I believe I've got it down to a science.
1. Unhackme - http://www.greatis.com/unhackme/ removes ALL of those Antivirus 20xx both the fake alerts and the programs that can't be uninstalled. Deals with the registry so the usuall legalese to registry modification aplies so be careful. But by the time I see the system the user was already planning a clean install, which I rarely do.
2. Combofix - http://www.combofix.org/download.php removes all the browser hijacks and redirects.
Note the malware is broken at this point.
3. ATF Cleaner http://download.cnet.com/ATF-Cleaner/3000-18512_4-89432.html cleans all the temp files, including internet histories from both all users and any other user profiles on the system.
The following should be ignored unless you have the specific problem.
4. For problems opening EXE files. I retract my earlier recommendation from here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/exefile.htm and agree with reghackr that http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm item 12 resets all the keys and it is simple. Lately, I've had to use this after removing viruses from infected systems. Note exefix.reg is not an exe file but a registry key import file avoiding the whole exe problem.
5. For the debugger errors that occur from web pages http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822521 and click "Fix it".
That is it. I haven't met a system that isn't fixed after these procedures in the last year. The only exception is the reinstall of my sons computer, but the malware was gone on his machine. The problem was exe files didn't work and I've since found the cure in step 4. Just put the exefix.reg on a USB drive and the system is back to normal. Further more Windows is back to regular speed.
1. Unhackme - http://www.greatis.com/unhackme/ removes ALL of those Antivirus 20xx both the fake alerts and the programs that can't be uninstalled. Deals with the registry so the usuall legalese to registry modification aplies so be careful. But by the time I see the system the user was already planning a clean install, which I rarely do.
2. Combofix - http://www.combofix.org/download.php removes all the browser hijacks and redirects.
Note the malware is broken at this point.
3. ATF Cleaner http://download.cnet.com/ATF-Cleaner/3000-18512_4-89432.html cleans all the temp files, including internet histories from both all users and any other user profiles on the system.
The following should be ignored unless you have the specific problem.
4. For problems opening EXE files. I retract my earlier recommendation from here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/exefile.htm and agree with reghackr that http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm item 12 resets all the keys and it is simple. Lately, I've had to use this after removing viruses from infected systems. Note exefix.reg is not an exe file but a registry key import file avoiding the whole exe problem.
5. For the debugger errors that occur from web pages http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822521 and click "Fix it".
That is it. I haven't met a system that isn't fixed after these procedures in the last year. The only exception is the reinstall of my sons computer, but the malware was gone on his machine. The problem was exe files didn't work and I've since found the cure in step 4. Just put the exefix.reg on a USB drive and the system is back to normal. Further more Windows is back to regular speed.