[NoodleBot™]

Welcome to my short tutorial on how to clean your system of unneccassary junk, how to rid yourself of malware and improve performance of your PC. I'd like to point out these are all very common sensical ideas and should be followed carefully, weekly if you want to remain anonymous as well as have a decent computer, and to ensure you are not infected ( As bad ass as you may be. )

Basically, using software like CCleaner can clean this stuff up for you, but can often miss small things. I believe it is best for everyone wanting to use a computer to be able to clean it properly.


Steps
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Open windows Explorer.exe



Now the first thing you want to do from this very menu, is to carefully hit just the alt key. This will bring up a tiny alternate menu, as seen below.



Simply click on Tools and navigate to Folder Options. Once inside here, simply go to View and do what I have done here.

Most basic forms of malware and spyware have the power to disable this option automatically to make it slightly more annoying to locate, remove and destroy the infected files.



Once you have done this, exit and go back to explorer.exe

You will now see this hidden folder appear.





Now enter this folder.

Note: I myself do not have Windows XP But I will try my best to incorporate methods for both OS'.

Inside this folder, you will see two to three other folders. You will want to begin by cleaning the first one, in my Windows 7, the order (Default) happens to be the C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local folder path.

Mainly, in this first folder, take a look at the names of the folders and the files within them. If you do not recognize them, simply check for them by searching, or searching your installed programs list ( Add or remove a program feature )

If the program is installed, you may want to decide to uninstall it.

Anyways, if you see a program here that you do not recognize, or a string of numbers , most likely you will want to delete this folder/files.



Before leaving this folder, we should definately check out the temp folder.
This is located at C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Temp , and this location of your harddrive stores files that programs, software and your system use to temporarily unpack and manage files with. These are left behind after being used as the installer/service or software has no command to remove them, hence having he name temp files.

I would personally suggest just deleting the whole entire folder, as it is temporary, if Windows or you need the files in that folder, if truly important to your system they will be recreated by Windows when required. Some files you will NOT be allowed to delete, this is perfectly OK and just means your computer will be able to do those current files, the next time your computer shuts off.



Back at the crossroad folders of AppData, it is a great idea to check often in the Microsoft folder within the LocalLow folder, located at
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\LocalLow and ensure that none of your Microsoft folder files from this area are free of .exe files.

However, do not touch the Setup folder.



Back at AppData's folder, we want to now check out the Roaming folder.
Usually any of your applications and software that are able to connect to the internet might store their downloaded files, updates and settings in this area.

Although it is safe to remove these files, you should realize that your software settings would be lost.

Once again just like the first folders just simply browse for strange looking folders, and strange filenames. You might even find .exe's without being inside folders, these should be an immediate sign of compromise to you.

Note: If you are a common user of the Skype software, I would highly suggest pruning through this folder to make sure you do not leave exposed photographs and conversations on your computer. No cleaning software will remove this, only you can.

Just for one last check I would check my documents folder (If you don't know where this one is, I can't help you.) and ensure there are no files you don't know about hanging there. Most common malware to hide in my documents would be a Darkcomet RAT.



Now your computer itself is clean, but there are still some traces left on your computer.

Simply hit the start button and type, MSCONFIG.EXE

This will open possibly one of the most useful items on Windows operating systems.

Here you can control your boot options, as well as services and software on startup/shutdown.

What you want to check is the Startup tab on this menu. Your goal here is to remove any unknown registries and programs ( You probably will recognize the name as a folder you deleted previously, making this part rather point-and-click simple. )

Just uncheck the malware or junk and hit apply. This will ask if you wish to reboot or not, select not now. You will do this later, or at the end of your night.



For example, if I wanted to remove puush from starting up on my computer everytime I turned it on, I would simply disable this and hit Apply. 



For the very last steps, my personal recomendation would be now to run CCleaner at maximum settings to clean any smaller traces we might have missed.

AFter you are done using CCleaner, you will want to reboot your computer before noticing any performance come back. You will want to get in routine of cleaning your computer regularly. With this habit, there eventually gets rid of the need of an Antivirus software, or a program like ccleaner to begin with.

I know this wasn't that advanced, but I feel many people need to know more about their own computer.

Only you know how to clean up the mess you made.


Enjoy a faster, cleaner and more secure system. (PM for help)

[Magicmann]

Good guide man. May have already known this myself, but I could see this helping other's out!

[#R00T~]

Great tutorial, NoodelBot, has come in handy 🤝

[Turtle™]

Very nice, should help a lot of people out so this definitely needs more comments.

[Corso]

Not bad, should try to incorporate the use of some REGEDIT items or a better startup manager method than just MSCONFIG - But over all very solid.

[archangel.dmitry]

This is far from "deep" scanning especially if malware knows how to hide files and registry hives from OS.

Windows 7 and later has hundreds of starting registry keys. Msconfig does not see majority of them.

[NoodleBot™]

This is far from "deep" scanning especially if malware knows how to hide files and registry hives from OS.

Windows 7 and later has hundreds of starting registry keys. Msconfig does not see majority of them.

Exactly why it cannot be done properly in the same walk through.

Users should be expected to know what the registry is if they were able to follow this walk through as well as investigate some of their registry entries. However. Will consider making a small add on or seperate walk through for it.

[Dogelan]

Nice tutorial Noodle! It's basic but yeah, I'm sure newbies will find this useful.

[Aura]

Nice tutorial Noodle 🙂
I should post one about how I do it as I go more in depth then that, but it would be so wrong to type 😝

[NoodleBot™]

Nice tutorial Noodle 🙂
I should post one about how I do it as I go more in depth then that, but it would be so wrong to type 😝

It's a very basic ideology and walk through. If you want to make another go ahead.

[ZURG]

Very nice guide, It can help those who are in need.

[Null Byte]

I would definitely not call this a deep clean; perhaps just a tuneup that can remove very basic infections. You still run the risk of registry infections (namely the shell key, associations and policies), and not all malware will show up in msconfig, nor will it always be hidden in AppData. Also BHO's will remain active against these methods.

It's an OK basic guide but I don't think it should be labeled as a "deep scan". 🤝

[Nightmare™]

Very good guide. Just bookmarked. Thanks man.

[woahxx]

Thanks for this Noodle, I did already know the msconfig.exe - But it's usefull!

[NoodleBot™]

I would definitely not call this a deep clean; perhaps just a tuneup that can remove very basic infections. You still run the risk of registry infections (namely the shell key, associations and policies), and not all malware will show up in msconfig, nor will it always be hidden in AppData. Also BHO's will remain active against these methods.

It's an OK basic guide but I don't think it should be labeled as a "deep scan". 🤝

This was written quite some time ago and I did not refer to any advanced methods - just a manual way to do what programs CCleaner does and misses. This was in no way a 100% for malware guide, this is for general computer cleaning. Of course I should have added the registry part but for some reason I didn't, probably laziness. I might make a new one soon, or add it here.