Computer viruses/malware

Stormy · Jan 06, 2014 10:44 PM

So earlier today I tried installing a Spyro fan game out of curiosity, despite my better judgment. The installer ended up putting at least one unwanted program on my computer, and now I'm super paranoid that there are other things my antivirus programs missed. I'm usually really careful about these things, blocking scripts on every website I don't know, never downloading anything suspicious or illegal, etc, so I don't know what made me do it this time.

I already did a system restore and am now scanning as we speak with my main antivirus, Avast. Already did Malwarebytes and Spybot before that. It's probably going to be fine, but I can't help thinking I should just reinstall Windows. tongue

What, if anything, do you do to keep your computer secure? What's your setup? Any interesting virus stories?

Spyrorocks · Jan 07, 2014 12:21 AM

This is still the most functional spyro fan game ever released.

RangerOfIthilien · Jan 07, 2014 12:43 AM

It's the only one that has gotten past the "hey yo im makin a speero fan game anybuddy wanna halp" stage at least

Spyrorocks · Jan 07, 2014 1:08 AM

Hey, it has downloads after all.

Stormy · Jan 07, 2014 1:21 AM

I thought there was a chance it could be legit! They had gameplay videos and everything! D:

Probably just a crappy installer.

Swaffy · Jan 07, 2014 5:49 AM

Chances are they just made the installer when their system was infected.

NeoReaper · Jan 07, 2014 4:35 PM

Get hold of something like Bitdefender's Rescue which is a distribution of Linux that requires no install what so ever and contains the scanner to scan window's whole drive without running windows and its not hard to create/use at all. (Of course this is if you are paranoid) but its free and Bitdefender have been the best security of the year several times.
http://www.bitdefender.co.uk/support/ho … d-627.html

Swaffy · Jan 07, 2014 6:58 PM

NeoReaper wrote:

Get hold of something like Bitdefender's Rescue which is a distribution of Linux that requires no install what so ever and contains the scanner to scan window's whole drive without running windows and its not hard to create/use at all. (Of course this is if you are paranoid) but its free and Bitdefender have been the best security of the year several times.
http://www.bitdefender.co.uk/support/ho … d-627.html

Oh, you're talking about a bootable rescue disk, I like this idea.

The reason these bootable rescure disks are amazing is because they can
scan the system for malware WITHOUT the main operating system running.
You see, if the malware is running within your main operating system then it
will be a lot harder to get rid of it (kind of like how you can't delete a file if a
program is using it), so these bootable disks can clean it out much easier
since it is its own portable operating system.

Stormy · Jan 07, 2014 7:11 PM

I always run boot time scans instead of normal ones for that very reason. Obviously if your AV doesn't do that safe mode would be the next best thing.

Looks like I didn't come up with anything except old corrupted Android dev stuff, but it probably wouldn't hurt to try that disk.

#1 Jan 06, 2014 10:44 PM

Computer viruses/malware

#2 Jan 07, 2014 12:21 AM

Re: Computer viruses/malware

#3 Jan 07, 2014 12:43 AM

Re: Computer viruses/malware

#4 Jan 07, 2014 1:08 AM

Re: Computer viruses/malware

#5 Jan 07, 2014 1:21 AM

Re: Computer viruses/malware

#6 Jan 07, 2014 5:49 AM

Re: Computer viruses/malware

#7 Jan 07, 2014 4:35 PM

Re: Computer viruses/malware

#8 Jan 07, 2014 6:58 PM

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#9 Jan 07, 2014 7:11 PM

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