Some of the major symptoms of the Vundo virus are the pop-ups. Vundo will cause your web browser to pop up advertisements for software that is either antivirus, anti-spyware, or for software that will fix the “deterioration” of your computer. These programs are bad news. Whether the programs are anti-spyware or anti-virus, they essentially do the same thing. These rogue programs will have you pay for a “full version” of the software, then automatically run and falsely tell you it found and removed parasites on your system. Seems harmless, huh? Well its not, because these programs <i>are</i> the infection, and come bundled with other malware that install on your system and give access to your computer and its contents to outside sources. Your bank account information can be swiped, your identity stolen, and your computer used in denial-of-service attacks all because of these rogue programs.

Another obvious sign of infection by the Vundo virus is that your background will be changed to the image of an installation window saying there is adware on your computer, and your screensaver will be changed to the “Blue Screen of Death.” If you realize that your background and screensaver have been changed and go to your display properties to change them back, you will quickly find out that the screensaver and background tabs are missing.

In an attempt to prevent you from removing the virus, Vundo will disable your Task Manager and/or Windows Registry Editor. Another symptom of Vundo may be that your desktop icons will disappear only to reappear after a few minutes. If you are trying to run programs, this quickly becomes frustrating as Vundo automatically aborts the programs. Your web access may be impacted as well. Vundo can cause many websites to be inaccessible and the only sign you’ll have of this is your web browser hanging as you try to go to these websites.

Having worked with computers all my adult life, there is nothing that gets my blood boiling like a virus infection on my machine. Vundo is one of the nastiest because of how difficult it is to get rid of. Traditionally, you would have to run antivirus or anti-spyware programs and then search for what was missed, since most programs remove most of the Vundo virus but not all of it, leaving it to reinstall itself as soon as you reboot.

Today there is a much easier solution than digging around in your computer’s registry, praying you are not removing or changing something your computer needs to work as you try to save your system from Trojans like the Vundo virus. What you need to do to fix this situation is find a good anti-spyware that takes out Trojans or a good antivirus application. Many companies will come up with a fix for you if you have found something new. Some companies get back to you within a matter of hours, while others can take days. You need to do your research to find out which companies offer the services that are important to you. Sometimes you may need a combination of programs. To keep myself fully protected, I use both an anti-spyware application and an antivirus.