All the complex solutions that download this and that come later.
1) Cntrl+Alt+Del... Start the Task Manager.
--If something actively stops you from doing this or the steps below, you have a virus, malware, etc. Safe mode is highly recommended at this point, see the paragraph after step #8.
2) Click the 'Processes' tab. Nearly everything that is running on your PC will be listed here.
3) Click the 'CPU' column.
--If something is blowing packets out of your computer, it's probably also a CPU hog as well. You can reorder that list by CPU usage and find out what is hogging all the system resources.
4) While you're there, always look at items
without a description in the "Description" tab. Anything that looks like "ZZxx72.exe" or similarly nonsensical names should be immediately suspect.
--Almost any suspect process can be typed into google for instant identification, like
"taskmgr.exe". If it's BS, you're probably not the first person to encounter it. If it's legit, you'll find that out too.
Never End anything until you confirm what it is first.
5) If you find something that can be identified as suspect per above, the 'End Process' button can kill it.
--Usually. It may have been programmed to restart and will probably restart next boot. This is a temporary solution to at least regain a foothold on your PC.
6) Click the START button in the bottom left hand corner. Type in 'msconfig' and press enter. The System Configuration menu will appear.
7) Click the 'Startup' tab.
--This is another common area where BS is likely to occure. Most malicious programs insert themselves here to rerun each time you restart the computer. Uncheck anything that looks bad after confirming it through google in the same manner as step #4.
Never prevent something from starting up until you confirm what it is.
Restart. Hopefully you've disabled enough pieces of whatever it is for antivirus to make a solid kill. That said, if it's lodged in the Registry and keeps coming back or prevents you from doing anything, you're going to have to keep going.
These are only temporary solutions to at least get you back to even. You might ultimately have to drop into
Safe mode (or safemode w/networking) to prevent whatever it is from starting up, then attempt to kill it with the antivirus of your choice before booting it back up.
9) Optional: System Restore. If you haven't disabled it, Windows normally sets up restore points at major milestones within its operation. You can theoretically back track to a date where your computer was operating normally. Open the Start menu, type in 'System Restore' and press enter. Press next through the introduction window to get a date list of restore points, checking 'show more restore points' as needed.
--One issue you'll encounter here is that you need to know
when your computer was operating normally last. If you don't remember, you might be better off using the above steps. Secondly, Restore backs out any changes you made after the restore point. While this
normally include malicious programing, it includes any other program you've installed since then as well. You could be looking at a lot of pieces to put back into place. Media is generally unaffected, such as documents, pictures, etc.
Best of luck.
...Proud owner of the 11.43×23mm automatic using depleted Thorium rounds.
Grizz
