by Renars Silters

Created on: October 23, 2008

Umm.. I'd like to start with "Does anybody still use Internet Explorer?". The statistics show that most people, including me, use Mozilla Firefox which has proved to be one of the most secure web browsers around.

Situation:

You do not have antivirus and Internet Explorer has been taken over by a virus and you can't open it to download anti virus software.

Solution 1:

May sound a little complicated, but that is what you have to do to get rid of the virus.

First we should download Mozilla Firefox and hope that it won't get infected by a virus before we install some "medication".

Remembering that we don't have any working web browser, so we'll try to use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to download Firefox.

Click Start, Run and type "cmd"

Next in our plan is to connect to Mozilla's FTP server, so in the (black) window that has just opened type "ftp ftp.mozilla.org". Then type provide "anonymous" as the username and your e-mail address as password.

Next type "cd pub/firefox/releases/latest-2.0/win32/en-US/"

We're now in the right directory, so let's download Firefox by typing the following EXACTLY as it looks here (including the ")

get "Firefox Setup 2.0.0.17.exe"

Wait until the download finishes, then close the black command line window and go to the directory where Firefox has been downloaded (Usually C:\Documents and Settings\(your username)), and start Firefox installation.

When you're done with installing, open up Firefox and quicklu browse away to http://free.grisoft.com and download AVG Free anti virus. AVG Free is the best solution you can get for emergencies, since you save a lot of time by not being required to register or buy the software. After downloading AVG, install it and run full system scan. By default AVG tries to heal the files, so it would probably heal Internet Explorer too (but please try to avoid using it in the future). If healing isn't going well, AVG will quarantine the infected file.

Solution 2:

This is probably the easiest way - I'd recommend to take out your computer's hard disk and either take it to local computer store for cleanup (People there tend to be smart), or take it to your friend's or collegue's house, first making sure that he has anti virus software installed. Check the jumpers on your hard disk and make sure it is set to act as slave, then attach it to the computer. Your friend's/collegue's anti virus software should automatically start detecting viruses on your hard disk. In case it does not, perform a full scan on your disk.

I hope this helps.

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