These are simple tests you can perform to see if your computer is infected with malware or has malware damage:

NOTE: This is not a definitive test, but rather a quick initial test. If your computer passes these tests, it doesn't mean that your computer is virus free. If your computer fails these tests, but your antivirus software finds no malware don't be surprised. During my recent testing of the so-called "Google redirect virus", seven antivirus software programs did NOT catch it! One anti-virus software that did catch it, unfortunately was unsuccessful at removing it. The best method was to manually fix it. Palisades Computer Repair specializes in virus removal.

Quite often when a computer is infected with viruses, attempts to visit legitimate web sites related to antivirus software will result in your browser being "hijacked" or redirected to strange unrelated sites.

Test #1

Run a search query for "antivirus" at www.Google.com.

Click some of the resulting links to free.avg.com, www.avast.com, www.mcafee.com, and www.symantec.com to see if you are properly directed to the real websites. The two images below are from the real web sites...

   

 

Test #2

Click this link: http://www.filehippo.com/software/antimalware/antivirus

(NOTE: FileHippo.com is a legitimate site that provides links to safe, tested software)

Hopefully you get directed to the REAL site, which looks like this....

However if you get redirected to strange sites (like the two pictured below) then your computer (and/or router) is almost certainly infected or has been altered by malware...

Test #3

Click to visit this page http://www.malwarebytes.org/

It should look like this...

If you are redirected to some other page then your computer (and/or router) is almost certainly infected. Often an infected computer is redirected to a site (like the one below) that looks like the real thing but is not....

OTHER SIGNS OF MALWARE

Microsoft Security Essentials cannot install or update.

START > Run > type "Services.msc" without quotes.  Often viruses will disable this vital service.

START > Run > type "regedit" without quotes.  Does the registry editor appear?  If not then it is likely that malware disabled it.

START > Run > type "msconfig" without quotes. Does the system configuration window appear?  If not then it is likely that malware disabled it.

Start > Control Panel > Security Center. Often viruses disable the Windows Firewall, and / or antivirus software.

Viruses often disable file associations, so clicking a shortcut to a program only produces an error message.

Does the system configuration window appear? If not then it is likely that malware disabled it.

Firefox > Tools > Options > Advanced > Network tab > Connection: Configure how Firefox connects to the Internet > Settings > It should be set to "no proxy" by default. Viruses often set this to "manual proxy configuration" in order to hijack your Internet searches.

Drive C > WIndows > system32 > Drivers > etc > do you see a "hosts" file in this location? If not, it's likely that a virus modified it and may have even hidden it. If you see the hosts file then open it with word pad. At the bottom it should read "127.0.0.1 localhost". If you see all sorts of strange we addresses listed then a virus has like infected this important hosts file.

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