Expert: Carolyn Meinel - 5/29/2009

Question
hi carolyn,
 i was scanning my pc with norton internet security 2009 and i knew something was up when the full scan only scanned a fraction of the files it used to.  the scan found nothing but 10 minutes later i had a popup that said it found a backdoor.trojan.  yet norton couldn't remove it and i also keep getting a popup that says the automatic protection function won't load.  i assume that the virus must be causing that part and not to mention the increased sluggish pace.  i went to the symantec website and followed their instructions on how to remove it but none of it worked, which included closing system restore, updating, rescanning.  i even looked at the registry but couldn't find anything.  please help. thanks.


Answer
Here's what will almost certainly work.

1) Download either Kapersky Internet Security, which offers a free 30 day trial at http://kapersky.com or 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 or Kapersky 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 your Internet Security product. Download any updates available.

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

6) Reboot.

If this works, you can either keep your new Internet Security product or uninstall it and reinstall your old antivirus