So many clients don’t know what to do when their free antivirus expires.  They have two choices.  They could pay for it and support this great software company or if the computer they are protecting is a home business, they could renew their free subscription.  Here’s a tutorial on how to renew AVG free.

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Unfortunately, the Cybercrime or Ukash virus is still with us. We just had another couple of computers at the shop come in infected with it. If you live in the Calgary area, bring your computer into our Calgary computer repair shop and we’ll fix it for you tout de suite.

If you don’t live in Calgary then try this, or get a tech to help you do it:

The best way to remove the Cybercrime or Ukash virus is to go into Safe Mode with Networking then download and run Combofix, then run Malwarebytes and SuperAntispyware. After this download either AVG or Avira. They are free for home use.

If you don’t know how to do these things yourself then you might go to the Bleeping Computer website and ask them for help. They are wonderful. And they are the authors of Combofix.

If you are a tech or are tech-savvy enough you can try our removal procedures:
First run Combofix. (I did this in Safe Mode with Networking.)

To get into Safe Mode, tap F8 as the computer boots. If you tap at just the right time, a list of options in black and white is displayed on your screen. If you get the usual Windows boot up, you’ve missed Safe Mode so you’ll have to restart and tap again.
Pick Safe Mode with Networking. Then you’ll see a message asking if you’re sure you want to go into Safe Mode or if you’d rather use System Restore. Click yes you do want to go into Safe Mode. In Safe Mode you can then download and run Combofix.

Next download and run Malwarebytes, then SuperAntispyware.

Next you’ll need a good anti-virus, AVG or Avira.

All the above are free for home use.

Good luck. Let me know if you have any questions. My email is adminATducktoes.com.

Read more about the Cybercrime virus.

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Computer Virus Removal

I’m often asked what free anti-virus I recommend.

Unfortunately no one anti-virus can remove all viruses. In our Calgary computer repair shop we use many different ones and each finds different infections. Some that we use are AVG, Avira, Avast, Kaspersky, Dr. Web Cure-it, E-set online and off, among others. If we relied on only one, we wouldn’t be able to do an adequate job of fixing computers. So it rankles when an anti-virus company wants to be the only one used by people. It’s not realistic and would mean that a lot more computers would have to be reformatted to get cleaned.

If you’re asking which one I think you should keep resident on your computer, I like both Avira and AVG best. Both are really good at catching viruses. Google (search on Google for) either one and find the result that includes “download.cnet.com” in its address. I recommend both Avira and AVG. Of course, I don’t mean both at once. I mean choose one of the two.

I used to prefer AVG over Avira until AVG stopped working with Combofix of Bleeping Computers. I loved AVG and put it on every computer in close proximity. I liked AVG better because of its easier user interface. Being “easier” meant more effective, because people were able to use it more effectively. Now I prefer Avira since you don’t have to uninstall it to run Combofix, which is, unfortunately, the only solution sometimes to an infected computer.

By the way, whoever the creator of Combofix is, whoever sUBS is, he ought to receive knighthood or hero-hood for the amount of computers he saves on a daily or even an hourly basis, and for which he does not even receive payment. He really makes a huge difference in people’s lives without much recognition or money. I respect him enormously and hope he lives a long time because we will be all be sunk without him.

Only people who are experienced techs should use Combofix, however. Very, very occasionally it will cause a computer to stop booting and if this happens and you don’t know how to undo the changes it makes, you may have to reinstall Windows.

Both AVG and Avira ought to take note, their new default of having scheduled scans disabled upon install is dangerous. Many people think they are protected when they are not. If you have Avira or AVG make sure they’re scanning on a daily basis.

If you have a virus and live in Calgary, come to our Virus Removal Lab and will be able to help you out without losing your data or programs or even changing your computer except to speed it up. We would love to see you.

PS. We enjoy all kinds of people and computers and viruses…and aren’t judgmental.

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The last upgrade of AVG from 8.5 to 9 has many great changes while the best features remain unchanged. The newest AVG scans much faster and uses less resources, while the residential shield (which catches malware before it has a chance to infest your computer) still works well or even better than before. And the reliability and scheduling of the scans and updates makes it my first choice in a free anti-virus for my clients. However many clients get stuck when trying to update from free AVG 8.5 to 9.0.

This is what to do: Go to Start>Control Panel>Add and Remove Programs or on Vista or Windows 7 just “Programs”. Wait for Windows to form a list of installed programs. Find AVG in the list and uninstall it. Then reboot the computer. Now that 8.5 is removed, download and install version 9.0.

Problem solved.

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I like AVG…no bones about it. And I recommend it to my clients because it’s easy to use and it’s reliable and now with version 9.0 it’s also faster again. On the comparative tests at Virus.gr, AVG Free removed 97% of the viruses. I have clients–with teenage sons— who used to hire me every six months to clean their computers of malware, I convinced them to try AVG and voila, two years later, and they still haven’t needed me to clean viruses again. I know, amazing!! And so much easier on the budget than computer repair bills.

If a client calls and asks me how to get AVG for their computer, I tell them to search for AVG on Google, but this week a client named Anna accidentally downloaded a virus from Google instead. Among all the legitimate links for AVG in her Google search results, she managed to click on a link that lead to Antivirus 2010, a rogue anti-virus which I remove several times a week from other clients’ computers.

Here’s where she clicked:

Don't download this one!

All the rest of the links are good. Look for http://avg.com or http://free.avg.com. Or you can use the one I use from CNET’s download.com: http://download.cnet.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10320142.html Since it’s Cnet, you know it’s safe. Just scroll down further in the Google search results for AVG.

Be careful out there, it’s a wild web!!

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