As you probably know, viruses and spyware can intrude in your PC undetected and they can cause all sorts of damage. Even if they are detected by your antivirus software, sometimes you just can’t remove them. In this case you have to find out where they are located and delete them manually. Viruses are usually files that download themselves into your harddrive and stay in one of your system folders.

This post is about basic virus removal techniques. If you are an advanced PC user, you should look for advanced/manual virus removal techniques in Google. If you are someone who needs professional help to solve PC problems, this could be for you. It involves deleting non-system files and it’s unlikely that you will cause even more damage.

When viruses find their way into your computer, they usually go into the system32 folder. You can find this folder in C:\Windows. To identify viruses, you need a virus scanning program. I use AVG Free Edition and sometimes AVG detects viruses but is unable to heal or delete them; however, it always displays the name of the infected file and its location on the hard drive. I hope your virus scanner can do the same, otherwise, how would you know there is a virus in your computer?

Once you identify a malicious file and record its location, you should navigate to the containing folder. When you find the file, don’t delete it immediately. First, you must know if it’s a system file that has been infected or a new one that was installed recently. You don’t want to delete a file that is required to run Windows. To be on the safe side, type the name of the file in Google and see if you can find out what the file is used for. If it is a system file, don’t delete it. Look for professional help or try to find a solution in Google.

If Google search confirms it’s a malicious file and it recently installed itself (check Date created in the system32 folder), then delete it. Sometimes this will work, and in other cases deleting the file might produce an error (file in use). To check whether the file is in use, open the Task Manager by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL at the same time and find the file in the Processes tab. If it is there, mark it and select End Process. Then try to delete the file from the containing folder again.

If this doesn’t work either, you’ll have to restart the PC and boot into Safe Mode. This way, only essential system files will be loaded, which should make it possible to delete the infected file. To boot into Safe Mode, restart your computer and press and hold F8. When you see the new menu, select Safe Mode and wait for Windows to load. Once there, navigate to the same folder and delete the virus. This time it should work.

When you delete all malicious files, you should clean your registry. You can use Ccleaner or Registry Mechanic for a quick scan and repair.