Trojan viruses show as pop-up windows on your desktop, although they have far worse potential effects: rewriting registry entries, disabling Internet access, or leaking critical information to a remote computer. Disabling a Trojan pop-up virus as soon as you notice it can prevent irreparable damage to your computer. You can take several steps to disable Trojans.
Trojan pop-up viruses can act by giving or receiving data from a remote computer. If a Trojan cannot transmit or receive data, it cannot operate as effectively. Completely disable your network connection when dealing with Trojans; turn off and unplug your wireless router and unplug any connection cables from the computer. This minimizes any further effect they may have on your system as you attempt to remove it.
A regularly updated antivirus scanning program is essential to protecting your computer. Updating at least once a week will keep the utility's database current with most known Trojans. When your antivirus software detects infected files, quarantine them. Avoid deleting a file unless you know it's a non-critical system file.
Task Manager allows you to instantly end any running process by opening it with the "Control+Alt+Delete" or "Control+Shift+Escape" key combination. You can right-click any suspicious open tasks in the main menu and select "Go to Process." Clicking "End Process" with the Trojan pop-up window highlighted should instantly abort the program.
System Configuration Utility
Trojans often have an automatic start-up instruction that can be hard to notice because they run as background processes. You can use the System Configuration utility to control which programs automatically load upon start-up. Click "Start" and type "msconfig.exe" into the search bar. Click the "Start-up" tab and search for any unknown programs. Uncheck them and click "Apply." Click the "Services" tab and check the box labeled "Hide All Microsoft Services."
The system registry contains a directory of all software installed on your computer, including start-up information. All programs run a search for their instructions in the system registry and cannot operate without it. To access the registry, click "Start" and type "regedit" into the search box. Navigate to the appropriate subdirectory in the registry and manually delete the software key by right-clicking and choosing the "Delete" option. You can use the registry editor in conjunction with the System Configuration utility for more expedient searching by disabling start-up items and services in System Configuration, leaving the window open for reference and opening the registry editor. Before editing your registry, always create a System Restore point and back up all important files.
Michael Smathers studies history at the University of West Georgia. He has written freelance online for three years, and has been a Demand Studios writer since April 2009. Michael has written content on health, fitness, the physical sciences and martial arts. He has also written product reviews and help articles for video games on BrightHub, and martial arts-related articles on Associated Content.