The popular Russian anti-virus software vendor, Kaspersky, offers Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool 2010 for free personal use. It is is a utility designed to remove all types of threats from infected computer systems. It uses the same detection algorithms and virus definitions as realized in the commercial Kaspersky anti-virus software.
Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool 2010 does not provide resident protection for your computer. After disinfecting a computer, you are supposed to remove the tool and install a full version of antivirus software.
You can download the Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool from http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/avptool2010. The download is available in form of a installable setup exetuable. The file name is in the form setup_9.0.0.722_05.10.2010_16-33.exe. This program is updated regularly, so you should download it from the Kaspersky web site eac time you want to use it.
Download this file and save it on the Desktop of the infected computer. If you do not have internet connection on the infected computer, then download it on a computer with internet access and copy it over to the infected computer using a USB key. Double-click on the downloaded file to start the installation of Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool. The setup process is easy to follow finishes quickly. Immediately after the setup is completed, Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool launches.
You can select which areas of your computer to scan. It will not harm to select all the options and let it scan your computer system memory, boot sectors, registry, emails and all the hard disks etc. You can click on the Add button to add a custom foldr path to scan it.
You can set the scanning security level. The default level is Recommended but you can also set it to High or Low by clicking on the Recommended and choosing a level.
You can also manually change the security level settings by choosing Settings from the menu that pops up when you click on the Recommended link. But it is advised to keep the security level at Recommended.
You can choose what to do when an threat is found. The default action is Prompt for action, which means each time a threat is found you would be asked for choosing to disinfect, delete or exclude the threat. Click on the Prompt for action link, and you can choose other actions like Prompt on completetion which will show a list of found threats when the whole scanning process is finished. You can also choose to automatically disinfect the found threat by choosing Select an action and selecting Disinfect. This is what I think is the best choice.
Finally click on the big Start scan button to start scanning the computer for threats. If you have selected the Prompt for action as the action on threat detection, then you would see a box on bottom-right waiting for you to take action when a threat is found.
You can choose an action to disinfect, delete to skip the threat. In some cases (especially in case of trojans), the disinfection is not possible and you have to delete the threat. If you check the Apply to all objects checkbox, then the same action will be applied to all other threats detected in the future.
If you chose the Prompt on completetion as the action on threat detection, then you would get all the prompts one-by-one, when the scan the completed.
After the removal of all the threats found, you can click on the Report button to take a look at the various events of the scanning and removal – what was detected, disinfected and deleted etc.
You can click Exit button to close Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool. A prompt will appear asking if you want to uninstall Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool. You can choose to uninstall. If you do not uninstall Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool, it will auto-start with Windows, next time you start your computer.
Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool offers manual removal method too. You can choose the Manual Disinfection method. This method requires you to create a system information file and send it over to Kaspersky experts. Then, they will give you instruction for removal of malware.
