My desktop is in trouble....

[ellid]

Somehow I picked up a bunch of malware and Spybot basically wimped out on deleting it. Now the desktop is so clogged it's almost unuseable, so I'm posting from Ruby Red.

Will prayers help? A live chicken sacrificed on the keyboard? Getting a new computer? Screaming hysterically? Bueller? Bueller?

ADDENDUM:

I restored my system to the weekend, and then took wishwords' advice. Right now Malwarebytes is flushing out the spyware, of which there is a lot more than I'd realized. I"ll have to leave the box on after I go to bed, but God willing I'll have a clean computer tomorrow morning.

And yes, I bought the thing - I plan to have a CD of the program around in case the laptop is ever infected (*avert!*). I had to restore my system in safe mode while getting instructions over Ruby, and I really don't want to go through that again...

Comments

[wishwords.livejournal.com]

Malwarebytes will help. http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php It gets stuff that my AVG misses.

[animangel.livejournal.com]

If other removal-ware doesn't work, you may have to bite the bullet, backup your stuff and reformat the hard drive. I once had malware bad enough to do so, and honestly it's not as painful as it sounds.

As long as you Make Sure everything you want to save is backed up. I learned this lesson the hard way. >_<.

[xochiquetzl]

What she said. Before you buy a new computer, if you have one of those restore CDs they can save the day.