How to identify and remove a virus or malware

You may have arrived on this page for a couple of reasons a) because you think you have a virus and want to be sure b) you know you have a virus and want to remove it. Either way it is best to be sure that you are in fact dealing with a virus or malware.
SYMPTOMS OF A VIRUS

• Slow startup
• System crashes and reboots
• Printing failures
• Freezing
• Unexplained high processor and memory usage
• Errors
• Internet explorer homepage has changed or is taking you to the same website when you click different links
• Last but not least – your anti-virus or anti-malware program tells you, you have a virus !!

So lets assume your PC is doing one or more of the above, what are the next steps ?.
Anti-virus : If you haven’t already got this installed, get it as soon as possible. Once installed, get the latest updates and then run a full system scan. The software should identify the virus and remove it for you or provide you with information for manual removal. See software recommendations at the end of this post.
Anti-Malware : Anti-virus doesn’t always pick up Malware so it would be worth while downloading a separate program, installing, getting the updates and running a full scan. Once again, the program should remove it for you. See recommendations at the end of this post.
THE THREE OUTCOMES
Software removed the virus : Excellent. The software did it’s job and is money well spent. If you are using a free program – even better !!
Software found the virus but couldn’t remove it : The software should provide you with information on the virus and give you the steps you need to follow to remove it manually. Once you have completed these steps re-scan your pc.
Software has removed the virus, you’ve rebooted your pc and it comes back !! : Don’t worry this is actually quite common. Many computer viruses are designed to self replicate and spread themselves through-out your system. For example a virus may contain 100 files that it distributes among the directories and settings of your pc. Your anti-virus may find the main 80 files and does a perfect job of removing them, however, when the PC reboots the virus is able to rebuild itself using the 20 remaining files. The solution is to research the virus and find some manual steps or a tool to remove all of the files. Once you have done this make sure you re-scan the PC to verify it’s removal.
Hope you found this useful. Please leave a comment :-)
RECOMMENDATIONS
Anti-virus
AVG Free Edition
Avira Personal Free
Norton Anti-Virus
Anti-Malware
Malwarebytes Free edition

Find the name of members within a group using command line

Access your domain contoller and type the following format to find the members of a group :

dsget group "cn=IT guys, ou=IT admins, dc= Your Domain name , dc=com" -members

How to add a shortcut to the start menu for a commonly used application

Go to Start Menu>All Programs>Right click the application you want to add and select 'Pin to start menu' from the list.

An icon for the application will now appear in the top portion of your start menu !

Display hidden files and folders on your PC

Windows XP

Go to My Computer>Tools>Folder Options>View tab and put a marker next to 'Show hidden files and folders.

Windows Vista

Go to Computer>Tools>Folder Options>View tab and put a marker next to 'Show hidden files and folders.

What to do when a USB drive won't show up in My Computer

Sometimes when you plug a USB storage device such as a pen drive or hard disk into your PC you may notice that it doesn't show up in 'My Computer' as you would expect. This is normally caused by one of two things. The first is that the PC is trying to assign an existing drive letter to the new device and as a result the new drive cannot be displayed or there are no more available drive letters.

To check what the problem may be you will need to look at 'Disk Management' section of the 'Computer management' snap in. You can do this in the following way :

Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>highlight 'Disk Management'.

Your new device should show up here with a drive letter that is already in use. To resolve the issue

'Right click the device and select 'Change drive letter and paths' from the menu.
Select 'Change' and then choose a drive letter that is not currently in use.

Now when you go to 'My Computer' it will be there for you to access !.

If you have no available drive letters you will need to 'Right click' an existing drive in 'My Computer' and select 'Disconnect'. This will free up the drive letter.

How to see the names of all computers on your network with a single command

Open up a command window i.e. Winkey + R and type 'cmd' into the field and press Enter.
Type : Net View and press Enter

Open control panel items from the 'Run' window

Below are useful shortcuts to items in control panel. Just press 'Winkey + r' to pop open the run dialogue.

Type the commands in bold and the items will open.

control - Control Panel
control folders - Folder Options
control userpasswords - User Accounts
control userpasswords2 - Advanced User Accounts
control desktop - Display Properties
control printers - Printers and Faxes
control mouse - Mouse Properties
control keyboard - Keyboard Properties
control netconnections - Network Connections
control color - Display Properties \ Screensaver
control date/time - Date and Time Properties
control schedtasks - Scheduled Tasks
control admintools - Administrative Tools
control telephony - Phone and Modem Options
control fonts - Fonts Folder
control international - Regional and Language

How to restart/shutdown a PC remotely using command line

This question came about when I was on my test server trying to install some software remotely, on a client laptop. I wanted to apply some changes and needed to reboot so rather than rolling the two feet to my laptop I thought "hmmm, how can I do this from here". And here's the answer ...........

Open up a run window (Winkey + R)
Type 'cmd' to open a command prompt

Type :

shutdown m \\computername -s -t : 60 (This will shutdown the PC in question after 60 seconds).

shutdown m \\computername -r -t: 60 (This will restart the PC in question after 60 seconds).

shutdown m \\computername -r -t: 0 (This will shutdown the PC immediately).

shutdown m \\computername -a (This will abort the shutdown once it is counting down)

This code can also be added to a batch file to shutdown multiple PCs all at once !