To remove some malware, it is not enough to use a simple antivirus, many of them are persistent and remain on your computer for a long time
Imagine the scene: your antivirus tells you that your computer is infected with a virus. The system reassures you that the malware has been isolated but your browser is still having problems and you also notice that your PC is constantly slowing down. Most probably you have been infected with persistent malware.
What is persistent malware? As you can guess from the name, it is a virus that, in spite of antivirus security measures, remains on your device and continues to infect your computer. Fortunately, there are some actions that the user can take in this case to try to "restore" the PC. First, let's make sure that the antivirus has been updated to the latest available version. At this point we perform a full anti-malware scan. Be careful, we should not proceed with the quick scan but the in-depth one, otherwise it is very likely that the security system will not detect any ongoing threat.
How to defend yourself
If with these first two actions the problem is not solved, then we should think about installing a second anti-malware scanner, such as Malwarebytes or Hitman Pro. At this point we make a backup of the most important data on the computer. And let's run a full scan again. So that we understand what has changed between a first scan with all data and a second one with less data in memory. This may help us to locate the persistent virus.
Offline scanner
If all the options mentioned above did not yield the desired results then it is time to use an offline scanner. This will emphasize the analysis of the operating system looking for viruses in the hard disk. Fortunately, if we use a Windows PC we'll be able to download and use such a scanner directly from the U.S. company's website. The scanner in question is Windows Defender Offline. But in case your computer doesn't use the Microsoft operating system, there are no problems. On the Net there are several solutions from other companies. For example, Power Eraser, the offline scanner from Norton. But also Kaspersky Virus Removal or Hitman Pro Kickstart. All these tools specialize in removing one type of persistent malware.