Tech Advice Needed - Malware Problem

[DarkHyren]

Can I run this in conjuction with my other anti-virus s/w?

You can, but I wouldn't recommend it.
You should only run one anti-virus on your system as they dont play nice with each other.

Also, (noob question here) should I run it in 'safe mode'?

If your system has been breached then running scans, system restores and such from safe mode is often your best bet as safe mode limits file and registry access (less chance of the virus spreading).

I guess I just want to make sure they are removed altogether avoiding having to do a complete re-install.

I would say get SpyBotSD and run it a few times to check the registry for nastys.
That program coupled with your anti-virus and windows user account control (which is on by default) should protect you.

[Saintly]

Nope, it's not popping up anymore. From what I have read elsewhere, a system restore doesn't necessarily remove the infected files but rather they are just 'dormant' and can still cause issues at a later stage.

I guess I just want to make sure they are removed altogether avoiding having to do a complete re-install.

After running malwarebytes, run a FULL AV scan (I'm certain at this point there isn't any other bug)

I would say get SpyBotSD and run it a few times to check the registry for nastys.

However if you wanted to be sure there's nothing else, you can run spybotSD. I wouldn't rely on it too heavily as the scan engine is quite similar. Also you may find that spybotSD is now rather resource intensive (not like the version they had a couple of years ago)

After which if you think your restore points are infected and don't need it anymore, you can delete it by running a disk cleanup (start, accessories, system tools), 2nd tab provides you an option to delete all restore points except the last

[DarkHyren]

After which if you think your restore points are infected and don't need it anymore, you can delete it by running a disk cleanup (start, accessories, system tools), 2nd tab provides you an option to delete all restore points except the last

Personally I find that if you don't need any of the restore points and you think they might be infected your best bet is to turn them off as it wipes them completely.
If you do actually have something hiding in the restore points, deleting all but the last one might not do anything as it could just be hiding in the last one.
Then you can run your scans in safe mode and afterwards if all is clean you can always turn system restore back on.

[5FDP]

After running malwarebytes, run a FULL AV scan (I'm certain at this point there isn't any other bug)

I'll give malwarebytes a go because even when I ran a thorough AV scan before the system restore it didn't pick up on any infections so I'm not 100% confident in the AV s/w that I am currently using. I might make a switch to MSE as per MV75's suggestion.

I thought about deleting restore points but I am fairly certain of when the attack happened. Also, I am hesitant to do this because if things go absolutely pair-shaped, I have no way of reverting back and reinstalling the OS would be my only option.

Once I have done all of the above and I have some confidence that any malware / viruses have been removed, I'll create a new restore point.

[Saintly]

Personally I find that if you don't need any of the restore points and you think they might be infected your best bet is to turn them off as it wipes them completely.

I also find restore points useless

If you do actually have something hiding in the restore points, deleting all but the last one might not do anything as it could just be hiding in the last one.

The idea is to have at least one restore point regardless of infection to fall back on. Also it isn't a bad thing to actually create a restore point now, now that scans have pick up and removed most of it.

[Cmdr Prime]

Here's a thougt I bought a Norton's anti-Virus pack for my computer and it also contains a utilites disk as well so I have downloaded them both that keeps the anti-virus and malware away from my computer

[5FDP]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. Everything appears to be working great - my PC even seems a bit faster.

Just in case anyone else gets stuck with this problem, below are the steps I took -

1. Performed a system restore
2. Downloaded Malwarebytes (thanks to Saintly and MV75) which picked up 12 infections
3. Downloaded updated version of Avast 5.0 and ran a full system scan
4. Created a new system restore point and deleted all previous restore points

It feels like a new PC