Is it true that the best way to get a keylogger off of your computer is to back everything up and restore?
So a friend of mine is going thru a divorce. Her husband has put something on her computer that is allowing him to see everything that she is doing and all of her emails. I am not sure what it is, but she was told that she needs to back up everything on her computer to disk and restore. Is this true? And if so what is the best way to back up what she wants to save on her computer?
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Tagged with: divorce • Keylogger
Filed under: How To Get Him Back
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There is a distinction between programs and data. Back up your data (basically My Documents etc) but not your programs. Then, yes, you want to wipe the disk clean and start over.
No, because if you back up everything, you’ll also back up the keylogger itself.
Using System Restore will not cause a loss of documents so it will not require a back-up. But there is no guarantee that a keylogger or any other malware will be removed.
Your friend seems to be confusing System Restore with a reformat and reinstall of her Windows which will remove a keylogger and everything else and would require a backup of all her data and documents.
Seriously, if your friend doesn’t know the difference, she should pay a competent (not the Geek Squad) computer tech.
If u have this keylogger ono the computer are two ways to get that information. over innternet or accessing computer directly. U cut internet connection, change password, put an antivirus firewall and restrict all data flow over internet, then u tell firewall program what programs u allow to access initernet. U will find out what out soon odd programs trying to connect, u desinstal that program. Other way iis to backup all data, but not programs and reinstall windows. An experienced friend, or IT professional would recognise a keylogger between system processes. Good luck!
Well the first thing she has to do is get rid of that keylogger program. Doing a backup or a restore is not going to remove the keylogger program.
Here is my suggestion and steps:
1. She needs to first turn "off" her System Restore feature as any virus or spyware program can hide in the backup files here. To turn this off, go to Start then right click My Computer then click Properties then click System Restore and check the box that turns off system restore. Later after her PC is cleaned she can turn this back on.
2. She next needs to clean her PC of any infections like the keylogger. She can do this by booting-up in Safe Mode and then using her web browser and going to Trend Micro’s free online scanner website.
To boot up in Safe Mode you generally press your F8 key after you turn on your computer and before Windows loads. If the F8 key doesn’t work, try the F2 key.
There’s also another easy method to boot up in Safe Mode. Look at this Yahoo Answer for detailed steps on another way to boot up in Safe Mode: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Av8Xld_USEcLZGyyRkPw.AQjzKIX?qid=20061026182121AAW6ocU
Note: When you boot up in Safe Mode select ‘Safe Mode with Networking’ so you can still surf the web. When you boot up in Safe Mode with Networking things might look strange on your screen, but that’s fine. Windows in Safe Mode is loading only the minimal amount of drivers it needs.
3. Using either IE browser or Firefox, now visit Trend Micro’s free Housecall spyware, virus and malware online scanner and let it run on her PC. She can go here and just click to get started. http://www.housecall.trendmicro.com
As Housecall scans and cleans her PC of any malicious code and programs, she should run Housecall a second time as well.
4. After Housecall is completed at least 2 separate scans, it will report to you each time what infections it has found and it will clean your computer for you too. Depending on the size of your hard drive, it could take anywhere from 15 minutes up to 1 hour to run.
5. Anti-Spyware program. If your friend does not have a good anti-spyware program now, she should immediately get one and install it.
She can download and install her anti-spyware program after her scan above. You want to install this after your spyware and virus scan as the program might require that you are not in Safe Mode but back in regular, normal, Windows again. You do this by rebooting
You can do a search here in Yahoo Answers for some very good recommendations of both free and paid versions of anti-spyware programs. I personally use PC Tools Spyware Doctor and enjoy it, but there are other excellent programs out there too.
Spybot is one of those free excellent anti-spyware programs and used by many. I highly recommend it. To get your free copy, go here: http://www.spybot.info/
Here’s the link to some great answers on other free anti-virus and anti-spyware programs and where you can get them: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AkdCEI8XptJuQojVPcO59yLty6IX?qid=20070714121756AADsEoT
After all is said and done, she can go back and turn on her System Restore.
Good Luck to her!