What to Do if You Happened to Download a Trojan Horse Program

So what to do if you were unlucky enough to download trojan horse program? Once this happens, you may face a partial loss of control over your computer. It starts interacting with the outside world by sending and receiving some kind of data, it loads programs that you had never installed, and even uses your address book to send out spam emails with explicit content.

A common sense tells you that a system that has undergone a Trojan horse attack will become still more vulnerable thanks to the infection. As a rule of thumb, Trojan viruses completely ruin the PC security. That’s why learning how to get rid of a Trojan horse virus is a very useful skill.

Every computer user that feels comfortable with Windows can learn several steps and get hold of a few software titles to be able to fight most of Internet threats. Believe me, Trojan horse programs follow a common algorithm when creating an entrance into affected machine. They place executables into system memory, create registry entries, put malicious files into Windows directories. If you know what Trojans are programmed to do, it’s much easier to locate their parts and erase them.

Smart Trojan viruses can discourage ordinary PC users by making an impression of a totally messed up system. Disabled task manager, ruined antivirus protection, blocked access to registry editor often look like there’s nothing a user can do to re-gain control over the system. Luckily that’s not true.

Knowing a couple of simple tricks is always handy. Sometimes you may experience the situation when your installed antivirus software says it has detected a Trojan horse virus but cannot disinfect or remove it. Other times your mates or relatives will ask for help in dealing with particularly stubborn malware. I think you will agree that possessing some skills and experience in PC security is a way of raising one’s self-esteem.

So create a Recovery Folder on your USB flash drive with a bunch of security programs that will help to resolve most of virus-related problems.

First, visit a-squared website and download a command-line version of its anti-malware. The zipped archive takes about 30 megabytes. If you happen to use a-squared scanner on a machine with Internet access, you can always update the anti-malware signatures by using the appropriate switch. Though command-line interface may look confusing for a novice, there’s actually nothing complicated in using its power. The scanner will work in both Normal and Safe modes. Configuring the program with an array of supported switches (refer to the built-in Help file) takes a couple of minutes at most. Worms, Trojan horse viruses, dialers, browser hijacks and other malicious objects can be detected and removed on-the-fly or at the end of scan. Command-line scanner doesn’t need installation.

Second, grab yourself a copy of SDFix. This tool has been developed for IT professionals, but it is so powerful that has become popular among regular Windows users as well. One of the underestimated features of SDFix is its ability to detect files with hidden attributes – these are files normally not seen by Windows. Thanks to detailed log file provided by SDFix it’s possible to create a list of files that need to be removed.

Finally, for those who prefer traditional GUI-based software, DrWeb provides a CureIt! utility. It installs like any normal Windows software and immediately launches a scan to check system memory, user’s folders, root of the system drive, start-up folders etc. These are the locations where malware usually leaves traces of its presence.

By combining the potential of the three security programs you can perform security tests and virus cleaning on most Windows-powered computers.

Kelly Wright publishes do-it-yourself guides to help regular computer users tackle common problems without calling for expert help. Advanced users can create am emergency set of Trojan Horse Virus Removal Software using the recommended freeware tools.

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