I have a virus in C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\etc\hosts I have tried everything!! I have used Spybot, Maleware-bytes, Spyware Doctor, Ad-aware, and a couple others. All of them say that there is a virus, however only spybot said it couldn't be removed, access denied. I tried going into the host thing that I found in someone else's answer, where you reset all host folders. It said access denied, quit and uninstalled the program. I keep retrying it and other things. Nothing I do helps. It won't let me use Google, which is very frustrating. There are some other webpages and programs on my computer that it won't let me open. What do I do?

Open C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts when it asks to open it with something, open it with notepad. Then delete everything in it. Then paste the following.

# Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost

Go to C:\Windows\
Find notepad and right click on it. Select run as administrator.

Now go file open and brows to C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

You should be able to access it now.

If not then brows to C:\Windows\system32\drivers
Right click on the ETC folder and select properties then security then advanced then owner . Take ownership of the file and sub directories.

Hope this helps...

Cheers

Hey,

Its easy to remove if you know hot to do it,
Enable view hidden files
Find the file (aka Hosts)
Right Click the file then click properties
Click read only so there is no tick
Go to the security tab
Click advanced
Click the owner tab
Make type in your user name so you are have the admin rights to the file
Click okay twice
Go back to the security tab and click edit
Click add and type your user name
Click okay
And then click the file
The hold shift and delete
And good bye virus