Blank Device Manager After Virus Attack

[JonMooring]

It would seem that one of the employees at the company where I work has caught a nasty virus. As far as I can tell, it's removed now. However, it seems to have removed all devices, including network and printer devices, and I can't see anything listed in the Device Manager (at all) to begin to reinstall them! HELP!

 

[mechBgon]

What exact virus was it?

 

[JonMooring]

meh, if only I knew 🙁 I didn't remove it, I just removed the tons of adware and spyware.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: JonMooring
meh, if only I knew 🙁 I didn't remove it, I just removed the tons of adware and spyware.

Then my advice is to get that computer unplugged from your network immediately, get some coffee and a donut, and get started on nuking the existing Windows installation and reinstalling from scratch. Back up any necessary files onto a USB drive or something.

Also, if your employee's software will run under a Limited / Restricted-User account, make one for them and have them use that for daily-driver usage. Enable Automatic Updates so the system stays patched. Enable your antivirus software's extra options for detecting adware/spyware and other non-viral threats if it has them. Use Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer to check the system for known vulnerabilities when you're done.

 

[JonMooring]

I appreciate the comments mech, that's what myself and my co-worker were leaning towards as nothing seems to help. I think he wasn't up-to-date with SAV definitions, but now we used managed mode so it shouldn't be a problem. Thanks again for your help 🙂