The Roman poet Virgil wrote in his famous epic poem, The Aeneid about how the Greeks defeated the Trojans during the Trojan War. According to Virgil, the Greeks spent many months laying siege to the city of Troy, whose walls could not be toppled. One day, a Greek known as Odysseus devised a way to get into the city’s walls. The Greeks would make a large horse that could hold soldiers and leave it as an offering for the unsuspecting Trojans. The Trojans fell for the trick and the rest is history. Like the Trojan Horse of antiquity, Trojan viruses work in the same insidious way. They trick you into thinking that you have downloaded a harmless file, only to trick you into giving them access to your computer. When the time is right or when the author of the Trojan virus sends a signal, the virus activates and begins transmitting your confidential data to whoever is on the receiving end. Having a Trojan virus on your computer can leave you vulnerable to cyber crimes like identity theft and credit card theft, which is why Trojan virus removal is critical. However, actually removing a Trojan virus can be trickier than it seems.

Most people are smart enough to have an antivirus program running on their computer. While these programs do a good job protecting your computer most of the time, new viruses are being written every day, which makes it difficult for antivirus manufacturers to keep up with the latest threats. It can take several weeks for these companies to find ways to combat the latest viruses. Even when they do, the fix is rarely simple. Occasionally, the antivirus program will remove the virus for you automatically, but most of the time, you’ll be sent to a webpage, owned by the antivirus maker that tells you how to remove the Trojan virus manually. If you’re not comfortable with working at the computer and following complex instructions, these instructions may be of little help to you. Even if you do manage to follow the instructions, there is still a chance that you may not have removed the virus completely.

Instead of messing around with manual Trojan virus removal, consider formatting your hard drive. By formatting your hard drive, you will erase all the data on it, including the Trojan virus. While this may seem drastic, it is by far quicker and easier than spending hours trying to run virus scan after virus scan and attempting to manually remove the Trojan virus. Formatting and reinstalling your operating system can take less than an hour if you’ve done it before. Your computer may also come with a recovery DVD, which will make things even faster.

Next time you have a Trojan virus that you want to remove, consider skipping the antivirus software all together and formatting your hard drive. You will save time and headaches by doing so and be up and running within an hour.