Winstall.exe - helpp!!

[alisaselez]

Hi everebody
My computer was infected with a trojan virus today, from a link from someone on msn messenger. I ran AVG Free and the virus went to the vault, which i have deleted and all seems to be running fine now. however, i've had to vault it three times. when I restart, the virus seems to reappear. but my computer is running fine.

but...

there is an icon on my desktop titled winstall.exe which when scanned doesn't contain a virus, but I have just had a quick scan thru some stuff on the internet and get the idea that its a nasty little program that lets other nasty stuff infect my computer I can't delete it, and in fact, am not sure if this is accurate and am a little worried its an important windows file i shouldnt be deleting at all.

I've now installed Avira Antivir as well, as a double up safety precaution, but no spyware detection programs as yet (I'm not even sure if I'm wording that correctly..)

help??
Lots of thanks

[CheeZee]

the best advice i could offer is ... " Google it " !! . Whenever i have a virus or recently created Trojan problems, i punch in the name of the file that is shown and you'll get a heap of sites that can offer information on that particular problem ... complete usually with manual or auto' delete options for that virus and related files .

If you have Norton or any kind of anti-virus wear .. then it should be listed on their database .. if it is very new and they are not aware of such a virus then usually there will be a link provided for further information .

[isaluteyou]

yep google it like cheezee said.

[^*^BATMAN^*^]

Well to start with. I will assume you have Windows....So get your FREE download of windows defender(anti spyware program that helps with things like trojans). Then buy a real anti virus program(or aquire it...). Norton or McAfee are the two big ones, Norton I like better, though it takes alot of system resources. So if you are on a shittier computer, I would say go McAfee. The main difference in the two is how the programs are written. They are pretty equal.

About the virus you already have. If you cant delete it on your computer, hook the HD up to another computer and slave the drive so you can have unrestricted acess to deleting. Delete the corrupted files. Though before you do this, like was said, GOOGLE IT, and find out what it is exactly and what needs to be done, every virus is different.

[GowerCharger]

or better still get AVGs free edition anti virus, norton is a pain, and mcaffee doesnt even catch half the viruses you get but makes a fuss about innocent files.

[rich r]

Also -

Spybot Search and Destroy and AdAware are two must-have problems. They are absolutely free, as well. Do google searches for them and you'll find the download pages.

Spybot catches things no one else finds.

[Stone Fox]

Spybot IS the daddy, I'd have to agree. Microsofts own anti spyware program is also really good - it has a memory resident component for real time protection which is a lot more effective than the 'inoculation' approach most others take (Including Spybot)

So saying I still run a scan with S&D every now and again, because it picks up stuff nothing else does.

One common problem with some virii is that they can remove or damage the 'definition' files of anti-virus software so that when they scan they don't see anything.