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I haven't had to clean up PCs in a while but it's this time of the year when you go visit relatives and they ask you about this and that, malware and trojans and other delicious things that pop up in computers.

What's the standard set of tools you use to get rid of trojans? Is there a good website reference I can turn to? Googling leads to a lot of commercial websites.

I'm not asking for opinions but rather for the set of well accepted tools to clean up PCs.

Cheers, David.

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  • download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/19/Live/…
    – user10211
    Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 16:22
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    Re-install. Also XP will no longer receive security updateds in a few months. So that is something to look forward to.
    – rook
    Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 16:23
  • Yes I so wish I could reinstall to... Linux :-) Unfortunately that's not an option - at least not this time.
    – David Brossard
    Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 16:29
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    My standard tool for fixing a Windows XP installation: A Windows 7 installation disc.
    – Iszi
    Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 17:04
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    Lt. Ripley put it best: >I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. Note that they do not follow her advice and everyone dies horribly.
    – Graham Hill
    Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 17:04

2 Answers 2

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There's no sure-fire way to clean off persistent malware. Even if you seem to get rid of it the system may still be owned. Even if you are successful (and these days that is rare) it can take far more time to clean a system than to rebuild it, which is why IT departments don't even try anymore, they just blast on a new image.

Truthfully, relatives expecting that you can whip out a usb stick and have their problems fixed in a jiffy is unrealistic. You need to just tell them that it's not something you can fix without rebuilding the system and you aren't going to spend the entire Christmas holiday sorting it out.

Family situations not always being expectation-settable you may want to give the appearance of fixing problems, that is it may be that the goal is not to fix them but to be seen to try in order to satisfy in-law expectations. At the same time you don't want to waste your time, so you'd like some tools that may...just...work, or at least give some improvement. If that's the case then I'd suggest creating a bootable usb of Backtrack/Kali linux and buying a drive you can mirror their system onto. Then:

  • Make a backup of their system. At least back up the registry: if you scan and fix you may break something in which case no pie for you at Christmas dinner
  • Run the AV on your distro to scan the target drive. I think it's Comodo on Kali, but there's others like Avast and AVG which are free
  • If you are successful use the NIST configuration guide for XP to tighten up their system so they have less chance of getting owned. At the same time initiate the "upgrade your computer you cheapskates" discussion
  • Give them a lightweight virtualized linux installation to run off of, presuming they have the resources. Tell them to start doing their work on that, make sure they can't do anything stupid on it, and set it to auto-update. You can configure the distro to mound a shared drive on the host machine. If that gets messed up their base system is still protected
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  • Great answer, made me laugh too - as well as others' comments. We've all been there, haven't we?
    – David Brossard
    Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 17:08
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    We've all been there. It used to be you could do a scandisk/defrag and be a god to your relatives, but these days it's far harder to be known as a miracle worker.
    – GdD
    Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 17:19
  • Quicker to nuke and reload. Let them feel the pain of running down all their programs and reloading those. Experience shows me that humans only learn through pain and suffering.
    – Fiasco Labs
    Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 17:31
  • Careful using the FDCC/USGCB - it can break some things, and impede usability in ways a typical home user does not want to deal with.
    – Iszi
    Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 17:56
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In my view you cannot completely clean up virus from Win XP without re install.

If you are not interested in that, I suggest you to install a good antivirus and initiate a boot-time scan.It will surely reduce the threat up to a limit.

Best Antivirus Software Ratings

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  • Thanks, I'm with you but sadly here I cannot do that because of time :(
    – David Brossard
    Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 16:37
  • Just install An Antivirus.Schedule boot-time scan & go to bed.When You wake up scan will be finished :)
    – Harikrishnan
    Commented Dec 16, 2013 at 16:41

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