Mild infections are considered those that lead to annoying pop-ups, browser hi-jackers and the general sense that your systems is running sluggishly. Often times the Maintenance Tools, when run in Safe Mode, will do the trick. However, sometimes some more specialized programs will be needed. For information about Save Mode, go HERE.

Typically, before any cleanup of these mild infections we like to manually delete all cookies, temporary files, *.temp, and prefetch files in the c:\Windows\prefetch folder.

Hijack This is a great little tool, when used CORRECTLY, can quickly and efficiently remove annoyances. For detailed information on how to use Hijack This, go HERE.

ComboFix is a little more brutal, but run in Safe Mode, it has released hundreds of our machines from the grips of some nasty software that might have toyed with permissions, installed ransome ware or messed with the registry.

Another of our favorites is Smitfraud Fix which is a good one for cleaning up the registry and bugs in your desktop when you use option 2. Beware, your desktop background will be blank when you are done, but you can reset it later. There is also a good DNS redirect fixer in this tool as well. For more detailed information on it's usage, go HERE.

After running these specialized tools, you should run your antivirus program in safe mode.