How to remove viruses without antivirus in Windows

  • There are methods to remove viruses in Windows without using antivirus.
  • Task Manager allows you to identify and close malicious processes.
  • The Windows MRT tool can be useful for removing malicious software.
  • Restoring your system to an earlier point may resolve recent infections.

remove viruses without antivirus

The antivirus They are fundamental tools that we all turn to in search of protection against possible virus and malware attacks. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as complete security, but we do have many ways to protect ourselves, some of them quite peculiar. For example, in this article we are going to see how to remove viruses without antivirus in Windows.

Remove viruses without antivirus? Is that possible? Of course. There are some interesting methods that we can use to eliminate malware or harmful programs from our Windows PC that have slipped in there without anyone inviting it in.

Please note that the methods that we are going to present here are not designed to replace the security programs that keep the most dangerous viruses at bay. That is, there is no reason to give up a good antivirus, but it is good to know that there are other alternatives that can be used in a complementary way.

If you suspect that your PC has been infected by a virus and you want to remove it, these are some of the methods you can try before the antivirus takes action:

Task Manager

task manager

We have already seen on other occasions how the Windows Task Manager can be an effective tool to solve all kinds of problems. Well, it also helps us to try to eliminate viruses without antivirus. Since this manager allows us to view the status of all the processes that are running on our PC, we can also detect the presence of malicious programs and act on them. This is what we should do:

  1. First we start the Task Manager with the key combination Ctrl + Alt + Delete
  2. Once the administrator is started, we go to the tab "Processes".
  3. Then comes the hardest work: review the entire list of processes in detail, tried to identify the problem. In general, it is usually a program that does not sound familiar to us (we do not remember having installed it) and that is consuming a lot of resources.
  4. To delete it, we click on it with the right mouse button and select "File location" to proceed to its elimination.

Review recent downloads and installations

download virus file

A very common way that viruses use to infect our computers is to infiltrate a seemingly harmless file that we download from a web page or an email message. Or even through the installation of a simple Chrome or Mozilla Firefox extension. 

For the first thing, you have to access the folder where the files are downloaded and review the downloads from the date on which the problems started. If in doubt, delete the suspicious file using the path Start > Control Panel > Applications > Uninstall.

If it is a "problematic" extension, you must go to the menu in the upper right corner of the browser, access the "Settings" tab and click on "Extensions". There we can review them all and, if necessary, eliminate the one that could host the virus.

Windows MRT Function

MRT

MRT: Malicious Software Removal Tool. This is a well-known tool in the Microsoft operating system that, on certain occasions, can be very effective in eliminating viruses without having to use the antivirus.

How Does It Work? We just have to go to the Start menu, search for MRT and open the tool. Afterwards, we proceed to a full system scan. It does not have the precision and power of a typical antivirus, but it works in many cases. We must insist on this point: It is not a real antivirus, but it is an excellent complement.

Restore the system

backup

Another good resource to eliminate viruses without antivirus is to reset the system. It's the best we can do if we believe that there is a virus on our PC that seriously threatens to seriously damage any of our computer systems.

The idea is restore the entire system to a previous point in which everything worked correctly. That is, before the virus infection occurred.

How is it done? In reality, this is a preliminary work: on a regular basis, it is convenient make a security copy to return to when situations like these occur. We explain everything in depth in the following post: How to restore Windows 11 to a previous restore point.

Format the hard drive

format hard drive

When all the above has failed, and we are still determined to eliminate a virus without the help of an antivirus, we must resort to a drastic, although definitive option.

Of course, we have to be clear that Formatting the hard drive means erasing all the contents of the drive. You have to think carefully about what you do and, in any case, make backup copies of everything that the PC contains and that we may need in the future.

To carry out this operation correctly, we recommend that you follow the instructions detailed in this post: How to format a laptop with Windows 10.


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