My granddaughter's computer is infected with Advanced Virus Remover (pavrm.exe) and it has hijacked everything. It disabled her antivirus (Cyberdefender), so I tried Ctrl+Alt+Del and the task mgr has been disabled as well. I then tried to go to the control panel to delete the program and as soon as I clicked on it, the screen went to a blank desktop. I booted into safe mode, but still a blank desktop. Then booted to a command line and was able to find AVR files in several places. Was successful in deleting a couple of the files from the command line, but when I try to delete others I get 'path not found.' Many years since I've used DOS, so I don't know if I'm entering the commands incorrectly or if it's the virus. What should I try? Thanks for your help.1 person got this answerI do too

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-advanced-virus-removerMS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

That would be great if I could get into Windows to do anything. All I get is a blank desktop - no shortcuts or icons of any kind. I need manual removal instructions. I've tried some by booting to a command line. Keep getting the message 'path not found.' It's been a long time since I used DOS commands, so I may be typing them incorrectly. Do you know where I can find info on deleting the virus manually?

You need to use a second computer - like the one from which you are posting now - to go to BleepingComputer's site, print out the instructions, download tools, etc. Since you can get into Safe Mode Command Prompt, you can copy the removal tools to the infected hard drive and use the CD command to navigate to the removal tool executable. This may or may not work for you. Instead, you will probably want to boot the computer with an antivirus rescue CD such as those offered by F-Secure, Avira, etc. Or work with a Bart's PE with antivirus/antispyware plugins. These "rescue CDs" might get the machine in good enough shape for you to get into Windows and do more scans, etc. The very easiest and best solution for a severely infected Windows machine is to boot with a Linux Live CD such as Knoppix, back up data to an external hard drive, and do a clean install of Windows. If the granddaughter is a Young Person, her Windows installation is probably not enormously complicated and doing the clean install etc. will take far less time than using the methods described in the first paragraph. Of course if you want to spend the time trying to clean it instead, that's your choice. Standard disclaimer: Doing advanced malware removal requires a certain level of computer skills. You know yourself best. If you can't do the work yourself (and there is no shame in admitting this isn't your cup of tea), take the machine to a professional computer repair shop (not your local equivalent of BigComputerStore/GeekSquad). Please be aware that not all local shops are skilled at removing malware and even if they are, your computer may be so infested that Windows will need to be clean-installed. If possible, have all your data backed up before you take the machine into a shop.MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!