AVG 2011 Corrupts windows Vista [Warning and help needed thread]

Roe

So I was bombarded by windows vista virus scan (probably a virus itself) and downloaded AVG 2011 Free, hoping for a quick and cheap fix.

Updating and virus scan were painless and quick, but after I scanned for rootkits I restarted my computer. Shortly after, I arrived to Windows being corrupted.

I can't start regular exes properly now, and I cannot load restore states for windows. I searched online and found a reminder, that when starting up your computer, you can go into safe mode and restore your computer back to the last save state. The problem with that is, I am using a logitec USB keyboard, and it doesn't seem to work during the computer is starting up.

I searched online for a driver, lo and behold, the executable doesn't want to run because of Windows being corrupted.

Is there any way to help without buying a wired keyboard?

TetraNitroCubane

I'm going to be brutally honest and say that for your current situation, the best idea (and the fastest) way to solve your woes is a complete reformat and reinstall of Windows. Despite what you're thinking, reformatting will really be less of a headache in the long run, and much more secure. When you have a freshly installed system, go with Microsoft Security Essentials instead of AVG for your Antivirus. I'd also highly recommend getting an Adblocker and a ScriptBlocker (NoScript in particular if you're using FireFox), which will go a long way in preventing things like "Vista Virus Scan" from even reaching your computer in the first place.

If you need to recover your data before you reformat, I'd recommend using a LiveCD like Hiren's Boot CD to boot into a mini XP environment, and copy your sensitive data to a USB drive. Be sure to scan that drive thoroughly before restoring the data to the newly installed system.

TL DR

Try moving the received for the wireless keyboard to a rear USB port, if it's not there already. I've seen where the system doesn't access front USB ports until the OS has booted.

You do not want to format, actually, since if you install Vista (or, if you love yourself, 7) onto that same partition, all your data will be copied to a Windows.old folder for you to recover. After installing Microsoft Security Essentials, of course.

AVG was great in 2008. It's crap now.

TetraNitroCubane

TL,DR wrote:

Try moving the received for the wireless keyboard to a rear USB port, if it's not there already. I've seen where the system doesn't access front USB ports until the OS has booted.

You do not want to format, actually, since if you install Vista (or, if you love yourself, 7) onto that same partition, all your data will be copied to a Windows.old folder for you to recover. After installing Microsoft Security Essentials, of course.

AVG was great in 2008. It's crap now.

Reformatting is really the only way to be sure you've rid yourself of malware. Reinstalling over an existing, infected partition can allow the malware to infect the newly installed OS immediately. If we're talking about a rootkit here (which is very possible), then it's going to be infecting the Master Boot Record in addition to the operating system, meaning that it can easily survive reinstallation in the absence of a reformat.

Stormwatcher

I agree with Tetra. Nuking from orbit is the only way to be sure.

Roe

On a related note, is there a way to reboot into safe mode on Vista without selecting it from startup dos?

TetraNitroCubane

Assuming you can get booted into normal mode, go to the Start Menu, and select Run. Type in "msconfig" when prompted. When the program loads up, choose the "Boot" tab. Check the "Safe boot" box under boot options, hit apply, and then okay. This will prompt you to reboot the system, and will take you direct into safe mode without any interaction on startup.

When you're done in safe mode, be sure to repeat the process, but instead of going to the "Boot" tab, go to the "General" tab and select "Normal Startup".