Expert: Carolyn Meinel - 3/30/2008

Question
I think i might have a virus on my computer. Many of my programs like spybot and my trend micor-pc cillin will not load bc an error message pops up. Also I cannot access unistall/change applications. Among those, I have tried rebooting my computer from a previous date but the error messages still remain. I cannot change my internet options in order to download Active X to use online scans. If you could please help me figure out what is wrong with my computer. Thanks.  I use Windows Vista.

Answer
Here's what will almost certainly work.

1) Download F-Secure's Complete Internet security suite, which offers a free thirty day trial: https://store.f-secure.com/cgi-bin/dlreg/ml=EN?ID=FSISTB&desid=TRIAL

2) Disconnect from the Internet.

3) Uninstall your current antivirus. This is absolutely essential because otherwise it and F-Secure will fight each other and might crash your computer. It isn't good enough to just turn off your old antivirus because it probably has been crippled by your virus infection.

4) Install F-Secure. Download any updates available.

5) Run a complete scan of your computer. Follow any instructions F-Secure might give you.

6) Reboot.

If this works, you can either keep F-Secure or uninstall it and reinstall your old antivirus from either a download of the latest version from their website (if that's how they sell it) or from the disk it was on when you bought it. Be sure to get all the latest updates right away. Usually antivirus companies are pretty good about updating their programs whenever some new virus figures out how to evade or cripple their product.