By Erik Eckel

It's inevitable that clients will infect workstations, PCs, and laptops with spyware and viruses. 

Regardless of preventive steps, from gateway protection to automated scans to written Internet use 

policies, malware threats sneak through even layered defenses. What makes the situation worse is that 

many clients aren't willing to invest in standalone anti-spyware software, even though they understand 

the need for minimal antivirus protection.

Some IT professionals advocate simply wiping systems and reinstalling Windows, while others suggest 

that's akin to giving up and letting the bad guys win. The truth lies somewhere in between. After 

making an image copy of the drive (it's always best to have a fallback option when battling malicious 

infections), here are the measures I find most effective.

1: Isolate the drive

Many rootkit and Trojan threats are masters of disguise that hide from the operating system as soon as 

or before Windows starts. I find that even the best antivirus and antispyware tools -- including AVG 

Anti-Virus Professional, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, and SuperAntiSpyware -- sometimes struggle to 

remove such entrenched infections.

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