Expert: Carolyn Meinel - 3/21/2004

Question
Dear Carolyn,

My PC is a Pentium II and runs on Windows 98. Can you help me solve the following problem. AVG (Grisoft's free version) detected a Trojan horse and put it in a vault. This had 2 consequences. First, I cannot update virus definitions anymore. AVG announces after waiting in vain that a file is missing. Second, each time Windows is loading I get the message that c:\windows\IMAGE.DLL cannot be found. I have to click on OK to get my PC going.How can I reinstall this file without formatting my PC? And also Stop-Sign has detected 4 more Trojan horses. I have deleted and reinstalled AVG but this hasn't improved my situation. How can I get this situation back to normal? Can you help me? Thanks beforehand for your aid. I am looking forward to your mail.
Bye. René

Answer
You probably can't update your free antivirus program because normally they don't continue updates when you haven't paid for them. If you buy an antivirus program you will also get free technical support to get it properly installed and updated. Given the many Trojans on your computer, this could be quite difficult, so you will definitely need tech support.

If tech support can't help you, then, as you say, you are going to have to start with a reformat. Here are some tips that will help you with this task.

1) Buy an antivirus program that comes on a CD. If you download one and save it to disk, one of those Trojans might corrupt the program.

2) Get a firewall program (if you have XP, the firewall program that comes with it isn't that great).

3) After you reinstall your operating system, before getting online be sure to install the firewall and place it on high security. Then install the antivirus and get online to download its updates. Then go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com to update your operating system. Then you can safely reinstall your backed up data, as any Trojans hiding in it will be unable to attack, and your antivirus should be able to wipe them out.