important! Reboot your computer because it could be possible that files in use will be moved/deleted during reboot.

Fix anything it finds unless you know it's a false positive.

Cheers.

J.
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