Okay, you start experiencing that your PC is not working properly. You have noticed a sudden drop in its performance. Well, there are many reasons if your computer system is not performing in that manner it should be. One of the main reason for the performance drop of the computer system is a “virus”. In this article, you will know three ways “how to get rid of a virus” on a computer system without having an antivirus installed on it.
What is a virus?
In very simple terms, the virus is a computer program which is coded in such a way that it can steal or modify your personal data that is stored in a computer system. It comes to anyone’s device without their knowledge. A virus has the reproductive ability, means it can copy itself and infect computers. There are many possible reasons through which your computer becomes virus infected. It can come to your computer, laptop, or any device through online downloads, just opening the emails and even from USB/Flash drives inserted into the PC or laptop.
Well, it can be removed by a good antivirus program also but to get these, you have expense some money and I think, not everyone can afford it. However, you can use some reputed free antivirus as well just for the assurance of the virus infection. So, here are the three methods you can use to manually delete computer viruses without using any antivirus. Let’s get these methods.
How To Get Rid Of A Virus Using CMD Command:
1.) CMD will be the prime option if we are considering to remove viruses without using any antivirus program. The first step to do so you have to run the command prompt as an administrator. Select Cortana or search box and type “CMD”. Right-click on CMD from the search result and select Run as administrator.
2.) Now you are running command prompt as an administrator mode. Now, you need to type the driveletter of the suspected drive in your computer. Example”C:” if you think that drive “C” contains the viruses. It means, simply put suspected driveletter here like “D:“, “E:“, and so on.
3.) If it is any particular file or folder you’ll need to change directory (CD). To do this, simply type CD\filepath.
Note: Replace the filepath with the suspected file or folder name. Example: cd\demo
4.) Now that you’re in the suspected folder directory. Here, you need to inspect this directory, type dir, and hit Enter. This will give you the whole figure of the directory, the file and the folder it contains. Remember, here you will not see the hidden file or folder.minus any hidden files or folders.
5.) To display hidden files and folder, you need to use attrib command. The attrib command will display hidden files or folder which done by the viruses and malware. This is the necessary step to unhide those files. So, let’s get it first.
Type the following code in command prompt and hit Enter: Attrib -s -h *.* /s /d
This particular attrib command will clear system attributes and will show hidden files and folders.
6.) Okay, it is done. Now, recheck its times to recheck the directory. Again type “dir” and hit Enter. Now, Look for files like autorun.inf, .exe, .vbm, etc.
7.) Look at the suspected files and delete. Use “del” before the filename.extension and delete them. Like type del filename.extension and press Enter. Example: del autorun.inf.
8.) To confirm the deletion, look at the directory again by typing “dir“. Do the same process for the other suspected files and delete the viruses.
How To Get Rid Of A Virus Using Task Manager:
This is another great method you can use to detect the virus in your computer system. The Task Manager is an excellent tool through which you can monitor unauthorized activity running on the background. In this case, you can disable any possible services that a virus may be running which helps you remove that virus when you’re ready.
- To access the Task Manager, press Ctrl+Alt+Delete and choose task manager or search task manager in the search box or simply right-click on the taskbar and select Task Manager from it.
- Now head over to the “Processes” tab and “Services” tab one by one and look at all the suspicious apps or any service running in the background. Just find them and “Stop” or “End Task“.
- Next, click on the “Startup” tab check for any unusual apps that start running when the computer system starts. If you find something Enabled, select it then select Disable.
Using Safe Mode To Delete Virus:
Windows Safe Mode option is also very helpful to identify viruses. When the computer system is running in safe mode, it runs a minimum set of software, drivers, and service and prevents any applications from loading further. It turns the Windows computer in a very basic form. As the minimum number of applications are running, there is a greater chance to catch those nasty viruses.
To put your computer into the safe mode follow the process below:
1.) Press the Windows+R on the keyboard and type “msconfig” in the search bar. This will open system configuration.
2.) Now, click on the “Boot” tab, check the “Safe boot” and click the “Network” radio button. Well, clicking the radio button is an optional step, if you don’t want to use the internet in safe mode then simply don’t select.
Okay, You are now successfully entered into the safe mode. Now your computer system is faster than before. Next, just follow any of the following processes from above and kill the viruses.
