This is my 1st time posting here and I’m pretty much a novice when it comes to detecting and removing viruses/malware (as well as many things having to do with computers) - because of this, my question might be pretty stupid… be gentle with me. ;D
I am getting the Windows security alert icon in the bottom right of my screen that tells me the windows firewall is turned off. It looks legit, but I’ve been fooled before and had to go through a major process to remove the virus I got from it. Because of my previous experience, I was leery in clicking it and went the round-about way of start-control panel-windows firewall to see if it was indeed turned off.
Sure enough, it is turned ON and appears to be functioning normally.
Then I ran a thorough scan w/ Avast and it turned out I was infected w/ 2 viruses:
File Name: plugin-data
FileID: 35
Virus Description: JS:Pdfka-OF [Expl]
Original file name: C:\Documents and Settings\Max Cassie\Local Settings\Temp\plugtmp\plugin-data New folder: C:\DOCUME~1\NAOMIC~1\LOCALS~1\Temp_avast4_\unp140767861.tmp\35
File Name: plugin-data-1
FileID: 36
Virus Description: JS:Pdfka-OF [Expl]
Original file name: C:\Documents and Settings\Max Cassie\Local Settings\Temp\plugtmp\plugin-data-1 New folder: C:\DOCUME~1\NAOMIC~1\LOCALS~1\Temp_avast4_\unp88309759.tmp\36
Even though I moved them to the chest, the icon is still showing. I think the viruses must not have had anything to do with the icon. I can’t seem to scan it or get rid of it. Help!
Is it as simple as restarting my computer? I have not done so yet because I’m afraid there’s a chance it could do more damage (don’t ask me why - like I said, I’m a novice and don’t know what makes sense vs. what’s idiotic when it comes to viruses and the way they work).
Thanks in advance for any help.
Oh, and you might need to know that I run Windows XP.
