Have you ever encountered a computer that is so badly infected by spyware and virus that the computer is so slow and you could hardly do anything on it? Fully booting in to computer takes like 15 minutes, then to install an on-demand antivirus program takes another 30 minutes and then to update the signatures takes another hour. Running a full scan would definitely take more than an hour. The computer should be cleaned from virus IF the on-demand antivirus is able to detect and remove the virus from computer. If not, you have to spend a few more hours hoping that the next on-demand antivirus that you’re going to install can detect the virus that’s causing the slowdown.
I used to go through all that but I no longer do that now. Whenever the computer is too slow to fix, I’d just pop in an antivirus rescue disk which is able to scan the computer for virus even without booting in to Windows. It is faster and more effective since the virus is not active when Windows is not running. I’ve already introduced 4 brands of free rescue CD which is Kaspersky Rescue Disk, Avira AntiVir Rescue System, F-Secure Rescue CD and BitDefender 2008 RescueCD. Here is yet another free antivirus rescue disk from Dr. Web called Dr.Web LiveCD which is very useful to scan and remove virus when the computer is very badly infected by virus.
Dr.Web LiveCD is an anti-virus emergency aid disk that would restore a system that became non-operational due to activities of malware. If a workstation or a server running Windows or Unix won’t boot from a hard drive, Dr.Web LiveCD will clean a system of suspicious and malicious files and will also try to cure infected objects.
All you need to do is to download the 66MB ISO image (minDrWebLiveCD-4.44.0.XXXXXXX.iso) from the link at the end of this article and burn it to a CD. Then boot up the computer with the CD by setting your computer as the first boot device. As loading starts a dialogue window will prompt you to choose between the standard and the safe mode. Make sure that the first option DrWeb-LiveCD is selected and hit the ENTER key. Once finished loading, you will be presented with a really cool nice looking screen that has Start Menu.
There are 2 ways to scan the computer using Dr.Web LiveCD. You can either select Start Dr.Web Scanner to start scanning the hard drive, or select Start XOrg to launch the graphical user interface version of the scanner. Before scanning, I’d suggest you to update the virus signature first by selecting Start Dr.Web Update from Start Menu.
Do take note that the Rescue CDs are NOT meant to replace the real-time antivirus program which protects your computer against malware every second. It is only used when the installed antivirus fails to detect and block the virus.
If you’ve never heard of Dr.Web and not sure how good it is, here’s a report that will give you a shock! In the latest October 2008 antivirus test conducted by Anti-Malware Test Lab, Dr.Web Anti-Virus 4.44 scored a perfect 100%, making it the only antivirus that receive the Platinum Malware Treatment Award. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 and Avast! Professional Edition 4.8 tied at second place. Again, very sorry to let the NOD32 fans know that Eset NOD32 Antivirus 3.0 completely failed the test at 0%! It didn’t even manage to detect the file of the virus on an infected system, although the parent file (distribution package) is detected.
Go ahead and download a copy of the free Dr.Web LiveCD as may never know when will your computer be infected by a virus that cannot be detected by the currently installed antivirus sofware on your computer.