As someone who's been figuring out computers and all the trouble they get into for more than 20 years now, people constantly ask me questions. This time a person contacted me on my Proven Helper Facebook page regarding a virus he got by downloading torrents from the internet. Below you will find his question and my response. I hope that it helps other people out there who downloaded a virus somehow, or opened up an attachment in an email that later infected their PC.

And don't be fooled by the media, all computers including Mac's, Smartphones, and even your car computer can get viruses. Just remember that a virus is simply a program written by a prankster, hacker, or enemy who wants to fool with you, ruin your day, or extort money from you. It doesn't matter what computer you use, there's a techie out there that knows, tested, and continues to create new viruses for it. That's the unfortunate truth, now lets get to what was asked, and my email back to the fan of the SelfMade Life YouTube Channel.

QUESTION: Hello. I read the information you've put in your videos and I'm glad to know that you're welcome to answer the questions. I've got this problem 2 days ago. Everything began with downloading IDM by torrent. after that lots of viruses occupied my system. I think they are rstray.exe and ravmon.exe Chinese programs. Before I downloaded the torrent everything was ok. Whatever I try to do something on my computer, It just doesn't work. If I want to change permissions, I get access denied. If I want to end a process by using task manager, it doesn't work. Even if I want to delete a file, it won’t let me delete.

I'm totally confused about how to get rid of this virus and get my computer to work like it used to. I’d like some advice on what to do about this horrible virus. Thank you!

Top 10 Tips on How To Remove a Computer Virus 

1. First I want you to know that every computer geek out there knows that if a virus is really bad, nothing is safe unless you reinstall your Windows operating system from scratch. But you can leave this as a last resort option for now.
2. When a computer virus prevents you from deleting files, changing permission, and ending a process, you can try to bypass its activation by booting into Windows safe mode. Simply restart your computer and press F6 before the Windows logo pops up. You might have to try this process repeatedly until Windows asks you if you want to boot into safe mode.
3. However, these hackers don't make it easy to removal a virus. Sometimes the virus renames itself as a known process. If that happens you would have to get the file size and date of the affected file, and compare it with the one on your computer. This can get complicated because there could be many known legitimate revisions of that file program, so you would have to know exactly which version you have before you start suspecting. Sometimes the file size is different by a huge margin, making it easy to find the suspicious program. But other times these hackers can even get the file size down to the bit, so even this method is not full proof.
4. The bottom line is that if you really want to beat this virus you're going to need another computer to Google your questions while you keep looking for signs of the virus. Google strange activities your computer is doing, Google strange processes in your Windows Task Manager, and Googling error messages are just some of the things I’ve done in the past to figure out what computer virus I have and what can be done to remove it. Chances are someone else out there already caught the virus and wrote how they removed it somewhere.

1. Also newer virus's change names, so you can delete one, and then another one would spawn in a different name in its place. You can track your active processes and see what happens when you kill a process.  If something is respawning a process either as the same name or a completely different name every time, you have to find the Windows Process or Service that is running which is therefore allowing this entire process to happen. Check Msconfig in older versions of Windows by running the command Msconfig. Shortcut is Window Key + R this will bring up the Run prompt, then type Msconfig. In Windows 10, the startup section has been moved to Task Manager but you can still execute this procedure, then click the blue link that says open task manager. Alternatively, right click the Windows Icon, then Task Manager, then Startup. The Services Tab in Windows 10 is where you can examine Windows Services that can be running and turning on your virus every time you boot into Windows.
2. Many antivirus programs have rootkit removal tools or virus scanners that can be installed on a USB stick that you can run to help you catch the virus. This of course assumes that this is a known virus and not something new which won't be caught. You can also download Rootkit Removal Tools from trusted websites. Also sometimes specific virus removal tools are created for specific viruses. In this case, you will have to figure out exactly what virus you have by doing some of the work noted above.
3. Sometimes a computer virus just ruins one user profile on the machine. In this scenario simply create another user profile, then transfer over just the documents or photos you need. Then delete the corrupted or infected profile.
4. I’ve seen viruses disable and imitate antivirus software before. Remember, the people creating these things are just human, so sometimes you can almost predict what they might do, to fool you into thinking that everything is okay. Think outside the box or meditate on what to do for 15 minutes and see if your subconscious can drop some hints on what to do next. You’d be surprised how helpful meditation can be for solving any type of problem.
5. This is another technique out of left field, but I have been using it to my advantage for more than 20 years. It’s the set your mind on that you’re going to solve this problem and that’s that solution. Our brains our powerful tools that sometimes we don’t exercise enough. I learned about this power of setting my mind on solving a problem long ago, when computers used to cost $2,500 and if something broke it was going to be an arm and a leg. So when things went wrong, which they also do with computers, the first thing I said to myself was that somehow, someway, I was going to figure out this problem. And interestingly enough I became so good at it, that I worked in IT for more than 10 years once I grew up and even in my IT days I used the advice I wrote on this post to solve 99% of my computer problems, no matter if it was a virus, worm, bad hardware, or bad software. These techniques will work, but you have to have the patience and will to make them work for you. Sometimes you can beat the problem quickly, while other times it can take forever. Which brings me to my final tip.
6. If you don’t want to reinstall Windows, try any of these steps, or simply don’t have the time to find and remove this virus on your own, despite how awesome you will feel afterwards. You can always bring it to BestBuy Geek Squad or some other shop and have them use these techniques for you in exchange for a fee. Sometimes they just choose the easiest method, because no one is going to spend hours when you’re only paying them $50. You get what you pay for,

Well I hope you enjoyed learning about how I removed my computer viruses in the past and even used these principals to build a career in IT. I still use these principals to this day and believe in them 100%. A computer Virus is written by humans and every human has a weakness. You simply have to find out where this person was lazy and remove their electronic prank from your computer.

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