Virus or worse

My organ computer is normally disconnected from the internet, but today I did connect it and picked up something while it was updating .

I think the best way to eliminate the malware and to be completely sure is to wipe the disk as completely as possible and reinstall Windows, Hauptwerk, the Metz, and any other sample sets that downloaded to my main machine.

Does this seem reasonable?

I guess I have a "twisted" view of the purpose of the Hauptwerk computers.... I have one computer that is dedicated to the organ. It has (currently) windows 7 installed with service Pac 1. After installing Windows to a clean hard disk it was connected to the internet once to activate windows. Then it was disconnected, the onboard networking and sound both disabled. Then I disabled as much as possible of the stuff that was not needed to support HW.
If it is necessary to do an upgrade such as HW 4.1, etc. it is done with a memory stich that has passed my two virus/malware programs.
Most of the updates to Windows are security related and I personally don't need them.
As with most advise, this is worth what it costs
Kindest regards
Frank

[mdyde]

I think the best way to eliminate the malware and to be completely sure is to wipe the disk as completely as possible and reinstall Windows, Hauptwerk, the Metz, and any other sample sets that downloaded to my main machine.

Hello John,

Yes -- that would probably be the best way to be certain it was back to a valid/working state.

If the only thing you did was connect to the Internet to apply Windows updates, then disconnect again, it seems very unlikely that you would pick up any virus/malware, though (assuming your Internet modem has a built-in firewall, which the vast majority do). The chances of the Windows update mechanism introducing a virus should be negligible (or, at least, Microsoft would get in a *lot* of trouble if it did!).

It might be worth making sure that it is actually a virus/malware problem first (e.g. try scanning it with one of the free scanners such as Malwarebytes), rather than just a Windows/driver issue as a result of a Windows update.

Before you go and wipe it clean:
As Martin mentioned, I also highly recommend Malwarebytes, just used it on my wife's laptop as it had picked up some awful internet re-directing stuff and had slowed the entire computer's performance to a crawl. If left alone it will get worse to the point your computer will pretty much stop working. In my case it had even turned off Microsoft Security Essentials.

Our tech at work turned me on to this site >>> http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/

Click on downloads / security / anti-malware, then find Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and download it, you can try it for free and uninstall it after you are done if you like, worked like a champ for me. If you use your infected computer to download, the virus may fight with you while you attempt to download Malwarebytes and try fooling you into going to another site or give you bogus messages about how to fix it, don't fall for them and be sure the download has completed! Use Chrome or if really needed, download the program from an uninfected computer, put it on a memory stick and initiate it on your infected computer from there. Our tech also suggesed to run RKILL first, as he described it kind of softens things up first. He did forewarn to avoid Combofix as he said it has the tendency to be a bit too harsh and wipe things out completely leaving you re-installing and restoring settings you had not planned on. Also, go into your browser settings and disable / delete any extensions you don't want that could currently be running even though you have not chosen them to do so, which is what Malware does, takes over your computer without your permission.

Good luck and let us know how things go!

Marc

[mdyde]

The makers' website for Malwarebytes is here: https://www.malwarebytes.org/

Thanks for the replies.

I couldn't use malwarebytes because it needs to run inside a program, and I needed a bootable .iso.
Enter dban (Darik's boot and nuke). It runs a suite of diskwipers with several passes each and took 4 hours on my disk.

Windows XP installed but couldn't see any hardware like audio and network. After I beat that horse for a while, I installed Debian which told me firmware wasn't there; installed firmware but still had to config the network manually, and the network began to work a little bit. I suspect my fine machine is going to the shop tomorrow.

Martin, you were wondering how this could have happened just doing updates: mea culpa. The trouble occurred when I tried to install Skype. It's worked before and people could both see and hear the organ.

End of story.