If it were me I would just go nuclear - even if you think you have cleared things you can never be 100% certain you got everything.

-Carol Haynes (November 09, 2013, 03:05 AM)

Thank you Carol for your thoughts. I appreciate your validation of what has been going through my head. I'm hoping against hope.

This is exactly what I'm feeling, seeing how hard it is to detect.

Even if it appears that it has been removed, I can never be 100% certain.

So I'll just have to bite the bullet, go nuclear and learn to be far more careful.

This is the first time in many years that I have been tripped up by a virus.

I guess, the biggest danger is really complacency had set in for me.

Does anyone know how I may remove Trojan Dropper:MSIL/Livate.A ?

-patteo (November 07, 2013, 08:43 AM)

I would call for help to http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/

Someone already asked your same question:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/506076/very-annoying-trojandropper-need-help/
(are you Zatiac?  :) )

And this is the solution of Zatiac (of course I don't know if that applies for you too):
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/506084/trojan-dropper-need-fast-help-please/

-Giampy (November 08, 2013, 07:37 AM)

Thanks for the heads up about the solution.

From Zatiac
"Thanks for the response but I got it solved, I reset internet explorer and uninstalled java....that got all traces of the dropper off my laptop :D  I suspect the dropper is how the fbi moneypacks ransom got on my laptop as well. "


I'm right now scanning with Sophos Virus Removal Tool overnight to see if it detects anything.

Then I may Zatiac's "solution" and test out to see if the solution "works".

I may still go for the "Nuclear method".

I rang up Asus and they took me through the process of Rebooting and Reinstalling the Windows 8 OS from the hidden partition to reset everything to as per factory.

They told me I cannot Recreate the Recovery disk from another identical Laptop as it would have a different Windows 8 key.

They advised that a factory type Reset by Reinstalling and formatting is the surest method to ensure that the virus is removed, although it takes several hours because essentially, it reformats and recreates the partitions.

Naturally this is the sure fire though time consuming way.

But it's also an excuse for me to refresh everything, make the laptop run a bit faster (hopefully) and probably junk a lot of useless stuff on my laptop.

I'm of course a little bit concerned if some of the software that requires activation will reactivate properly. But they probably should since I'm not changing any hardware.

But in the process, I thought I may as well test out a couple of these suggested Virus Removal Tools in this thread first. I wouldn't be surprised if they found nothing. Sigh!

While I'm on this subject, I might as well mention that in future, before I access some new sites or install some programs, I'll make better use of www.virustotal.com, whether to check out a URL or an exe first, besides using Malwarebytes and Hitman Pro

A ounce of prevention is worth a megaton of going Nuclear to clean up a laptop.

This process is going to proceed rather slowly, but if I come across any further useful lessons, I'll certainly post on this thread.

Thanks to all who have posted their thoughts.

Donationcoders are such a group of helpful people.