Laptop virus and cant delete HELP PLEASE

[ineedhelpplease1122]

Hi have a new laptop and downloaded something I now know I should't have and have a virus. I have a program in task manager called windows explorer or something and rc'd to trace it to some files on my C drive (I have windows 10 btw). I tried to delete it and it says I need permission from the admin and access denied when I am the admin. I tried to change owner of the file in properties and security but it says I need reading permissions. It didn't say who the owner is. I can't close the program anymore. I keep finding new things in my user credentials. I delete them and they come back. I also CAN'T DOWNLOAD OR RUN ANY ANTI VIRUS. I really need my pc back PLEASE HELP.
THANK YOU

 

[darkbreeze]

Windows explorer is PART of Windows, not a virus.

Must be something OTHER than that. You can't delete Windows explorer or the whole thing won't work.

Bottom line is, at this point, you likely need to do a complete clean install of the operating system as it's unlikely you will ever get rid of the infection if it has gotten into everything like it sounds like it has. Likely, there is no way around this so you will likely need to bite the bullet on losing any installed applications or files that cannot, or were not, already backed up somewhere before this "happened".

In the future, get Malwarebytes, Spybot search and destroy or another good Malware scanner/real time monitor installed before you do anything else that's likely to barf your system again.

Windows defender is fairly good for virus protection, but there are almost zero viruses that threaten mainstream systems in the wild anymore, so Malware protection, which is COMPLETELY different from virus protection, is a necessity.

Do the clean install, to be sure to get rid of the entire infection, and be more cautious in the future.


Windows 10 Clean install tutorial

 

[smorizio]

from a known clean pc go to one or more of the big anti virus sellers. they have resque iso/disk you can make that you can boot from and have it scan infected pc and see if it can remove the infection. also a lot of the same comp now have web based rescue scans. if not most new laptop have a restore image on them. most time hitting a key at power up will have the restore program wipe and reinstall the factory image.