Purging the Parasites: Introduction
From CastleCopsWiki
 This article is deprecated and is superceded by the Malware Removal and Prevention Procedure.
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Please Print or Save these Instructions: As this is a lot of information to work with at one time, we suggest you print these instructions so that you can make sure you have done everything. Save it in Notepad or Wordpad for easy reference later.
You think your computer has been hijacked or infected with malware such as trojans, viruses and spyware. As such, you have opted to download and use HijackThis [HJT] to post a log. What kind of log you ask? A log created by the HJT tool that lists the many places on your computer that spyware and malware are known to target.
Before posting your HijackThis log, it is mandatory that you run several malware removal programs and a system cleanup utility. HJT is not a stand-alone cleaning tool and it will not scan your entire system. As such, it is extremely important to use the full system scanning tools we recommend before fixing anything with HJT. These automatic detection and removal programs address a broad spectrum of malware including adware, spyware, trojans, worms, viruses, and browser hijackers. We also require you to run a system cleaning utility intended to improve your computer's overall performance.
This new preliminary scanning procedure will provide a dual benefit: Your computer will benefit from the thorough cleaning it provides. We in return, will benefit from being presented with a cleaner system profile containing only those infections which the automatic removal programs failed to erradicate.
It is possible that you may not even need to post a HijackThis log after completing the scans we suggest. If you are satisfied with your computer's performance, and feel your system is no longer infected, then you may decide to take that option. However, if you still feel that your system is infected or hijacked after completing the entire malware removal process, then we will be happy to have you post a log on the HijackThis forum.
Your compliance with this precleaning requirement, will allow the HijackThis staff to clean your infected machine much more efficiently. The resultant time savings will enable us to attend to a greater number of logs in a shorter period of time, thereby benefiting everyone involved.
Please follow all directions carefully.
Now we move on to the Purging the Parasites: Overview page.
