There are many anti-malware programs out there that will clean your system of nasties, but what happens if you’re not able to use such a program? Autoruns, from SysInternals (recently acquired by Microsoft), is indispensable when removing malware manually.
There are a few reasons why you may need to remove viruses and spyware manually:
Perhaps you can’t abide running resource-hungry and invasive anti-malware programs on your PC
You might need to clean your mom’s computer (or someone else who doesn’t understand that a big flashing sign on a website that says “Your computer is infected with a virus – click HERE to remove it” is not a message that can necessarily be trusted)
The malware is so aggressive that it resists all attempts to automatically remove it, or won’t even allow you to install anti-malware software
Part of your geek credo is the belief that anti-spyware utilities are for wimps
