Well since I have some free time like I always do, I decided to throw together a helpful little guide on PC security, and staying safe and protected which most people should in fact do. Now I also am going to be offering support to fix your problem for free if this thread does not help you, so all you need to do is send me a PM and I'll get back to you ASAP. Now this guide isn't 100% done, I still need to revise/add some things in, but for now its a sturdy foundation to get started with. If you have any questions please post them below, and enjoy!
Well I'm sure we've all ran into a common problem on the internet now a days, and that is RATs, viruses, and malware. However if you're lucky, you've probably only had a virus or malware issue. Generally its pretty easy to diagnose if you have a virus, or malware problem, however it could get increasingly harder if you have a rat, because they tend to hide themselves so the rat owner won't be discovered, sometimes a rat can stay on your system for weeks at a time without getting detected, maybe even months in some cases. But, they certainly aren't invulnerable by any means.
Thats pretty much the gist of the two, but how do you get rid of these?
Now a days the simple way of finding, and getting rid of malware, and viruses is a simple virus scan, right? Well, that's the easy answer, but sometimes it just doesn't work out that way, and you have to do a bit of manual work as well depending on the virus/malware you're talking about. Program wise I recommend these for scanning, and deletion of malware, and some are for rats too.
Rogue Killer : RogueKiller is an anti-malware program written in C++ and able to detect and remove generic malwares and some advanced threats such as rootkits, rogues, worms. This is a pretty nifty tool that I use a lot too.
TDSSKiller : TDSSKiller is a FREE handy tool that can quickly detect and remove both known and unknown rootkits, which are programs that can hide the presence of malware in your system. I recommend using both Rogue Killer, and this because they're both made for detecting rats, and root kits, and some instances one found something else more than the other, so that gives you an idea.
Malwarebytes : Malwarebytes is another free handy tool that detects malware, and general viruses. If you believe you have a virus on your system, I recommend running this a few times until there are no more detections showing, also be sure to go to custom scan, and do a full root kit scan as well. Also, if you like malwarebytes I recommend buying a license for it because it also has a malicious website blocker, and it can usually tell if you have a rat on your pc by checking out going IPs, and if its not a trusted IP, it will alert you.
ADWCleaner : ADWCleaner is a handy cleaner in general to get rid of annoying adware, as well as add ons that can get in your registry and run a muck. All in all it removes, PUP (Potentially un-wanted programs), Hijackers (Change your home page on your browser to something else), tool bars, and adware.
CCleaner : CCleaner is a software that I always run after doing virus removal on customers computers, it can work wonders if you have never ran it before, and chances are if you have used your PC a lot you probably have a few GBs of un-needed clutter taking up your hard drive, also it has a good registry cleaner that I recommend running as well.
Staying protected, and running smooth is generally easy if you do general maintenance on your computer regularly.
I. Get a anti-virus program, no, malwarebytes isn’t to be used instead of a anti-virus program, its good to have both. Going down the free route you could get AVG, which is alright, but paid wise I’d get Kaspersky, or Bitdefender. Also, I’d do weekly scans at least on them, usually I’ll do a full scan, and leave it running over night.
II. Do windows updates regularly: If your computer is having issues with stability, chances are it isn’t viruses/malware, but it could be windows updates needing to be installed for your OS, so make sure you set them to install automatically, and also just check for updates there every so often.
III. Back up your important files onto a cloud server like mega.co.nz or google. Now you never know when your PC might have an unavoidable issue, so its always good to have your important files/documents backed up incase of hard drive failure.
IV. Don’t download suspicious programs. Generally if something is too good to be true, it usually is. For instance: Free CoC Gems.exe, CSGOWallHack.exe etc. Also, don’t visit suspicious websites either.
V. Check your laptop/motherboard manufacturers website every so often to see if there are new driver updates such as USB, or even BIOS.
VI. Every so often restart your pc, or just give it a rest. I know some people run their pcs for days, even a month at a time without shutting them down etc. Doing a restart if your pc is feeling a bit boggy could help. Also, watch how much you overclock, and how intense you do it, it can sacrifice the longevity of your components.
Well I'm sure we've all ran into a common problem on the internet now a days, and that is RATs, viruses, and malware. However if you're lucky, you've probably only had a virus or malware issue. Generally its pretty easy to diagnose if you have a virus, or malware problem, however it could get increasingly harder if you have a rat, because they tend to hide themselves so the rat owner won't be discovered, sometimes a rat can stay on your system for weeks at a time without getting detected, maybe even months in some cases. But, they certainly aren't invulnerable by any means.
General Information
Thats pretty much the gist of the two, but how do you get rid of these?
Removal/Diagnosis
Now a days the simple way of finding, and getting rid of malware, and viruses is a simple virus scan, right? Well, that's the easy answer, but sometimes it just doesn't work out that way, and you have to do a bit of manual work as well depending on the virus/malware you're talking about. Program wise I recommend these for scanning, and deletion of malware, and some are for rats too.
Rogue Killer : RogueKiller is an anti-malware program written in C++ and able to detect and remove generic malwares and some advanced threats such as rootkits, rogues, worms. This is a pretty nifty tool that I use a lot too.
TDSSKiller : TDSSKiller is a FREE handy tool that can quickly detect and remove both known and unknown rootkits, which are programs that can hide the presence of malware in your system. I recommend using both Rogue Killer, and this because they're both made for detecting rats, and root kits, and some instances one found something else more than the other, so that gives you an idea.
Malwarebytes : Malwarebytes is another free handy tool that detects malware, and general viruses. If you believe you have a virus on your system, I recommend running this a few times until there are no more detections showing, also be sure to go to custom scan, and do a full root kit scan as well. Also, if you like malwarebytes I recommend buying a license for it because it also has a malicious website blocker, and it can usually tell if you have a rat on your pc by checking out going IPs, and if its not a trusted IP, it will alert you.
ADWCleaner : ADWCleaner is a handy cleaner in general to get rid of annoying adware, as well as add ons that can get in your registry and run a muck. All in all it removes, PUP (Potentially un-wanted programs), Hijackers (Change your home page on your browser to something else), tool bars, and adware.
CCleaner : CCleaner is a software that I always run after doing virus removal on customers computers, it can work wonders if you have never ran it before, and chances are if you have used your PC a lot you probably have a few GBs of un-needed clutter taking up your hard drive, also it has a good registry cleaner that I recommend running as well.
Staying Clean/Protected
Staying protected, and running smooth is generally easy if you do general maintenance on your computer regularly.
I. Get a anti-virus program, no, malwarebytes isn’t to be used instead of a anti-virus program, its good to have both. Going down the free route you could get AVG, which is alright, but paid wise I’d get Kaspersky, or Bitdefender. Also, I’d do weekly scans at least on them, usually I’ll do a full scan, and leave it running over night.
II. Do windows updates regularly: If your computer is having issues with stability, chances are it isn’t viruses/malware, but it could be windows updates needing to be installed for your OS, so make sure you set them to install automatically, and also just check for updates there every so often.
III. Back up your important files onto a cloud server like mega.co.nz or google. Now you never know when your PC might have an unavoidable issue, so its always good to have your important files/documents backed up incase of hard drive failure.
IV. Don’t download suspicious programs. Generally if something is too good to be true, it usually is. For instance: Free CoC Gems.exe, CSGOWallHack.exe etc. Also, don’t visit suspicious websites either.
V. Check your laptop/motherboard manufacturers website every so often to see if there are new driver updates such as USB, or even BIOS.
VI. Every so often restart your pc, or just give it a rest. I know some people run their pcs for days, even a month at a time without shutting them down etc. Doing a restart if your pc is feeling a bit boggy could help. Also, watch how much you overclock, and how intense you do it, it can sacrifice the longevity of your components.
