SAN FRANCISCO – Deb asked the Answer Line forum how she can remove a Trojan from an infected .dll file called infamiqayoq.dll. Her security software quarantined the file, but now she gets an error message every time she boots.

That file is the Trojan, and serves no valid purpose. The strange file name (which as I write this yields nothing in a Google search beyond Deb’s PC World forum post) gives it away. Malware programs often rename themselves to random character strings as they propagate.

Now that the file is quarantined, best to let the security program delete it entirely.

But what about that error message every time you boot? With the file gone, the message is just a harmless annoyance. But it’s still best to get rid of it. Select Start (Start, then Run in XP), type msconfig, and press ENTER. Click the Startup tab. Search the Command column in the resulting table (you may have to expand it) until you find the culprit. Uncheck and it and click OK.

As SpiritWind pointed out in the original forum discussion, the Trojan probably put more than one file on your PC, so it’s best to scan the hard drive again. Use your existing security software, but follow that up with a scan from something else. And I’m still recommending the free version of either SUPERAntiSpyware or Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware–or both.