My computer says it has a virus, but when I run tests there's nothing wrong. What's up?

There are things you can do, but they are not so straightforward. If you know what making a boot-disk means, you can boot a clean kernel and run a command-line version of a virus remover. If you don’t know what this means, go to Staples or Best Buy, and pay $40.

“Also, IE keeps opening with this link to a virus removal program that I would have to buy for $80 dollars…”

That is a scam, don’t do it. You most likely have a virus. If it won’t let you open AVG, then I would take it to somebody who knows their way around computers, and have them run a program that will remove the virus. While you’re at it, dump IE and switch to Firefox or Chrome. They should be much safer than IE.

Lurve for the “old ladies get jiggy with it” bit.

You probably have a crappy virus scanner. I recommend PCTOOLS www.pctools.com This is probably one of the best scanners that I have had. IT got rid of all the crap that was on my computer and registry. I haven’t had a problem since.

The “virus-checking” thing you clicked onto online IS the virus. The “pay-or-die” notice that you’re getting is just a scam.

See if you can download Malwarebytes (it’s free) and run that. You might even have to run a different browser to do it, if your current browser is hijacked to auto-return to a particular site.

RUN. DON’T WALK TO Malwarebytes.org AND DOWNLOAD IMMEDIATELY.
Open computer in safe mode and do a COMPLETE scan.
That fucker is seriously malicious. Finally Update all of your browsers and Windows Updates to get security patches you are most likely missing.

@CyanoticWasp and the browser you would strongly recommend is Chrome, right?
@SeventhSense Nice way of putting it.

@Fred931
I lost everything on my hard drive from that one eventually. It embeds itself deeply

@Fred931, I haven’t tried Chrome yet. I’m generally happy with Firefox. I have IE, too, because the jokers at work make so many required applications that are disabled on any other browser. (It’s funny as hell that I work for a French-owned company in the USA—and they insist on using Microsoft IE as a ‘standard’, even though Europeans in general seem to be even more virulently anti-MS than here in the US.)

Definitely toss Internet Explorer. I tried Chrome for a week but wasn’t a fan.
I find Firefox to be the best.
edit: hold onto I.E for some applications but it’s latest incarnation is just too unstable and will eventually cause some major hang ups

Also, Chrome just got extensions. Firefox is F’ed now.

Debate ensues
Then…
Augustlan says shush

I still say it’s better to do it from a clean cd-rom boot. I wouldn’t be using that system for anything.

That same thing happened to our computer a few weeks ago. It started just like the asker stated, and after a while got to the point where we couldn’t open any programs. We had to take the computer to a friend of ours who was able to fix it. We didn’t lose anything at all, if that’s any comfort.

Virus. My dad’s computer at work had the same one. The IT guys had to wipe the drive and reinstall everything.

Is it Vundo ? That is one of the hardest infections to get rid of, and if you don’t know much about computers and various scanners aren’t correcting it, you’re probably going to have to nuke it from orbit and start anew.

Trojan, trojan, trojan. I had that one and it took me forever to get rid of it. The main thing is to boot your computer in safe mode and then run your anti-virus and malwarebytes.

PS: I use firefox, but lately it’s been hanging up on me terribly. Just freezing everything and making me reboot my computer manually. :/