How to Remove a Sasser Virus from Computer

The “Sasser” virus is a worm virus that embeds itself deep within a hard drive and tends to move to different areas of the drive as it’s found. This virus was developed in 1994, and is removable by a user as long as you know your way around a computer. If not, this virus can cause your computer to receive error messages from itself that cause it to continuously shut down and reboot. Further, knowing how to remove a Sasser virus can be a challenge because the real problem lies in the fact that if your computer’s been infected with the Sasser virus, you’ve probably got other viruses that are hidden behind it in your hard drive as well. 

Although knowing how to remove a Sasser virus is hard, it isn't impossible. Just follow these steps:

1. Disconnect your computer’s Internet connection. To do this, access your computer’s network management screen and disable whatever router or modem is connecting your computer to the web, stopping all incoming and outgoing information transfers.
2. Once you’ve done this, you’ll need to stop the worm’s activity by accessing your computer’s task manager screen.
3. Open the task manager and click on the “Processes” heading, displaying all of the computer’s current operations.
4. Find the process that reads, “avserve.exe” or “*_up.exe” (either one of these is a tag for the Sasser virus) and stop the process.
5. You’ll be asked if you’re sure you want to end the process, in which case you will confirm the action. 

Locating the Virus

Once you’ve stopped the virus activity, you’ll need to:

1. Locate the virus in your computer by accessing your computer’s start menu. Once there, search in all of the files and folders on your computer for any file that matches the headings “avserve.exe” or *_up.exe” Delete the files in any folder they may exist within.
2. Make sure to complete a full and proper permanent delete in order to keep the virus from being reopened in your computer’s disk drive.
3. Once you’ve done this, ensure that your computer has an active firewall established and enabled in your network settings menu.
4. Reestablish your Internet connection. 

Getting Up and Running Again

Once you’re back online, you’ll need to visit the Microsoft website in order to update your operating system by installing any critical updates after a brief scan.

After all of your updates are installed, visit the Microsoft “Sasser page” from their website and follow the scanning instructions in order to ensure that your computer is in fact free of any Sasser virus files or codes. All you’ll have to do is follow the instructions given to you after the scan in order to make sure you’re in the clear. 

It may also be in your best interests to install an antivirus software in order to make sure your computer remains free of any viruses in the future so you don't have any additional problems to deal with.