How to clean a virus infected laptop

Doing so may speed up the virus scanning, free up disk space, and even get rid of some malware. To use the Disk Cleanup utility included with Windows 10 just type Disk Cleanup in the search bar or after pressing the Start button and select the tool that appears named Disk Cleanup. When you move your mouse over the icon, it should say "PC Status: Protected.

If these steps do not return any significant problems, then the system is probably ok to use. However, be wary of any issues you notice. Then it puts code into the operating system that enables a hacker to access the infected computer. Trojan horses do not usually spread by themselves. They are spread by viruses, worms, or downloaded software.

Spyware can install on your computer without your knowledge. Spyware can track Internet search habits and can also redirect your web browser to a different website than you intend to go to. A rogue security software program tries to make you think that your computer is infected by a virus and usually prompts you to download or buy a product that removes the virus.

The names of these products frequently contain words like Antivirus, Shield, Security, Protection, or Fixer. This makes them sound legitimate. They frequently run right after you download them, or the next time that your computer starts. Rogue security software can prevent applications, such as Internet Explorer, from opening.

Rogue security software might also display legitimate and important Windows files as infections. Typical error messages or pop-up messages might contain the following phrases:. Do not click anything inside the dialog box. Are you sure you want to navigate from this page? Your computer is infected!

They can cause data lost and file corruption and need to be treated as soon as possible. Return to System Security and download it to secure your PC. Press OK to Continue or Cancel to stay on the current page. For more information see Protect yourself from tech support scams. Removing a computer virus or spyware can be difficult without the help of malicious software removal tools.

Some computer viruses and other unwanted software reinstall themselves after the viruses and spyware are detected and removed. Fortunately, by updating the computer and by using malicious software removal tools, you can help permanently remove unwanted software. For more information about how to remove a computer virus and spyware, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: - Microsoft resources and guidance for removal of malware and viruses.

Note A computer virus may prevent you from accessing the Microsoft Update website to install the latest updates. We recommend that you set the Automatic Updates service to run automatically so that a computer is not missing any important updates. Microsoft offers a free online tool that scans and helps remove potential threats from your computer. To perform the scan, go to the Microsoft Safety Scanner website. Note the name of the rogue security software. For this example, we'll call it XP Security Agent When you are prompted, use the arrow keys to highlight Safe Mode with Networking , and then press Enter.

Click the Start button and check whether the rogue security software appears on the Start menu. If it's not listed there, click All Programs and scroll to find the rogue security software's name.

Right-click the name of the rogue security software program, and then click Properties. In the Properties dialog box, check the path of the rogue security software program that is listed in Target. Note The folder name frequently is a random number. In the Program Files window, click Program Files in the address bar. Scroll until you find the rogue security software program folder.

For example, XP Security Agent Step 4. Turn on these three options: Real-time protection, Cloud-delivered protection, and Automatic sample submission. Usually, once you enabled this feature, Windows Defender will automatically scan all drives and files to detect and check virus on your computer.

If it finds a virus, do as requested to remove the virus. Sometimes, you may also manually run this feature to scan and remove viruses from Windows computers. In the "Threat history" section, click "Scan now" to scan for viruses on your computer. As you know, some computer viruses use the internet connection to spread. Therefore, it's a good idea to disconnect from the internet to prevent further damage.

In the Network Connections screen, right-click or tap-and-hold the connection you want to disable, then select Disable.

The icon for the connection turns grey to show that it's disabled. These steps should work no matter what kind of malware you have on your PC or laptop. This procedure is as effective for Trojans as it is for a run-of-the-mill virus. This solution is to reboot your PC in Safe Mode. Restart the Windows 10 PC. When you see the Sign-in screen, press the "Shift" key and don't release, and click the Power icon at the bottom-right and choose "Restart".

Windows 10 restarts and asks you to select an option. If your computer is infected by some specific virus, such as write-protection or shortcut virus. You may need other solutions. As the above-provided methods are provided for removing viruses from your PC.

Here are some relative tutorials that may help you remove some specific viruses from your PC and storage devices:. After removing the virus from your Windows computer, you can then check and continue using your device and files again. If some files are missing on your computer due to a virus infection, don't worry.

Go back to follow Part 1 to remove the virus from your computer first. Then you can follow provided data recovery methods here in this part to fully bring lost or missing files back immediately. No matter how you end up killing the computer virus, you should always check your storage device for data loss afterward. Except for the virus itself may delete or hide files, the removal of virus files can also inadvertently delete non-virus files.

Reliable data recovery software such as EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard can scan your entire storage device for any lost files due to false operation or virus removal. Select the disk drive where you have lost files after using an anti-virus program and click "Scan". After the scan process finishes, all the lost and deleted files on the selected drive should appear. You can try to locate the antivirus deleted items from the tree-view pane on the left, or use the "Filter" function to specify particular file formats, such as pictures, videos, emails, documents and so on.

If you know the file name clearly, directly search the file in the Search box. Double-click a file will let you preview. After that, select the file s at one time and click "Recover". We suggest you select a different drive to save the recovered files to avoid data overwriting.

Sometimes, viruses will not only take over your computer, blackmailing money for decrypting your devices. Some may also hide your files, making you believe that all files were removed.

Actually, these files were not lost but hidden on your PC. Therefore, you can also try to run the following CMD command to unhide files that were hidden by the virus:.