If you’re a computer user, you know that it’s important to keep your computer clean. Cleaning the computer can help prevent viruses and other malware from spreading, and it can also help improve the performance of your computer. One way to clean your computer is to use an antivirus boot disc or USB drive. An antivirus boot disc or USB drive is a disk that contains software that will start your computer when you insert it. This disk will also contain a file called the antivirus program’s startup files. To use an antivirus boot disc or USB drive, first make sure that your computer is up and running. Then insert the disk into the drive and restart your computer. The antivirus program on the disk will start automatically and will ask you to choose one of three options: clean, check for updates, or scan my system for viruses. If you choose clean, the antivirus program will clean all of your files and folders on your hard drive. If you choose check for updates, the antivirus program will check for new updates every day and tell you whether there are any new updates available. If you choose scan my system for viruses, the antivirus program will scan all of your files and folders for viruses. If you decide to use an antivirus boot disc or USB drive, be sure to follow these steps:
- Make sure that all of your computers are up and running before inserting the disk into one of them. This includes computers that are used by yourself as well as those used by others in a networked environment.
- Insert the disk into one of your computers’ drives so that it is located at the top-left corner of the screen when you start up your computer again after inserting the disk into another machine’s drive (or if this is not possible, insert it into a location where it can be found). The icon for an antivirus boot disc or USBdrive should now be located at this
This is where bootable antivirus solutions come in. They can clean malware from outside the infected Windows system, so the malware won’t be running and interfering with the clean-up process.
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The Problem With Cleaning Up Malware From Within Windows
Standard antivirus software runs within Windows. If your computer is infected with malware, the antivirus software will have to do battle with the malware. Antivirus software will try to stop the malware and remove it, while the malware will attempt to defend itself and shut down the antivirus. For really nasty malware, your antivirus software may not be able to fully remove it from within Windows.
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Rootkits, a type of malware that hides itself, can be even trickier. A rootkit could load at boot time before other Windows components and prevent Windows from seeing it, hide its processes from the task manager, and even trick antivirus applications into believing that the rootkit isn’t running.
The problem here is that the malware and antivirus are both running on the computer at the same time. The antivirus is attempting to fight the malware on its home turf — the malware can put up a fight.
Why You Should Use an Antivirus Boot Disc
Antivirus boot discs deal with this by approaching the malware from outside Windows. Boot your computer from a CD or USB drive containing the antivirus and it loads a specialized operating system (usually built on Linux) from the disc. Even if your Windows installation is completely infected with malware, the special operating system won’t have any malware running within it.
This means the antivirus program can work on the Windows installation from outside. The malware won’t be running while the antivirus tries to remove it, so the antivirus can methodically locate and remove the harmful software without it interfering.
Any rootkits won’t be able to set up the tricks they use at Windows boot time to hide themselves from the rest of the operating system. The antivirus will be able to see the rootkits and remove them.
These tools are often referred to as “rescue disks.” They’re meant to be used when you need to rescue a hopelessly infected system.
Bootable Antivirus Options
As with any type of antivirus software, you have quite a few options. Many antivirus companies offer bootable antivirus systems based on their antivirus software. These tools are generally free, even when they’re offered by companies that specialized in paid antivirus solutions. Here are a few good options:
Avast! Rescue Disk – Avast! offers the ability to create an antivirus boot disc or USB drive. Just navigate to the Tools -> Rescue Disk option in the Avast! desktop application to create bootable media. TrendMicro Rescue Disk – TrendMicro consistently performs well in Antivirus comparisons, and they offer a rescue utility that can be run from a regular disc or a USB flash drive, Avira Rescue System – Avira, another solid antivirus program, also offers a rescue utility. You’ll need to use Rufus in order to create a bootable USB drive,
These are just a handful of options. If you prefer another antivirus for some reason — like Comodo, Norton, Kaspersky, ESET, or almost any other antivirus product — you’ll probably find that it offers its own system rescue disk.
How to Use an Antivirus Boot Disc
Using an antivirus boot disc or USB drive is actually pretty simple. You’ll just need to find the antivirus boot disc you want to use and burn it to disc or install it on a USB drive. You can do this part on any computer, so you can create antivirus boot media on a clean computer and then take it to an infected computer.
Insert the boot media into the infected computer and then reboot. The computer should boot from the removable media and load the secure antivirus environment. (If it doesn’t, you may need to change the boot order in your BIOS or UEFI firmware.) You can then follow the instructions on your screen to scan your Windows system for malware and remove it. No malware will be running in the background while you do this.
Antivirus boot discs are useful because they allow you to detect and clean malware infections from outside an infected operating system. If the operating system is severely infected, it may not be possible to remove — or even detect — all the malware from within it.
