Expert: Keith Davis - 10/30/2010

Question
QUESTION: Hi,
  I have a dell inspiron 1545 with windows 7 home, my anitvirus is macafee.
and it suddenly just pooped up that i had a trojan and every time i go on the internet it says that files are infected?

It turns off my windows defender and anti virus and i cant turn them back on afterwards?

Please help me solve this issue.

ANSWER: First of all you should scan your computer with something other than McAfee. McAfee, Norton's, and even my favorite, AVG are mainly for viruses and do not detect and/or remove all malware, trojans, etc. You should try Malwarebytes. Download it for free from www.malwarebytes.org. Install, run a scan, and remove the infections it finds.
It is a possibility you may have to run the scan in safe mode. On most computers you get to safe mode by pressing F8 at startup.

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QUESTION: i was wondering to reformat my computer and what steps do i need to take to reformat windows 7?

Answer
First of all you will need the operating system disk if you want to reformat the hard drive and re-install the OS. Just follow the directions that the disk gives you to do a clean install. Keep in mind unless you backup your data on something else you will lose it.