Install Antivirus In Safe Mode Windows 7
Mar 06, 2010 Read this article on how to run an antivirus scan in safe mode. Safe Mode option in Windows. Antivirus Scan in Safe Mode. If your antivirus.
The advantage to running them in Safe Mode is that only the requires processes are running. This helps in two ways. First, there's not a lot of programs running that eat up system resources, access the hard drive, etc, meaning the AV scanner can finish the job faster and easier. The other, and greater, benefit is that if you have malware on your computer, chances are it won't be running.
Some malware is 'smart' enough to disable your AV, 'strong' enough to withstand an attempted removal, or 'clever' enough to 'hide' from it during a scan. If it's not active like it is in Normal Mode it can't manipulate things from behind the scenes, meaning you'll have a much better chance of finding and successfully removing the malware with your AV. One final note is that some malware will hide in, or store copies of itself in, your System Restore points.
Using that technique, it can/will be able to come back after you remove it with your AV. Thus, if it seems malware keeps coming back immediately after you remove it you should disable System Restore (right-click My Computer, select Properties, select the System Restore tab, and check 'turn off system restore on all drives') to purge all System Restore points, scan again, then re-enable System Restore. Hope this helps, John. I am sorry I forgot to let you know my system in the previous post. Pentium 4 ASUS Intel P4 3.0 GHZ Prescott 1MB CPU Socket 478 ASUS P4S800-MX Motherboard onboard VGA + Audio + Nic RAM 1024MB DDR400 Legend CL2 CL2.5 CL3 Western Digital 80 GB 7200RPM 8MB cache Hard Disk Drive Sony 3.5' floppy Disk Mitzubishi DV171 JB 171JB 17inch 16MS Beige LCD with speakers Microsoft Windows XP Home OEM Liteon DVD+/-R/RW 16X Burner dual layer ADSL MODEM DLINK Evercase 120MM case Fan Ball bearing MS Works Suite 2005 OEM Cannon IP 1500AU Colour Printer Thanks John and I look forward to your answer about Safe Mode and the running of the programs I asked about.
To enter Safe Mode, restart your computer and press F8 during boot. You will then be presented with a menu of options, including Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, etc. (There are differences between the various Safe Mode modes, but generally you'll want plain old Safe Mode.use the arrow keys and enter to select it.) If you reach the Windows boot screen with the Windows XP logo and bar going across the bottom you've waited too long.restart and try again.
You'll then be presented with the Windows XP login, with the difference being only administrative accounts will be lists.the guest and limited users won't be available options. Login and you'll be alerted you're in Safe Mode.you can also tell from the dumbed-down appearance.
Only the bare basics will be running, meaning your AV, firewall, etc will be off. You can launch/run most applications as you normally would. (Check the Start menu, launch from a shortcut, or go to C: Program Files and launch them from there.) In regular Safe Mode networking is disabled, meaning you won't have internet access. In Safe Mode with Networking you would, but my word of caution here is that you'll connect to the internet without any protection running, so you'd want to launch it manually ASAP. (That's why plain old Safe Mode is standard.) When you're finished, simply restart your computer.it will automatically go back to 'Normal Mode' unless you tell it otherwise again. Hope this helps, John.
Thank you very much John for your informative answer. I am the only one here, no one else has an account at all, SO I would not know the password to log in if I had to!
Safe Mode Windows 7 Professional
As no one else has an account will the log in screen still show I wonder? (I had a look in 'User Accounts' and I think I just click on my real name and that would log me in) Does that sound correct? I am also in 'selective startup' it will not change that will it? Sorry to be such a duffer, but it is better to ask first than be in a mess later! In Safe Mode the login screen will be displayed even if you are the only user of the computer.
Remember that Windows XP automatically creates the administrative account Administrator when setup, which will remain hidden (not display on the Welcome/login screen) in normal mode if you created another administrative account as prompted. Thus, if you don't normally use the account Administrator, you'll see two listed in Safe Mode.yours and Administrator.
Sudoku billions of free games. You can choose either one, and Administrator will go back to being hidden when you return to 'normal mode.' Also, entering Safe Mode will not affect Selective Startup.that option only affects Normal Mode.
Safe Mode is like a super-selective startup in which only the base Windows processes are launched. Once you restart and automatically return to normal mode, 'selective startup' options will be used, unchanged. Hope this helps, John P.S. You're not a duffer, just someone curious as to the deeper workings of your computer. Asking for more information is never a bother, and as most of us have found out (the hard way), it's better to ask and be sure of yourself before proceeding.
Marvellous answer John, now I am confident enough to have a go at this safe mode jazz. Thank you so much. Mark Flax has guided me through (over weeks) so much regarding processes running, fewer startup programs in msconfig that life wouldn't be worth living if I messed up this lear jet computer he has created for me! He also explained all about services running and what one can do in that area, so you can see why I am so careful as to what I attempt. I am now down to 35 processes running from 58 after Mark started to refine my computer for me.
Many thanks for your concise answers. More to the point, thank you all for taking interest in this thread and explaining how to execute these options for beginners. I rebooted into safe mode, ran AVG FREE and afterwards Counterspy with clear results, then rebooted as normal.
But on the first reboot out of safe mode,the computer froze showing an outline of AVG Control Centre showing on the desktop along with the Configuration Utility dialog box. Nothing worked, so I had to cut the power at my UPS, reboot and the second time my computer froze yet again. (This time almost at complete bootup showing normal screen with none of the dialog boxes as in the first boot) but again nothing worked so I cut all power again to get out of it, rebooted and everything was normal! John or/and Mark could you help with the above please? What did I do wrongly?
As I followed John's advice given earlier to the letter. John, I also I checked I am in Selective Start in msconfig (you said I would be) but Counterspy put back in msconfig/startup without asking me - I have removed it. That all frightened me to death so I look forward to your answers when you have the time please. If I remember rightly, (but I may be wrong), did we not decide that Sunserver.exe was a part of CounterSpy, and as you had decided to retain CounterSpy as part of your suite against spyware, then perhaps Sunserver.exe should remain in MSCONFIG, the Startup Utility. As you are now able to boot up into Normal mode I would put this down to a temporary glitch.
Windows has them you know,. In fact previous Windows versions had them all the time, and whilst XP is much more stable, it can happen. I remember a few months back I suddenly got a BSOD, (Blue Screen of Death error screen). It flashed so quickly I couldn't read the error message. But I checked everything I could, logs, hardware, virus/spyware checks etc, and found nothing wrong. So I had to put it down to a Windows glitch.
If you like you could try and re-produce the situation by going back into Safe Mode and using AVG again, but personally I wouldn't, unless there was a need to in the future. To add to John's excellent answer. I notice you say you run AVG and Avast anti-virus, one one week, the next in the 2nd week, and so on. Do either of these anti-virus programs run in the background?
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They are usually designed to do so when Windows is running normally, (unless they have been purposely disabled), so they can virus check everything that comes into the computer, either from downloads, emails or CD's etc. My point is, if you have both AVG and Avast running in the background there could be conflicts if, for example, both anti-virus programs attempt to grab a file to virus check it at the same time. The general rule is; 1 Only one firewall running. 2 Only one Anti-Virus running. That doesn't mean you can only have one.
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You can have more than one but the others must be disabled from running continuously, and they can be used on occasion to double check the main one. 3 Although more than one Anti-Spyware can be running in the background, my feeling is that it would not be advisable. Use just one continuously, and check with the others regularly.
4 A utility like CCleaner, run it whenever you like. I hope this helps.