Hi everyone. I'm a novice and I've recently got a virus on my lappy! I've had a friend of a friend come round several time to try to get rid of the virus, but after he's left, (usually 4/5 hours later), he never seems to achieve anything.
Is there anything i should look out for when he is dealing with my laptop?
Anna

Depending on the infection, no. If he is very thorough, a good virus cleaning can take quite a bit of time.

Assuming you are using Windows XP, the person doing the cleaning may have to boot into Safe Mode a few times, take ownership of certain files, clean some registry hives, and remove some nefarious files. Likewise, he may have to update and/or install a good antivirus application---which it sounds you lack---do a full scan using it in Safe Mode and normal mode, and then possibly do some follow-up actions to repair some collateral damage.

During all of this and counting the times for reboots, it can easily take four or five hours. Another factor that will determine the time is the speed of your system. Slower = longer time; faster = shorter time.

Now, with all of that said, that is not to say that you should not keep a keen eye on him while he is “fixing” your system. Some people do like to use the time to peruse files and pictures. If you are feeling unsure, then pay attention.

Thank you for your reply! I now do believe my suspicions were right! I had done a full computer scan the evening b4, and even though I mentioned it to him, he still proceeded to do another scan with the excuse that I had since used it. I also caught him looking at my files and my pictures (which he minimised as i approached him), but did not want to question him. This has left me feeling that my privacy had been violated, and was obviously wasting my time. Since then he has been pressuring me to buy a new lappy top with the offer that he would install more protection on it etc. (surely a new lappy should come with a fairly good protection system). Anyway, I will certainly not invite him to lay his eyes or hands on my new laptop. He has now said he could do a full system restore (will this completely clear my viruses which were a Trojan Horse and a Worm)??? If these virus are on a file, surely they will come back again on my laptop when i open the files.
Thanking you in anticipation. Excuse my ignorance on this subject.
Anna

Welcome to LQ As this is a Windows problem, I have moved your thread to the General forum.

what is lappy ?

nonetheless, you should find someone (a friend maybe) to teach you to take care of your own computer. i don't know if he was browsing your photos intentionally. i think the default option in file browser is thumbnails, which shows your photos as little pictures in the file browser.

A laptop I would assume. The guy's a creap - you don't hide what you're doing if it's innocent.

Buy yourself a reputable security package (macafee, norton, whatever) and see what it reports. You will more than likely need to reinstall windows and all your applications to really clean your system.

Make sure you use a good firewall product in the future to avoid these problems as much as possible. Trying to get someone to fix the problems will probably cost you more in terms of both time and money than a clean install. Make sure you copy all your data off first - depending on how much stuff you have you may need an external drive for that, but you should have one for ongoing backups anyway.

Are you by any chance a good looking girl and he's a nerdy guy?

From your last post I'd say you better get some serious intruder detection software and check out what malware the guy might have installed himself on your laptop.

Yes - I am paranoid when it comes to my privacy.

dont bother with norton rubbish, it slows your system down way to much

AVGfree is IMHO the best windows AV avalable at avgfree.com (its also avalable for linux as a RPM or DEB (closed souce freeware) )

Lessee, is he breathing?

There's your answer.

Now, instead of wasting time on useless "virus scans," stop running your Windows machine as an Administrator!

In short, no. An unfortunate side-effect of System Restore is that a lot of malware also gets “backed up.” Therefore it is very likely that a system restore would actual restore the problem---even after all was cleaned and cleared. Almost all Microsoft knowledge base articles and anti-virus sites that deal with removing malware suggest disabling system restore so that hidden, backup files that may have previous infections are deleted.

Almost any form of malware can be removed; however, some are much harder than others and not all technicians have the appropriate abilities to do so. In some cases, it is almost best to do a clean load. However, prior to backing up your files, you must, must, must ensure that they are clean and not a possible source of reinfection. Once you are sure of your personal files’ integrity, then back them up and proceed to do a clean install.

As with anything, there is a right and wrong way to do a clean install (believe it or not).

Most importantly, take care with your privacy and watch out for those who would take advantage of you.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Just wanted to thank all of you who replied to my post! I will take everything you said (and that I understand) on board!
Almost every person who repairs computers seem to have a different opinion as to what is the best Anti virus software, so unless you repair computers all the time, its difficult to judge what is the best way of leaning the computer and what anti virus software to install.
Although it appears that i have a trojan horse and a worm on my laptop, I am not having difficulties with using it! How difficult would it be for me to try to clean up, clear any virus and restall he Operating System?

If you re-install you don't need to clean up first. It's the best way to go too. Make sure you install an anti-virus solution once you are done with the re-install though

Thats because there is no anti-virus/malware solution that reliably detects ALL things under the sun and the situation is getting worse.

To get rid of some malware there is a rather long explanation.

I just post that link to give you an idea how involved those things get.

Your best bet is to reinstall and then use SuRun to set up a proper permissions system (like that in Ubuntu and Mac OS X), so that you're able to run almost always as a limited user in Windows and then can temporarily escalate to administrative privileges (after a password authentication) for Windows updates and software installation.

That's a much better setup than any "antivirus" program.

The best thing to do is of course to shift completely to Linux. You can start with any flavour: Kubuntu or Fedora or ...