Infected computer, recommend a good cleaner?

[Martinjmpr]

My wife apparently downloaded a couple of trojans/malware when trying to find files for her new Cricut machine. Now she has random pop ups and even pRon coming up sometimes (no, don't blame me, it's her computer and I don't touch it!)

We already have Malwarebytes Pro and I've run several scans but the popups and malware is still there. Can anyone recommend a good, reputable site for a program I can download to clean it? Don't mind paying a reasonable fee to do so, but want to get it scrubbed since our 6 year old grandson also uses this computer and he doesn't need to see any accidental pRon pop ups.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

EDITED TO ADD: We have Comcast/Xfinity cable, might they have resources?

[Gman]

I don't see that Xfinity has complimentary antivirus anymore. The offerings they've had in the past weren't great anyway.

If the system has been infected with a rootkit, they're tough to get off the system. This is the best solution I've found for those: https://usa.kaspersky.com/downloads/tdsskiller

[sportbikeco]

Backup on external
Make a W10 Media creation tooling on USB for fresh install

[bradbn4]

as a second scan option spybot (search & destroy) can help with deep scan for trojans/malware
If you have lifelock I think Norton is included

external backup of the data would be recommended and a fresh install of the OS (if possible) -

I think advast has a try it for free option.

And once stuff looks clean - run the system file checker option - it will detect file modifications in Windows 10 an restore official copies back.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system-files-79aa86cb-ca52-166a-92a3-966e85d4094e


if you have no a/v software installed, go with defender (Microsoft free) it is not a bad product once you get it configured.

[battlemidget]

bestbuy has a flat rate cleaning/removal service. They try to upsell you all sorts of stuff, fyi. The flat rate service is legit, but I wouldn't go for any subscriptions or additional services.

[Gman]

I doubt it's 'infected'. It's probably a potentially unwanted program (PUP) or browser extension/s with notifications through the OS.

I'd look at Programs and Features in Control Panel (can just type appwiz.cpl in the search window and press Enter) and sort by install date to see what may have been installed recently. Pretty easy to research something with the Google if you're not sure of what it is/does. Same goes for browser extensions if you don't understand what they do.

This might help you understand what could be going on: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/scam-browser-notification-prompts-increased-by-69-percent-in-2019/

My mom gets this crap with scareware that wants you to call a number or pay for support, etc. She just stops what she's doing and calls me. Nothing gets encrypted or broken, but it sure is annoying. Just have to stop the page from opening on launch and remove any references from browser history.

[brutal]

There's several tools that can be used and those available on Bleeping computer as linked above are a start, but they are better left to someone skilled. It also takes time so saving personal files and reloading might just be the best recourse and should always be a priority before making any changes.

I know this is hindsight you don't want to hear right now, but creating a recovery drive to a USB, a system backup, and saving data in the cloud (use a service that does versioning) is paramount to a successful recovery.

[arbol]

If Malwarebytes is not taking care of it, you likely have a serious problem.

I like Brutal's backup your data, format and reinstall, option.