Windows Repair stalls

[WMdotcom]

Using Windows Vista, SP2.
Windows Repair was suggested to me in an aVast forum about viruses and worms because my email has been sending out spam on a regular basis since September and I haven't been able to stop it. From previous detective work and help from my ISP, I am assuming it's malware on my computer, and aVast suggested a couple of programs to download to try to figure out the source of the problem. The few things they suggested at first didn't result in any helpful information, so then they suggested two programs to download. One was Farbar, and that crashed my computer, and the other was Zoek, and I was denied access to run it. They then suggested Windows Repair after I ran system file checker and discovered problems that Windows didn't fix.

However, when I ran your program, it stalled when it got to the Internet explorer repair. It was hung up there for 7 hours so I finally stopped the repairs and rebooted my computer. It doesn't seem to have done any damage, but I'm wondering what could have been the problem, since this is unexpected behaviour. The aVast people are now telling me to reformat my computer. The thing is, I don't have any problems other than the spam, and the trouble I had with their two program suggestions so that seems a bit drastic.

Also wondering if you have any suggestions. The Repair Tool did get through the first 6 repairs. I have a log of that, and also my own SFC log.
Thanks for any help or suggestions.

[Willy2]

If your system sends out spam on a regular basis then I would expect that the "virus" has added itself to Task Scheduler (TS). Keep in mind, TS has 2 sets of tasks. One set of tasks that are added by installed programs and a second batch of tasks that are added by Microsoft.

Perhaps there's a process that's running upon start up and is responsible for sending out that spam.

Try to run Windows Repair in Safe Mode.

[WMdotcom]

Perhaps there's a process that's running upon start up and is responsible for sending out that spam.

Try to run Windows Repair in Safe Mode.

Thanks, Willy2. I may try that.

[Willy2]

Piriform's CCleaner is able to show the "Hidden" tasks that are added by e.g. Microsoft.

Try also this: If one repair takes too much time then abort the program and restart the program and resume the program with the repair right after the "problematic" repair and then try to run all repairs a second time.

It takes WR about 20 to 40 minutes to run all repairs on my Win 7 system.

[Boggin]

Windows Repair isn't an antimalware scanner so if your computer is infected, then it won't be able to do anything for you because the infection will be active.

Was the ESET Free Online Scanner one of the suggested programs to try ?

If not then boot up into Safe Mode with Networking and give it a run.

http://www.eset.com/us/online-scanner/

Check the boxes for PuPs and PuMs then click on Advanced and check those boxes except for the Proxy and Archives.

It also has a box to auto uninstall when done.

[WMdotcom]

Was the ESET Free Online Scanner one of the suggested programs to try ?
If not then boot up into Safe Mode with Networking and give it a run.
http://www.eset.com/us/online-scanner/
Check the boxes for PuPs and PuMs then click on Advanced and check those boxes except for the Proxy and Archives.

Thanks Boggin. ESET was not one of the recommended scans.

Is Safe Mode the only way to do this? Also, is there anything I should watch out for while it's running? I was so surprised that the Windows Repair tool stalled for so long and was afraid to stop the repairs but did it anyway. In future I hope I will have some idea of what to expect before making decisions that could actually make things worse.

[Boggin]

No, it will run in normal mode but where infections are concerned, they can be isolated in Safe Mode so as not to block any downloads.

It will tell you as and when if it has found anything during it's scan.