Virus advice please!

[bmcecosse]

My dear wife's laptop has been inundated with 'Vista Anti-virus 2012' which is preventing it doing anything - this despite Avast and Spybot being installed. I'm assuming in fact it is a Virus -and not an Anti-virus. I've run Avast on a complete scan several times - but can't get Spybot to run - it's being blocked by the 'anti-virus'.... Any suggestions how I can prevent this thing from loading up on start-up would be most welcome. Roy

[polo2k]

when its booting keep tapping the F5 key to boot into safe mode hopefully it wont be running then and you will be able to scan.
If not click start -> run then type MSCONFIG and on one of the tabs there is a list of startup programs, remove it from there so that it doesnt start on the next reboot.
Be careful because a lot of innocent looking stuff can cause huge problems and on certain things (like MSN messenger) although its not running, it is referenced in the registry by other "stuff" if its not booting then the other stuff will hang and slow down Play safe
I also find it useful to have a 2nd (working pc) close to hand to reference the names of odd files and services.

[sgray]

That should be the F8 key

[polo2k]

IIRC F8 gives the boot options (command prompt etc & safe mode without networking) but F5 skips this and goes straight to the safe boot

[bmcecosse]

Thanks Polo - i'll try that!

[polo2k]

[MarkyB]

To stop the pop ups run task manger (left click on the task bar) and look for XXX.exe where X= a letter under the processes tab.
The last one I did was usm.exe but the previous one was 3 different letters.
Highlight then press the end process button, say yes to the warning that pops up.


While in task manager look for iexplore.exe running too, it's internet explorer but may be running in the background as part of the virus infection.

If you can't get rid of it log in with a different account and rename, NOT DELETE;
C:\Documents and Settings\username of infected account

This is a bit drastic but will give a fresh start on that account.
However, lots of things will need to be set up again and you'll need to trawl though the renamed folder to find things that were on the desktop, pictures and favourites.