System Admin Tools & Tips & Tricks

All the well known Anti Virus companies have free stand alone Virus removal tools that a person may download and use to remove a virus from their PC.

These stand alone tools will scan for a specific virus so they should not be used in place of an installed Anti Virus product as they offer no real time protection. These tools are best used in paralell to your installed Anti Virus software to offer piece of mind that your system is clean.

They should be used in cases where your Anti Virus software has detected a virus but you are unsure if the virus has been disinfected and removed completly from your system.

The tools can be used with your current Anti Virus in active mode but personally I prefer to use these tools after booting up the PC into safe mode. Safe mode is used to diagnose various PC problems such as locking up, driver problems, BSOD errors etc.. The system will basically boot up with all but the minimum required background tasks to keep the PC running. In most cases an infected PC run in safe mode will disable the function of a Virus, Trojan or Worm thus enabling a removal tool to remove it completely.

How do I boot up in safe mode?

There are two ways that you can do this.

1. Reboot your PC and as it is booting up tap the F5, F8 or F12 key.(Varies on different PC's) This will bring up a menu screen with various options. Use the arrow keys to select the required option.

Once the PC boots up you will be presented with a warning. Select yes to proceed into safe mode.

Once you click yes you will see a log on screen showing an Administrator account and your other account/s. You will need to log on to your normal user account.

Once windows is loaded you will see your desktop and shortcuts but these will look strange as the screen resolution will be greater than what you have set in normal mode. You will notice that there is no software running or icons in the taskbar by the clock. This confirms that you are in safe mode along with the text along the top of your monitor saying safe mode. You may now run your standalone removal tool.

2. Method 2 to gain access to safe mode differs slighlty where you will not need to reboot the PC and tap the F5, F8 or F12 key. This is a simpler way to get into safe mode but requires care so that you do not change or alter any other settings within the System Configuration Utility.

To access the above go to Start>Run and type msconfig and click OK. Click the tab labled BOOT.INI.

Place a tick in the box next to safeboot, click apply then OK. You will be presented with a pop up asking you to restart your PC. This will now bypass the need to tap the F5, F8 or F12 key and take you straight into safe mode. Once you complete your scan you will need to go back to the System Configuration Utility and remove the tick from safeboot so that your PC will boot up in normal mode again. Go back to Start>Run type msconfig and OK and reboot the PC.

Once you are back in normal mode you will get a pop up informing you that you have been using the System Configuration Utility. This is nothing to worry about. Just place a tick in the box and click OK.