Will Sweeping Clean PC remove Malware?

David Ralph

Honorable
Oct 13, 2013
10
0
10,560
About a week ago I accidently clicked on an add and without thinking instinctively just clicked the download button as this pops up with several of my game updates but then windows defend popped up with an alert saying that "Windows 10 is trying to protect your computer" or something along the lines of that. Naturally worried I started up my antivirus soft ware "Webroot" and scanned for malware. Here's where it gets weird. At roughly the 30% mark a small console box would pop up for a split second (The black background with white text, obviously this doesn't normally happen) and then Webroot told me it did find a virus but it wouldn't allow me to remove it, only to scan again, and again, and again, repeatedly finding the same virus. But now when I scan it can't find anything but oddly it does say it removed 45 threats after every scan from now on... Now there's really no real 'proof' as to whether my computer has a virus or not, but I am almost certain that it still has some sort of virus as it's never run as smooth as it used to since. I'm still worried and was wondering whether completely re-installing windows would remove the problem. You know how some people like re-install their operating system once a year, I was wondering if that would work. Please help. Thank you!
 

David Ralph

Honorable
Oct 13, 2013
10
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10,560


I did. I downloaded it, it never found anything but I'm sure it's still here.
 

David Ralph

Honorable
Oct 13, 2013
10
0
10,560


Uhm, I don't know if I want to download from that website, it just looks like a virus page...

 

rowdymoody

Honorable
Jan 16, 2013
20
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10,570
Bleepingcomputer is legit. I have had people on their forums help me in the removal of viruses many times when I was in over my head in the past.

You can trust that site.
 

CWEric

Estimable
Jun 13, 2015
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4,710
https://www.mywot.com

The plugin that most of the time correctly tell you if the website is safe or not base on people feedback. Also HitmanPro link above is also a good scanner but is only free on its first use to remove malware.

For Bleeping Computer just avoid the fake download ads. That is why I use adblock.
 

CWEric

Estimable
Jun 13, 2015
170
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4,710
Nothing is perfect. But its nice to read feedback to get an idea. Read their overall best comments along with their newest comments and be aware if a comment appears to be fake from the website owner. I do find it hilarious that conduit.com, the owners responsible for one of the most annoying pup toolbar out there has a green trusted rated with all the users negative comments.
https://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/conduit.com?utm_source=addon&utm_content=popup

Just like anti-virus this can also miss or have false positive, but its better to have it for another tool to use to quickly research if a website is safe before entering it and a good add on to give ability to warn bad websites to other online users.