Will repairing windows get rid of viruses?

September 27, 2009

My family computer, a emachines desktop, has been having problems for years. The screen has often gone black and frozen, and the only way to turn it off is by unplugging it (it doesn’t work to just press the button sometimes).
Also, when we are online, a message comes up that basically says "Windows Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience" Then it asks if you want to send an error report. It usually happens after about 30 minutes-1 hour after you started using the internet. It will then shorten the time between messages and it closing after the first message. It has gotten down to when it will say that even before the window opens, then the computer screen will go blank, and the button will not work. Sometimes when turn off the power, the computer stays on for a whole fifteen seconds while everything else turns off. (Is that normal?)
My parents will buy some cheap anti-virus software, but when I try to scan the computer, the "encountered a problem" message comes up, and then the screen goes blank. This can happen anyway from 3 seconds into the scan, from 5 seconds away from it being done. Sometimes it wil finish, and will have found nothing, which I don’t believe, because it still has so many problems. As compared to it having found around 50 problems when the scan cannot finish because the computer shuts down.
My mom finally got an anti-virus software from her work, called Symnatec anti-virus. From the look of it, it looks like it belongs on Microsft Windows 98, not XP (which is what it is recommened for). It has never found any threats, but the computer is still horrible.
I have tried to download free anti-virus software from online, but the download shuts down in the process.
So am I wondering if just repairing windows will get rid of the viruses, or do I have to do a complete reinstallation? Which my mom doesn’t want to do because she will lose all the things that she needs for her work. She doens’t anything about computers (she thought the pipes screen saver meant the computer was having a meltdown) but she is very stubborn about what we are going to do about it. All she does is complain, swear under her breath, and slam her fist on the desk, but she refuses to do anything about it. (As is buy a new computer, better anti-virus protection, or completely reinstall windows, if that’s what I need to do).
Thank you for reading all of this (if you did) and any help would be appreciated, if on my question at the top, or any suggestions of good anti-virus software.
Thanks again
We have tried firefox and the message still comes up. I have also downloaded the newest version of Internet Exploer, and still the same thing.

Computer help for Windows Vista. virus? memory problems?

September 25, 2009

My 32 bit windows vista has just had its second birthday and I’m beginning to have major problems with it. It has always run very smoothly because I have always been sure to keep it up to date with the latest updates and virus protections. And, despite what other people say about how "terrible" Vista is I really think its been much faster than any XP ive ever had.
I have Norton Antivirus 360 (version 1 i think) and there has never been a time without it and it says the computer is secure and it full system scans 2 times per week.
I also have Windows Defender and I click on it to full system scan it atleast once a month and it cant detect any viruses, but it likes to turn itself off without my permission and i have to turn it back on to scan (I heard that is because of Norton and is nothing to worry about, please correct me if im wrong)
I have a registry cleaner called Eusing Free Registry Cleaner and I scan the computer with it at least once per week and fix all of the registry issues, which seems to slightly speed up the computer for a couple of hours.
I also occasionally download and use the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool and full system scan with it. It says while its scanning that 2 files are infected and when it is done scanning it says that nothing is infected and the computer is running normally, although its like it "forgot" that the computer has 2 infected files and doesn’t seemed to have done anything.
I also use the Disk Cleanup as commonly as the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool and defragment once per week.
Now as far as memory goes I have most of the programs that came with Vista and a few others such as Photoshop Elements, Perfect Typing Pro (a typing program), Google Earth, & Mozilla Firefox (my main browser) and very few personal files. Most of my files, which are mostly thousands of pictures, are kept on 2 USB flash drives and aren’t kept plugged in most of the time.
The memory (RAM) is 2.00 GB and the computers rating is 3.0, according to the System page under System & Maintenance in the Control Panel.
In windows task manager the Physical Memory (MB) says
Total: 1917
Cached: 1209
Free: 39
Kernel Memory (MB) is
Total: 214
Paged: 140
Nonpaged: 74

I would really like to know whats wrong with this computer. Is it possible that I have an undetectable virus or that i got a virus from my flash drives (that i scan as often as the computer) or do i just need to dump the Cache or something?

I really don’t understand much of this stuff but, if anyone could give me (for example) the link to a safe program to either dump all of the unnecessary files, like temporary files, without getting rid of programs or important files or give me a link to a really good working virus scanner or something would be greatly appreciated.

Also be free to ask any other questions about memory, programs, downloads or anything else of the sort pertaining to my computer.

Why is my Windows Vista Home Premium so slow.?

September 21, 2009

I have a custom built pc. It has intel core duo2 4300 @ 1.80GHZ. 1013 megabytes of ram. My windows vista is 64bit.

I have tryed a lot of things to make it faster. Registry cleaner, disk defrag. disk cleanup even formatting my drive n reinstalling windows. I used bitdefender online scanner for viruses and it found nothing.

How can i fix my problem and possibly things that i can do to fix it are free.

How to fix problem with slow starting computer?

September 20, 2009

When I start computer, I cannot open any window and my e-trust antivirus is not working for 4-8 minute. After that all functions are OK. Problem started one week ago.. There is no viruses.
I have windows xp professional

should I buy a virus protection program or just get a new computer?

September 19, 2009

My laptop is right now in a horrible condition. I get a pop up literly every minute. Atleast once a day my laptop just exits out whatever I’m on. My internet speed is about a third of what it should be. Now I don’t know if I should just go buy a new virus protection thing to get rid of all my laptop’s viruses, or is it too late for it and I should just save up for a new computer? Any advice on good anti-virus software?