Computer dificulties- I can only blame myself

[Atlan]

Now, most of us have had our computers infected by a virus. Some of us have had to reformat our computers because of them. But let me tell you what i just did.
Now, i lost the CD key to a program of mine. So, i figured i'd find one online. Now, we all know that crack/cd key sites are the most dangerous on the net- no porn site can compare. So i was suspicious, and wary.
After half an hour of searching, i found no keys, but one keygen. A program that automaticly generates CD keys. So i downloaded it.
No, for a moment imagine that I am infact, the king of Troy. And I see a giant wooden horse outside my gate. And I say to the troops, "Bring it in".
The troops cry, "But sir! It must be a trap!"
And i say "Well, it might not be, we dont have any proof. So, let it in, dont check for troops hiding inside it, and put it somewhere where we dont have any guards."
And that is pretty much what I did, downloading a suspicous .exe file off the net. Expecting it to be a virus, I ran it anyway, thinking that my antivirus could handel it. Nothing at all happened. So i deleted it.
The next day, I had a message poping up every half hour, saying an autodialer was trying to dial from my computer. I kept on deleting the dialer, and it kept comming back. I even ran an antivirus scan, twice.
Two days after that, As long as i was conected to the net, I had a virus alert every 3 seconds.
My computer has more viruses than a.... well, i'll be polite and not say it. But a lot of viruses. Antivirus wnt reckonize them, half of the other programs on my laptop wont work, and i'm gonna reformat it.
I have no one to blame but myself.

[Neko-]

Auto-dial software that keeps returning means there's a service running in the background... Had something like that once... Delete the file, and see it respawn over and over again...
Harassment came from two services that were running and checking one another. If one service was 'End Tasked', the other would restart it. And both would check for the existance of files...
I checked the running services... verified those I didn't know... Started Windows up in SafeMode, looked through the whole registry looking for those services, aswell as the file system, checked all the RunOnce keys in the registry (cause right above those are the Run keys, which contain the programs that are run every time), and deleted what I didn't know, or knew to be junk.
Any texts coming from the deleted keys were also scoured for in the registry, and deleted.
After that, boot up to DOS mode, start the command-line based virusscanner from a disk which I knew to be clean (and I'd write protected). Ran it twice over all files, with the cleaning option enabled. I would've gone for three times had it still found stuff.
By then I just booted up Windows, reinstalled the Windows virusscanner, updated it, and ran it on the complete OS. In essence I got rid of the virusses pretty good.
Not to say I haven't reinstalled a PC once before. Lucky it wasn't mine, but it was ridden with about 47 different virusses, in about 7000 files, coupled with spyware, and self-repairing processes... Heck... After booting in DOS mode (with a clean DOS boot disk) I couldn't even normally remove some folders cause the virus had nested itself in the bootsector or something and kept locking files...
All I can say is good luck. Some people seem to find the need to destroy others data too great of a challange to just behave normally

[migele]

At the moment I'm really happy that I mostly use Linux.
for testing software I creted an win98 virtual machine.
currently it crashed three times and has already 3 trojans installed that can drop dead since I haven't enabled net acess and am runninf it on an linux vmware server.
Other option is try using wine for smal windows programs under linux.
there are already severel decent free virus scanners for linux so taking them helps too.

[lwf58]

The problem with Linux is that it's just too technical for the average computer user. You have to know what you're doing. While the various GUIs for Linux help, it's still not a very user-friendly OS.
LOL. Found a quote about that:

"Unix is the answer, but only if you phrase the question very carefully."
- Belinda Asbell

Atlan, there's one very, very important tip you seem to have not known.
When I download a program of any sort from the internet, I scan it for virii. If it's a compressed file, I scan that for virii and then extract the file. I then scan -that- for virii. I never run a program without scanning it, even if it's from a server I think I can trust.
Your antivirus software most likely installed a shortcut to itself in your right-click menu. If you position your mouse cursor over a file and right-click, on the pop-up menu you should have an option that says "scan with _____", the blank being the name of your anti-virus software. Always use that option.
As for not being able to remove the virus or trojan after it loaded -- the very first thing most of them do these days is to cripple your AV and software firewall. Neko- mentioned the most effective way to scan: use an antivirus disk that has its own boot option, so that you don't go into the OS, or manually remove the virus while in safe mode. Another method is to use an online virus scan, which many of the major AV sites offer for free. Since they run from the AV site server, the virus on your computer can't affect them, and they are always up-to-date.
Another thing to keep in mind is that many trojans and some virii cannot be removed by AV software. You may need a specialized tool to get rid of them. If your AV software can tell you the name of the virus or trojan, you can go to an AV site and see if they have a removal tool custom made for it. Such tools are always free to the public. The sites will often have manual removal instructions as well.

[Valkyrie Ice]

I also recommend getting AntiVir. It's free. It's comprehensive, and it works a Hell of a lot better than Norton or Mcafee. It's my AV of choice as a tech for virus detection and removal. (on numerous machines with various OS I find that AntiVir has a nearly perfect find and removal rate for viruses verses Norton and Mcafee, which will not remove viruses that have given themselves system status. The only thing it does not remove are viruses found in archives, but it will locate and advise you of those.

[crystlshake]

I use ad-aware in tandem with Norton. Ad-aware is free (though there is a pay version too i belive). I mostly use Norton for live protection as it seems to catch things trying to install themselves from internet pages on occasion. Course I think to avoid a reinstal I had to cripple one or two virii that were running at start up. just disabled them from doing that and they seem to be dormant, though you never know....

[EdenB]

Is it a Windows key that you've lost? If so, use this program to retrieve the one you're currently using.
If the dialer is still popping up and virus alerts still going, install this program then open the new applet 'StartUp' in control panel and untick the processes that you think are causing it. Only if you know what you're doing mostly though, if you think unticking that box next to that explorer thing is a good idea, leave it.
Both programs are free. The first i've had recommended to me and is listed on a fairly reputable website, the second I use myself, so I know it's okay.
This is assuming you've not reformated yet anyway. ^_^;; Or advice for the future I guess for anyone that comes across it.

[Atlan]

And i'm back, computer reformated, and waiting for me to corrupt it again.
Man, buggy as all windows versions are, at least XP makes formatting easyer than it was with 2000 and 98.
But the worst part- I backed up most of my files. All my anime, manga, pictures.
But not the Pron! Now i have to find it all over again! 20GB!

[Phoenix]

I remember doing just that a year ago. reformat the drive and be more careful next time.
Im actually trying out Linux coz im tired of viruses and other malwhare.
my experience so far?

Linux is only free if your time is worthless

couldnt agree more.
Edit:
Migelee:
since you seem to know linux..
IM trying to install "libdvdcss" but when I run ./configure I get this error

error: C++ preprocessor "/lib/cpp" fails sanity check
See `config.log' for more details.

fails sanity check? Have my compiler gone insane!?
im running ubuntu, just installed gcc 4.1..