Virus's transferred by USB sticks

Hi,
Please help with getting rid of virus’s transferred by USB stick…..

I have worked in multiple different electronics companies. In each of them , I “took work home” by copying files from my work PC onto various USB sticks, then connecting the USB stick into my home laptop.

It became blatantly obvious that the companies had made their PC’s put spy software (and possibly other virus’s) onto these USB sticks. It was obvious because often IT staff were able to tell me eg what youtube songs, etc , I had listened to the night before.

Recently my laptops have started to run very very slowly, and I believe that this is due to virus’s that I have inadvertently transferred from my work PC to my home laptop via the USB sticks, in this way. (ie , the companys somehow make their PC’s put virus’s on any workers’ USB sticks connected to them)

Do you know how I can “clean” these virus’s off these USB sticks?
And do you know how I can “clean” these virus’s off my laptop?
(do I have to reset windows?)

(I have Norton anti-virus, but it obviously hasn’t stopped these virus’s.)

eem2am said:

It became blatantly obvious that the companies had made their PC’s put spy software (and possibly other virus’s) onto these USB sticks. It was obvious because often IT staff were able to tell me eg what youtube songs, etc , I had listened to the night before.

Click to expand...

Any company that has set up there systems correctly can tell what each client pc has done and so forth. Thats not spyware. If you scan your system and usb with Malwarebytes and nothing comes up then you are fine, which I'm sure you will be.

Thanks, but i have Norton, and so since antivirus programmes attack each other, its not good to use malwarebytes?

Malwarebytes is free, it will give you a free 14 day trial of the actual paid software so you can either deactivate that part of it and keep it or uninstall it afterwards. I always install install malwarebytes on my customers machines no matter if they have a separate antivirus or not.

Thanks, i tried malwarebytes free for 2 weeks, but it didnt help the laptops slowness.

BTW, just did this to my USB stick...

...i hope it works.
Also, is another good way to clean virus's off a USB stick to put the files on a laptop...then "format" the USB stick, then put your files back onto it?

It does puzzle me a bit.....why is it that USB sticks are such effective carriers for virus's?.....i mean, would i be reducing the chance of getting virus'd if i emailed the work computer files to my google drive from the work PC...and then downloaded it from there to my home laptop? (ie, avoid using a USB stick)

And suppose i have a virus'd USB stick...and i download all the files on it to my home laptop.....then the laptop will be virus'd...but presumably i can just re-install windows (whilst keeping the files there and not deleting them)...and then when ive re-installed windows, and removed the USB stick, then i will have all the files off the virus'd USB stick, and no virus on my laptop?

So why are you saying your companies computers have viruses on them? They don't. Their IT person would know it if their computers was infected. Your computer is probably slow because of whatever you did, installed software, windows update, etc. Could be many reasons why your machine is slow.

eem2am said:

Also, is another good way to clean virus's off a USB stick to put the files on a laptop...then "format" the USB stick, then put your files back onto it?

Click to expand...

What good is that gonna do if your usb really has an infected file? Check your usb for hidden files by allowing to show hidden files in windows.

If you get a virus from a USB stick, then is the only way to get rid of it to re-install windows?

If a virus is truly on a usb then you need to find out where it came from, once a usb is formatted everything is gone. Same with if you format windows and reinstall. I really think you are way over reacting on this.

Thanks, also supposing i used a USB mouse on the work PC, then come home and connect this same USB mouse to the home laptop, then could that USB mouse spread a virus to the home laptop, just as if it were a USB stick?

No way in hell can that happen. You can't store files on a mouse.

You need to relax man, you're stressing me out just reading this thread.