Don't You Trust Antivirus? Follow These Steps to Remove Malware From Your PC Manually

As far as our safety is concerned, every precaution is insufficient. When we buy a computer or any other device, one of the steps recommended by experts is to install an antivirus to be protected against any threat from the outset.

There is a wide range of antivirus products on the market to choose from. And just as important as downloading an antivirus is keeping it up to date and downloading the security updates released by the operating systems themselves. This will make things more difficult for the thousand and one malware threats out there.

Keep in mind that antivirus programs are not infallible either, so any precaution you can take to avoid being hacked or infected with a virus is essential. There are many types of malware, and not all of them are easy to remove or even detect.

The most common entry points for malware today are file downloads, network attacks, identity, and financial data theft through phishing and spam websites, phishing emails, USB drives, memory cards, mobile hard drives, and software vulnerabilities.

After some bad experiences, many of you probably don't trust antivirus anymore. You are tired of downloading programs that do not protect you as much as you would like them to. But what can we do to protect our devices if we don't use an antivirus program? Can we remove malware without an antivirus? The answer is yes. We could do it manually.

Steps to Remove Malware Without an Antivirus

In order to eliminate the malware that has infected your computer, you have to find it. Find out where it has been hosted and what it is affecting. The first step, therefore, is to find it. In the vast majority of cases, viruses usually attack the computer's boot system by modifying a series of registry keys on the system. With these modifications, the malware is able to run whenever the computer is turned on.

Our first task is to check that these keys have not been modified. To do this, we must click on the Win + R keys at the same time. In that box we will introduce the following: 'msconfig'; and then we will click on 'enter'. Another dialog box will open showing the programs, processes, and services that are automatically executed every time the system is started.

Next, we will have to check the 'Services' tab, because from there we will be able to see if there are any suspicious entries. If so, you can see its name and gather information about the type of virus you are dealing with and find the right solution for it. In many cases, you can simply disable its automatic startup by unchecking a box.

However, it is also essential to check other registry entries, such as the following Bear in mind that in the case of the last two, the value of the Shell entry should be 'explorer.exe', otherwise we will be faced with a virus that is running automatically without leaving a trace.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\CurrentVersion\Run

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

If we have detected the current process that is being executed by the virus, we can also open the System Task Manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del), locate the running process, and click 'End Process'. However, it is not always so 'simple': it is not easy to detect or it is not a simple task to remove it because many viruses are created so that even if we detect them we are not able to disable or delete them completely from our computer.

If the above steps don't get rid of the virus, you'll have to roll up your sleeves a little more. One of the options left is to restart the computer and enter safe mode. This mode only offers the most basic services for the operation of the device. But you should be aware that some type of malware can still interfere with this. That's why we recommend using a USB or other external drive to run any NTFS-compatible Linux distribution -filesystem-.

Deletes Files That Have Been Infected

Another important step is to delete the files that have been infected. If you keep them on your computer and open them, you may run the risk of activating the malware again. Keep in mind that there are viruses that are hidden in files, or can even be passed off as system files.

Detecting them at a glance is very complicated, which is why it is advisable to open Windows Explorer, go to the top menu and click on the 'Tools' option. Here you will have to open the 'Folder Options' and then click on the 'View' option. Check the option 'Show hidden files and folders' and uncheck the option 'Hide protected system files'.

When you do this step you will be able to search by the name of the file that is giving you problems. Simply click the search button on the Start menu. This will allow you to search the entire system. When you find it, delete it, and don't forget to go through the recycle bin to destroy it permanently.

Safety Measures to Take Into Account

As mentioned above, prevention is the best cure. We can do our part to prevent a virus from infecting our devices. Among the security measures, we can put in place are updating the security patches on our operating system, i.e. keeping it up to date; making a backup so that, in the event of having to perform formatting, we don't lose our files; and uploading files to the cloud (Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Apple's iCloud, etc.), another way to avoid running out of our documents and videos if something happens to our computer.