Do an external scan for malware
In his column at PC World, Michael Horowitz explains that an infected computer should get an external anti-malware scan because malware can hide itself from a scan done while the computer is running:
The failure of an anti-malware application to detect a particular piece of malware is not news. Many malicious programs do a great job of hiding themselves.
What to do?
Scan a suspect system from the outside, without the suspect operating system running.
This insures that the malicious software does not get a chance to defend itself.
My preferred software to enable scanning from the outside is the free Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4WIN). It includes a handful of free anti-malware programs that can run from the CD and even self-update themselves before scanning. Among the free software included with UBCD4WIN is Avira’s AntiVir, SUPERAntiSpyware, McAfee’s Stinger, Spybot Search and Destroy and AVG free.
There are a number of CD boot disks that are available; the main thing is to be sure that they can read the Windows NTFS file system.
Horowitz has written several articles on the best way to do anti-malware scans and he references them in his column.
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