Help?

[clocketpatch]

I think I've just found some sneaky bugger viruses on my machine. They're lurking in this file: C:\SWSETUP\HPGame\games which is full of stuff I DEFINTELY didn't download. Because I deleted my HP games ages back. And these long strings of numbers don't look very game like to me any way.

Thing is, my AVG didn't detect this. I was getting a bit suspicious when I got "No Threats Found" on multiple scans, because usually it at least picks up on internet cookies, right? Then I looked at it during a scan only to discover that it wasn't checking any files. Because it was stuck on THAT file.

So, now I'm stuck. how do I delete these things? They're slowing down my computer and making me nervous. I don't keep any kind of banking info on my computer, but I don't want to be a zombie spam bot either. And I *would* like to be able to check my credit card bill at some point without fear of these things yoinking my info.

I understand that the SWSETUP folder contains base software for the computer, so I really don't want to go removing things from there willy-nill and accidentally uninstall my operating system as a result.

Suggestions?

Comments

[garpu.livejournal.com]

This is the second time you've had issues? I think you'd be better off if you wiped the hard drive and reinstalled from a clean install.

[john_amend_all]

If it were me, I'd boot from a Linux LiveCD or USB stick to delete the files. Then, if I had the time and could get a working Internet connection, download the Linux version of AVG and have it scan the drive.

[stellastars]

If your OS is Windows, try mbam. (It's free.) It was the only program that saved a couple computers at my place-of-work.

Also, have you googled the any of the filenames in the folder? Sometimes you can find directions to get rid of specific virus-y-files.

Good luck! I know how frustrating that can be. *hugs*