Formatting will not necessarily remove a root kit virus. Just put in my two cents.

My advice would be to go to a clean computer and download several of the bootable rescue disks. It is much easier to clean an infection when it is not running in the background. These are iso's that are burned to a CD. Then you boot from the CD and not from your system disk. A few are:

Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10 [ my fav]:
http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/rescuedisk

Microsoft Windows Defender Offline:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... er-offline

Avira AntiVir Rescue System:
http://www.avira.com/en/download-start/ ... origin=web

Run as many as you can find. None of them catch everything. There are several Linux disks for the same purpose.

If you are interested, I will add additional disks.

Kill the partition then formatting will Z. That's usually what I do with a complete wipe. For a secure wipe, I would do a low level format. There are viruses that effect the bios, but these viruses had to be PC specific and most modern PCs w/ XP already have mechanisms to protect against this type of attack anyway.

I found that avg didn't work at all for my wife, she went to avast and it was much better. I dropped that too in favor of microsoft security essentials and malwarebytes.

Malwarebytes (free interactive version the one I have) is pretty good too. Saved more then a few client PCs with this cool program. Still, malware's getting to the point where it might be both easier and quicker to rebuild.

I can't help wondering what MSWindows has that Linux doesn't have (except gaming).
I have been using Linux for more than 12 years.
Always used the same root password and another for user.
I do roam the internet a lot but I've never had any problem like virus or rootkits.
Gerard.

It's all about one's comfort zone Gerard. I've been using Microsoft's products since DOS 2.1. lol

I will say that, as it stands now, Win7 will be my last M$ OS unless they rethink their direction but it doesn't look like they will.

That could be around for 10+ years, like Windows XP.

true true

I sure do hope so Tux/Molly. Win7 has been rock stable for over 2 years now and it's cool to be able to have the extra RAM too. I might need to upgrade soon and I hope I can re-install Win7 on the new system since I didn't buy an OEM version (believe it was regular license) but I know Microsoft's anl about their licensing so I might have to acquire another licencse at that time.

Have we solved the root kit problem yet... seems like we got side tracked from post #25 on.

@erisian, have you had any luck yet with your virus?

ComboFix may be helpful, a very good tool for removing malware and infections.
How to use ComboFix http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofi ... e-combofix
Download http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/combofix/

A lot of the downloads are too large for my PAYG Mobile Broadband and I'll have to go to the library when it opens again to use their computers. I'm going to try any of the ISO rescues that can be burned to USB flash drive. I think that's most likely the best option. I can't use the one from Microsoft that GMS recommended as you have to interpret the data and I don't know what I'm doing in that area. Thank you for asking.

I've downloaded Kaspersky TDSSKiller and I'm going to give it a try. Kaspersky are usually good.

This is for IT pros really, and while it would fix it, it also comes with one of the biggest warnings of complete computer destruction that has ever been established.
IF YOU DON"T KNOW HOW TO USE COMBOFIX DO NOT RUN IT!!!!!
Pogo, I think that was a bad idea to post it. Yes it is an amazing tool, I love it. However if you get someone who thinks they can fix their computer with it and they run it, they would most likely destroy that computer.....

I do agree with Z about combofix; removing malware once bitten should be left to those who know somewhat what they are doing. Most folk don't and will wish they didn't try to "fix" the issue afterwards. For the lay person who is proficient enough to know how to back their data, I would recommend backing up their data and re-load the OS using the user's platform interface to do so (Dell and HP has a pretty decent recovery process when they work). If you are not comfortable, then take it to someone who is. The biggest problem even with a rebuild is that people are creatures of habit. They tend to do the same things that got them infected in the first place. We had one client that got infected again (rebuilt his system from scratch; he was a goner. lol) literally hours after getting is machine back despite having anti-virus (trust me; I didn't let a client computer leave the shop without some form of anti-virus software either free or one (reputable) that the client provides unless it was a business machine and we weren't allowed to use free anti-virus on those machines. That's why I know anti-virus/fire wall combo alone won't protect you and gives folk a false sense of security). Fortunately, I created an image of his new setup (we do this and keep it stored for around 1 month after the client get's his machine back) and it didn't take as long to get him back up and running but we had to charge him the extra hour since getting infected was not our fault (and not a warrenty issue ); we tell them upfront that.

Thanks Pogo, but as I said I don't know how to interpret this stuff. Even with Kaspersky, on default settings it picks nothing up and on other settings it picks up innocent processes like Daz Content Management. I will try Avast and Malwarebytes as a lot of people swear by these, and I will try the ISO rescue images but if they don't do the job, this PC will have to be Linux only as I don't know how to fix my bootable CD drive and I'll need another computer for Windows.

Another couple of options are

RootkitRevealer (microsoft)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-in/sysi ... us%29.aspx

GMER
http://www.gmer.net/

Thanks. I've got Rootkit Revealer but I don't know what to do with the results. I'll have a look at the other one.

PM it too me. I'll take a look at the data.