Computer advice for someone with recent malware/virus.etc problems?

I will try to make this short and concise. I have never had any problems in the 2 years I have owned my computer but I suspect some free something expired last week so I had major spyware, smitfraud(?) trojans, the works show up on Sunday. I downloaded ATG, Zone firewall, Spybot, Adaware, and smitfraudfix, ran these programs repeatedly and finally things are close to being normal. Unfortunately my start up speed is much slower than it used to be. I ran a program I thought was free which said I had like 1000 problems but wanted to charge me to fix them...I decided to ask on here first. What should I do, other good (totally free programs) to try, or any other suggestions. I am able to surf the net without pop-ups now, I just have a nagging feeling that all is not completely well with my comp yet. My start toolbar fades to blue for a few seconds on start up as well. Also every so often while in internet explorer, the screen starts jumping..(blinking).


ThanksComputer advice for someone with recent malware/virus.etc problems?
There are a few steps you can take to ensure your computer is running at optimal performance if the malware is gone.





1) Clean up the disk. Uninstall unneeded programs (especially those that run at startup and/or put something in the system tray), run Disk Cleanup, and defragment the drive. This is a good first step that will almost always take a few seconds off boot time and application loads for any computer.





2) Stomp auto-starting programs. Click Start %26gt; Run and type ';msconfig'; at the prompt. Click the Startup tab and look at all that junk that loads when you launch your PC. Do you really need ';Adobe Reader Speed Launch';? Probably not. Turn off anything else that looks useless, but be careful not to disable your anti-virus and important system components.





3) Run a full anti-virus and anti-spyware scan. I would recommend using AVG Free Anti-virus, Spybot - Search and Destroy spyware remover and Ad-aware spyware remover. These programs are all free.





4) Clean up the registry. CCleaner, available at http://www.ccleaner.com is free and worth running. It will also remove unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space.Computer advice for someone with recent malware/virus.etc problems?
You should try downloading Norton Internet Security and running that. Norton is the best and will clean out your computer. If that doesn't work then you will probably have to reformat it.
Sounds like you still have stuff on your laptop.





I would backup what I could and reinstall the OS.





Once the OS system is reinstalled, and system is updated.


Check out the following...





Anti Virus protection


http://www.download.com/Spyware-Doctor-w鈥?/a>





Spyware Protection


http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security鈥?/a>





For a full listing of antivirus/firwall,spyware programs


check out


http://www.download.com/3150-2239_4-0.ht鈥?/a>
Run a free online virus scan to be sure you computer is virus and spyware free.


http://securitynewsfromthenet.blogspot.c鈥?/a>





then


If everything fails to get the nasty spyware removed let the experts take a look at whats happening on your computer.Visit the HijackThis Logs and Analysis forum.


http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/f鈥?/a>
I suggest looking through the AV and AS software in http://www.filehippo.com/ . The utilities in the AV/AS section are mostly free and provide links to the manufacturer if you want to do research. But beware of rogue AV/AS, since some are viruses/spyware themselves. Check for user reviews and background history for any AV/AS that you've never heard of before, especially if it makes a gratuitous claim such as ';BUY NOW TO FIX THE THOUSANDS OF INFECTIONS ON YOUR PC!';
how can i stop hackers entering my ip.adress?
Very good advice from Samuel - just a couple other tips-


when disabling things in your startup using the msconfig command - if you're unsure what the programs are, do a search on your favorite search engine on the net, before disabling it. Also do the scans of the AV and Spyware programs in safe mode - which you can access when the computer starts up and by pressing the F8 key before the windows loading screen starts. Also there could be a chance that these things may still be haunting you if System Restore is on, If you have XP. (Which I assume you do.) To disable System Restore %26gt; Right click on My Computer%26gt;click on Properties%26gt;Select System Restore Tab%26gt;Check mark turn off.





Hope this helps. Good luck