Want to help a computer-illiterate?

Viruses and worms
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Hi. Before I’m severely censured for what I’m about to post, let me assure you all that I perused through the entire thread of “what to do if a file is infected” and had a few questions of my own relevant to previous posts that I would like answered. Actually, just recently, being the computer illiterate that I am, I was browsing websites for a project, and as soon as I clicked one of the URLs provided by google, I was simultaneously infected with 7 viruses (which resulted in me suddenly hyperventilating and my heart palpitating erroneously–being the coward that I am). Following Avast’s suggestion, I have stored them all in the Virus Chest, but also being the paranoid little git that I am, I just want to get rid of them forever and not have to continuously be worried about a “what if” situation.

Now looking back I saw two posts that caught my attention regarding the Virus Chest: one that gave a 2 or 3 step procedure on what to do right after storing them (which of course, resulted in me absentmindedly staring at the screen for a good minute), and another about deleting them after 2 weeks. Out of curiosity, why did the viruses have to placed in the chest beforehand, just to be deleted later on? Why not immediately delete? And would deleting after 2 weeks or so really get rid of them forever? As in, is that really the best and safest way to get rid of the 7 (yes I hate myself too) viruses I somehow managed to get on my computer?

I apologize for such a lengthy, and probably boring, post, but I would GREATLY (you have no idea how great–seriously the help you guys could give would be equivalent to CPR) appreciate any help I could get in getting rid of the viruses.

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Out of curiosity, why did the viruses have to placed in the chest beforehand, just to be deleted later on? Why not immediately delete?

This is more of a “just in case” measure. We’ve all seen posts where avast thought something was a virus, when it actually turned out to be a needed system file that is required to boot, run, or otherwise allow your computer to run normally. If you deleted the “infected file” instead of putting it in the quarantine, that would create a LOT bigger problem than it being “fixed” (or deleted, rather). After all, deletion leaves no other possibilities, right?

I hope this answers your question, and I’m glad that avast has found potential viruses on your system, and hopefully kept you “infection free”. You may be computer illiterate, but your explanation was very clear. Thanks for that! Welcome to the forums!

Oh and by the way, your post wasn’t boring, us geeks have to have something to fix, it might as well be your problem! lol.

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Hi trinket,

And Welcome to the Forum.

LOL, I didn’t find it boring. ;D
Nor will the other Forum members (I think :wink: at least I hope that’s what I’m doing… Confused you know)

Ok, about your inquiries.

Edit: This was written before I saw what you wrote scythe944

Nothing to worry about. The chest is the best place to put something which you are not certain about.

Short answer is that once in the chest they can be safely analyzed further without damaging your system. Another reason is that in the case of a False Positive (FP) (which means that something which isn’t a virus is considered one by avast) the file can be recovered.

To give an example, about a year ago I made a program update (for avast) and from that moment it suddenly discovered two Viruses. I sent them to the chest, and made further inquiries here on the forum. I was surprised to see that the files came form a Google Bar (or whatever it’s called). After some more questions I sent the files to avast who made the needed changes in the program so as to not identify the said files as being infected/viruses. All within 48…kudos to Avast. This would not have happened if the files were deleted. Also I would have lost the ability to run Google Bar (at that point it was uninstalled but hypothetically speaking…)

Yes and Yes

Hope this helps.

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Edit: This was written before I saw what you wrote scythe944

It’s cool bro. The more the merrier!

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First of all, thank you for the warm welcome. Though I doubt I could be of any useful help in providing advice on this forum, I will be sure to flood all of my dear helpers with as many questions that can pop up as a result of me being devoid of computer-handling skills.

ANYWAY,

This is more of a "just in case" measure. We've all seen posts where avast thought something was a virus, when it actually turned out to be a needed system file that is required to boot, run, or otherwise allow your computer to run normally.
Hm, I see. Well that's very reassuring. Thank you very much for clarifying.
Short answer is that once in the chest they can be safely analyzed further without damaging your system. Another reason is that in the case of a False Positive (FP) (which means that something which isn't a virus is considered one by avast) the file can be recovered.

To give an example, about a year ago I made a program update (for avast) and from that moment it suddenly discovered two Viruses. I sent them to the chest, and made further inquiries here on the forum. I was surprised to see that the files came form a Google Bar (or whatever it’s called). After some more questions I sent the files to avast who made the needed changes in the program so as to not identify the said files as being infected/viruses.


First of all, thank you for the aforementioned example. However, that brings me to another concern (sorry). You see, the URL provided by google that I clicked on said something else (as in it had text relevant to my search inquiry), and led to something completely different. Now I don’t want to go into detail, since it was something HIGHLY DISDAINFUL, and DISGUSTING, and INAPPROPRIATE (I’m sure you get my point). And so from that page, I suddenly got the immensely terrifying warning bell (geeze, Avast needs a friendlier warning, not something that could give someone an out-of-body experience), and 7 pop-ups (the 7 viruses), and so I highly doubt that they were “friendly” programs or “false positives.” In addition, when I was looking at the chest, I saw an option that said “send files to avast (not avast but something avast related)” so I figure that’s what you’re talking about, but I’m not sure. So basically, what I’m doing right now is running the avast virus scanner and virus cleaner, so I can’t access the chest yet, but if you guys like (or don’t mind), I could go into detail about what those “viruses” were. As in post something similar to the “what to do if a file is infected” post and confirm if they are just false positives? Though I doubt it.

Oh geeze, I’m sorry once again for a lengthy post, but really, I think I’m beginning to breathe better now. Have any of you considered becoming EMTs? (it’s a joke–well, unless you really want to become an EMT, then go for it).

AND THANK YOU SO MUCH ONCE AGAIN! ;D

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Relax a bit. And don’t hate yourself.
Plenty of “kosher” websites have been hijacked (usually from out of date or vulnerable hosting software) and cause results similar to those you’ve seen.
(No-one thinks you’re dirty ;D)
You wouldn’t hate yourself if you caught a cold from kids passing it around at school, would you?
Same thing. (Except, perhaps, the originator is deliberately trying to spread it.)

The chest is a protected area where nothing can escape from, without specific user input.

Couple of ideas for some “second opinion” malware scanners, used and recommended by many on the forum (search if in doubt. Good habit to, anyway) MBAM (free download is the blue button) and/or SAS.
MBAM is the smaller download.
Install, update, and run at least a quick scan with one (or both) of those, if only for your own peace of mind. (If in doubt as to results, feel free to post the scan reports here before actioning them.)
Anytime malware is found on a computer it is a good idea to have a second, or even a third scan, or an investigate of some kind.

Then we can let you know about certain things you can do with your browser and computer that will make it less likely you’ll get infected again.

7

Dully noted

Well, avast is a good program which will not bombard you with alarms all the time. So it’s very important that when they do warn you, they make up for all those lost opportunities. :wink:

Wait to see what the scan tells you and then post back…

Edit: The above was written before I saw your post tarq57

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Plenty of "kosher" websites have been hijacked (usually from out of date or vulnerable hosting software) and cause results similar to those you've seen. .... Couple of ideas for some "second opinion" malware scanners, used and recommended by many on the forum (search if in doubt. Good habit to, anyway) MBAM (free download is the blue button) and/or SAS.
Thank you very much Tarq, I am progressively relaxing a bit, especially after all of the help you all are providing. And I found that "dirty" comment quite amusing since, being a [b]fe[/b]male, I wouldn't be looking those things up anyway, and the sudden appearance came as quite a shock to me. But now in retrospect, and from everyone's reassurance, I guess I can laugh a bit. Haha. And I guess I'll try MBAM out right now. Thank you for providing the link.
Wait to see what the scan tells you and then post back....
After scanning almost 2 million files, Avast Virus Cleaner found 0 infected files (I find that pretty odd). On a side note, good old Avast Scanner is only at 4%. Oh joy. I'm sorry but I don't think I'll be able to update anything about that until tomorrow (yes I too am feeling quite anxious--ha).

Well, I’m terrible at concluding posts or comments, so all I can say is THANKS AGAIN (so far)! :slight_smile:

Edit: I forgot to add, when the scanners scan files, would that also include scanning the virus chest? If not, then it’s no wonder why they couldn’t identify any infected files.

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Is the virus scanner you are using the one with an icon that looks like a purple “genie” bottle?
It’s built into the main application. Which means, if the main scanner found nothing, not much point in running that tool.
Pics below.

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Yeah it’s the genie bottle. Oh geeze, what a waste of running the avast scanner side-by-side then. =/

Well I’m still running the Malwarebytes scanner, so let’s see where that gets us.

Anyway, thank you again, you’re really being a great help.

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Knowing Avast is very good those scans should come back clean… Fingers crossed ;D

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Malwarebytes found 8 infections… I deleted them though.

Anyway, thank you everyone for your help, I greatly appreciate it.

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Any chance of seeing the scan report?
I hope you “removed” them (sent them to MBAM quarantine) rather than deleting them?

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:slight_smile: Hi Trinket :

When it comes to using Google, it would be very wise to follow the Principles
mentioned at www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm#google ,
emphasizing avoiding clicking on “Sponsored Links” .

15

:-[

I was off mark… sorry about that. Well at least you spotted the viruses and had them removed. You could try running SAS and see what that gives you.

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I hope you "removed" them (sent them to MBAM quarantine) rather than deleting them?

…by “removed” I literally meant I deleted them… Darn it, impulsiveness is terrible. But anyway, I suppose they were harmful since after deleting them nothing happened to my computer; as in it still functions properly. So I’m guessing the 8 infections I found really were malware, not false positives.

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And about the malware that I moved to avast’s chest: They were all something like HTTP:Agent-L [EXPL], and when I looked it up, some sources told me that it was a downloading trojan or something.

However, I’d still like to confirm whether one or two maybe be false positives. Though almost all of the malware site websites as the source in the chest, a few of them site my C drive. I would extremely appreciate anyone who would be willing to walk me through the whole confirmation process.

Also, if what I assume turns out to be correct, is it alright if I just delete them as soon as possible rather than wait at least 2 weeks?

Thank you.

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Hi Trinket,

I’ll try. This was Posted by another member and since I’m not one to copy something and claim it as my one I quoted it.

IF you have difficulty with this post back… I’ll brake down the steps further.