How to remove malware from a Windows system

Malware, short for malicious software, is any software program designed to cause harm to a computer system or designed to frustrate the user experience. In addition to viruses and trojan horses, this category of software includes spyware and adware. In short, malware consistutes all the software that evil people try to sneak onto your computer, but which you do not want to have on your computer. This page describes the three programs you should run to eliminate malware from a Windows system. (For more information on malware, see the Malware Wikipedia entry.)

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Run Microsoft AntiSpyware

Contrary to its name, this new software from Microsoft removes all sorts of malware, not just spyware. Please download Microsoft AntiSpyware, and then install/run the software.

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Run Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool

Although this tool might get invoked automatically as part of the Windows Update process, you can (and should!) nonetheless invoke it manually by going to the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool webpage. Use the download link on the right side of that page to obtain the software, and then be sure to install/run it. (If you are using Internet Explorer when you visit that page, then you may be able to scan your computer on-line without having to separately download/install/run the software.)

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Run Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition

Although the two Microsoft tools mentioned above eliminate a lot of malware, some malware may escape Microsoft's attention, and thus you should always also run Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition.

1. Download Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition.
2. Install/run the software and initiate a full scan of your system.
3. On the screen in which you are presented with a list of suspicious objects, you must manually select all the ones you wish to have removed. Unless a suspicious object leaps out at you as being something important, chances are that you want to remove all the suspicious objects that were found. To quickly select all objects, right-click one of the checkboxes and select the appropriate choice from the menu that will pop up. Click on Next to continue to the next screen and remove the objects.
4. When the confirmation dialog appears, click on OK.