Your PC is running slower than usual. Your browser keeps redirecting to sites you did not navigate to. You are seeing pop-ups you cannot close. These are classic signs that something is wrong — and that something is often malware.

Common symptoms include unusual slowness, browser redirects, unexpected pop-ups, programs opening or closing on their own, unfamiliar programs in your installed apps list, antivirus software disabled, and high network activity when you are not actively using the internet.

Before running any scans, disconnect your PC from the internet. This prevents malware from communicating with command-and-control servers, downloading additional payloads, or exfiltrating data while you are trying to clean the system.

Safe Mode starts Windows with only essential drivers and services, which prevents most malware from loading at startup. To boot into Safe Mode on Windows 11: hold Shift and click Restart, then select Troubleshoot → Advanced Options → Startup Settings → Restart, then press 4 or F4.

With your PC in Safe Mode, run a full system scan with your antivirus software. A full scan examines every file on your system. If you are using SentinelForge Security, navigate to the Scan section and select Full System Scan. Let the scan run to completion.

After the scan completes, review the results carefully. Quarantine high-severity threats immediately. Quarantine isolates the file so it cannot execute, but preserves it in case you need to restore it later.

Knowing what was infected is not enough — you need to understand how the infection got in and what it did while it was active. SentinelForge's Threat Replay™ feature presents a chronological timeline of the events surrounding a detection.

Check startup programs, scheduled tasks, browser extensions, and installed programs for anything unfamiliar. Many malware infections install themselves to run at startup.

Once the malware is removed, update your operating system, browsers, and all installed software. Most malware exploits known vulnerabilities in outdated software.

If the malware was active for any period of time, change passwords for email accounts, banking and financial services, and any accounts where you store payment information.

After completing all the above steps, reconnect to the internet, update your antivirus definitions, and run a second full scan to confirm the system is clean.

SentinelForge Security includes real-time malware scanning, quarantine management, and Threat Replay™ forensics. View plans starting at $7.99/mo.