how do staples and best buy remove spyware or malware?

[mohavepc]

Yeah, Best Buy and Staples charge people hundreds of dollars to remove viruses and malware, they use the very same software that can be found here or any other place on the web for free. IMO they are nothing but a bunch of ripoffs and nine times out of ten they never really get to the root of the problem, they just band aid it.
That's why forums such as Windows 7 Forums are a very valuable tool, there are good people here that are honest and really want to help figure your problem out for and / or with you and in the process you will learn for yourself in case it happens again to you in the future.

I have found that 99.9% of the time when things go wrong with someones system, it is not the computer it is user error , either doing something or surfing somewhere they do not belong, all one needs to do is look at ones surfing history to find out what happened most of the time, you'd be surprised to know that NOT that many people clear their cache / cookies off their machines, let alone not run a cleaner such as CCleaner. I can just look at ones surfing history and tell what type of person they are, what happened and how to correct it. It's the same as the gun analogy, Software does not break computers, people break computers. The worst thing anyone can tell me is "I don't know what happened, the computer just started doing it itself" ....... that's when I start digging through the history and temp files, and to be honest 99% of the time it's either porn, warez or P2P sites with porn being the number one on the list.

Good surfing habits:
1.) NEVER ever surf ANYWHERE on the web without an antivirus program running
2.) Install a good known malware program such as malwarebytes
3.) Use a firewall, whether it is Windows firewall or a 3rd party firewall, LEARN how to configure it CORRECTLY.
4.) Stay out of places you don't belong, like warez, bittorrent sites, P2P sites and porn sites.
5.) DO NOT store website, banking passwords, credit card info on your computer unless you are encrypting the information, the same would go for any other vital information that if stolen could put you in a bad spot. If encryption is too much for you to handle then you should not be storing that info on your computer under any circumstances whatsoever. When signing into a website, NEVER EVER check the little box that says "remember me" or "remember my login information" THIS is how passwords get stolen by trojans because by checking that box it stores your login information on your computer.
6.) If you absolutely MUST surf porn, there are reputable sites out there that will not infect your machine, you just need to know where to find them. I love to see a bodacious set of tat ta's myself from time to time

Great Tips There Edee, Mind if I "beg, barrow, steal" That list? I'll leave #6 off for the "sensitive" Puplic although I agree 200%.:devil2: :roflmao:

 

[macgig]

well said edee.

this PC i'm working on now, I'm certain I removed all the spyware the first go around. but it's infected again. I'm pretty certain its user error... I've seen this many times since I've been doing PC work on the side. Most of my clients barely know how to turn a PC on... they buy a PC, get on the web, and start clicking on anything and everything they see and downloading everything... things they know nothing about. it does not take long before the entire machine is infected.

 

[UsernameIssues]

........it does not take long before the entire machine is infected.

Is this user running as admin or a standard user? I finally convinced one of my users to run as a standard user and I cranked the UAC to the top.

 

[macgig]

he's admin, and he's very new to computers.

 

[UsernameIssues]

See if he will go for being a standard user.

 

[strollin]

I don't know how the Geek Squad at Best Buy does virus/malware removal but I know someone who works at Staples as an Easy Tech and he says they use a 3rd party service for virus/malware removal. They boot a CD that allows the 3rd party service to access the machine remotely so they can "expertly" remove infections. I don't know the name of the 3rd party service they use.

 

[macgig]

interesting. so staples does not even do the work themselves? very interesting.

 

[UsernameIssues]

That 3rd party system could be the best way to go - at least it allows them to check/clean the computer while the OS is offline. Let's just hope that the 3rd party does not infect the computer with their own malware designed to act up months after the computer was "cleaned". That would make for nice repeat business. Most users would just think that they infected the computer again.

But the problem with cleaning up after an infection is: can you ever repair all of the damage done? Will the system be "as good as new"?

 

[macgig]

according to a "expert" that teaches A+ Certification, he says the only way to be sure malware is gone is to format the drive and reinstall windows. He said their is no way to be sure its "gone" after you run the programs that (hopefully) remove the malware. I would imagine it's hard to know if any files were damaged... are the files intact like they should be? one can only assume....

But the problem with cleaning up after an infection is: can you ever repair all of the damage done? Will the system be "as good as new"?

 

[edee]

Yeah, Best Buy and Staples charge people hundreds of dollars to remove viruses and malware, they use the very same software that can be found here or any other place on the web for free. IMO they are nothing but a bunch of ripoffs and nine times out of ten they never really get to the root of the problem, they just band aid it.
That's why forums such as Windows 7 Forums are a very valuable tool, there are good people here that are honest and really want to help figure your problem out for and / or with you and in the process you will learn for yourself in case it happens again to you in the future.

I have found that 99.9% of the time when things go wrong with someones system, it is not the computer it is user error , either doing something or surfing somewhere they do not belong, all one needs to do is look at ones surfing history to find out what happened most of the time, you'd be surprised to know that NOT that many people clear their cache / cookies off their machines, let alone not run a cleaner such as CCleaner. I can just look at ones surfing history and tell what type of person they are, what happened and how to correct it. It's the same as the gun analogy, Software does not break computers, people break computers. The worst thing anyone can tell me is "I don't know what happened, the computer just started doing it itself" ....... that's when I start digging through the history and temp files, and to be honest 99% of the time it's either porn, warez or P2P sites with porn being the number one on the list.

Good surfing habits:
1.) NEVER ever surf ANYWHERE on the web without an antivirus program running
2.) Install a good known malware program such as malwarebytes
3.) Use a firewall, whether it is Windows firewall or a 3rd party firewall, LEARN how to configure it CORRECTLY.
4.) Stay out of places you don't belong, like warez, bittorrent sites, P2P sites and porn sites.
5.) DO NOT store website, banking passwords, credit card info on your computer unless you are encrypting the information, the same would go for any other vital information that if stolen could put you in a bad spot. If encryption is too much for you to handle then you should not be storing that info on your computer under any circumstances whatsoever. When signing into a website, NEVER EVER check the little box that says "remember me" or "remember my login information" THIS is how passwords get stolen by trojans because by checking that box it stores your login information on your computer.
6.) If you absolutely MUST surf porn, there are reputable sites out there that will not infect your machine, you just need to know where to find them. I love to see a bodacious set of tat ta's myself from time to time

Great Tips There Edee, Mind if I "beg, barrow, steal" That list? I'll leave #6 off for the "sensitive" Puplic although I agree 200%.:devil2: :roflmao:

Certainly, by all means be my guest, the more this gets around maybe someone will actually take it to heart.

 

[edee]

well said edee.

this PC i'm working on now, I'm certain I removed all the spyware the first go around. but it's infected again. I'm pretty certain its user error... I've seen this many times since I've been doing PC work on the side. Most of my clients barely know how to turn a PC on... they buy a PC, get on the web, and start clicking on anything and everything they see and downloading everything... things they know nothing about. it does not take long before the entire machine is infected.

I feel your pain bud, I have a relative that is computer illiterate, he's been using them a long time but still is computer illiterate.... he is CONSTANTLY having problems and getting infections I have to remove. When I ask him what happened? the answer always is "I don't know, the computer just started acting funny"

It idiocy of most people makes me laugh though, and people wonder why naked pictures and videos of their wife's and girlfriend's wind up plastered all over the web. Because YOU HAVE TO KNOW if you bring your tower or laptop into Best Buy or Staples with that kind of content on it, you can BEST BELIEVE it's going to wind up in their possession and all over the web. Because the very FIRST thing they are going to do before they fix your computer is scrounge through your system to see what they can find.
Believe me these guys are buy no shape of the word "techs", they run just your basic software as I mentioned previously that can be found anywhere on the web for free, if it works fine if not, you'll get a call saying your HDD needs to be reformatted and the OS needs to be reinstalled, and for the completely computer illiterate they will probably talk you into buying a new HDD "Just to make sure the problem is gone"

 

[edee]

But the problem with cleaning up after an infection is: can you ever repair all of the damage done? Will the system be "as good as new"?

The best thing to do if you are ever "unsure" if the infection of the virus or malware is completely removed and the computer is still acting buggy is to Wipe the drive and do a clean install of the OS. Of course this is only in severe cases of someone that has infections out the ying yang.
This is especially true with MBR viruses also, by wiping the drive and doing a clean install it will ensure the Master Boot Record gets re written and the virus cannot replicate itself, just simply doing a system restore to a previous point in time will NOT work with a MBR virus or Trojan, the master boot record needs to be completely re written in order to eradicate the virus or trojan completely, I have seen it 100 times, even if you use 3rd party tools on the MBR to remove the infection and it tells you the infection has been removed, the computer is just never the same after that, that's why I recommend wiping the drive and doing a clean install.

But for milder cases with one or a couple of infections (non MBR of course) 99.9% of the time the infection is removed and the OS operates as normal.