1) Back up valuable data. If the virus or spyware is deeply imbedded in the system, or the cleanup does not go well, your system may need to be reformatted and reinstalled..

2) Try automated detection and cleanup. Some spyware and viruses disable scanners or prevent them from working properly, so you may be infected even if you have a spyware scanner installed. Download and run the latest versions of Ad Aware and Spybot S&D and try one or more online scans from the next post.

3) Try a special-purpose cleanup tool. There are specialized fixes such as CWShredder for removing CoolWebSearch. If a scanner reports that you have a particular spyware or virus but is unable to clean it, see whether one of the manual tools like McAfee Stinger can clean it. The download pages for these tools (see next post) list the problems they can fix.

4) Try HijackThis last. If you have tried the automated tools but still think you may have spyware or a virus, you can post a HijackThis scan (only!) in our HijackThis section. Because HJT requires special training to interpret the results and can take some time for even a knowledgable person to interpret, only post a scan after having tried the automated solutions. Be sure you have downloaded the latest version of HijackThis before running it and posting your scan.