Posted: 12/30/2004 11:37:16 AM EDT
|
On my desktop there are now 7 new icons. I cannot move them, delete them, or do anything but double click on them, which brings me to a blank Internet Explorer page. It's the usual 'printer cartridges', 'casino online', 'card games' BS. How in the blue blazes do I get rid of them? I also constantly, CONSTANTLY get an Internet Explorer bar in the center of my screen stating that I'm offline ( a crock of shit, of course ). How do I get rid of this? I have AdAware, Spybot, and Mozilla Firefox. I do not surf for porn ( that's why the real thing is much better ), so don't even try that ploy. What in the blue blazes is going on with this PC? What to do? ( And yes, I know that Internet Explorer is the cause of all the world's problems, and is the spawn of the devil ). EDIT - Spybot and Adaware show that I got hit with the LOP malware virus. Neither of them are removing it, though. |
|
Symantec has an online virus checker and I think you can DL an eval version (if you don't already have some.) LOP removal instructions here. **Edited to be more helpful** |
|
a method to rid you of your blight I do not have, but I can tell you a way to keep it from happening in the future. Don't give yourself admin powers on the computer account you use. Keep a seperate computer login for your general surfing and one with the god-like sysadmin powers. Doing so will keep someone from installing programs without your consent and knowledge. ETA: now that you mention it, you could go down your uninstall software list in control panel and just remove programs that you didnt expressly install. And run adaware once and again when it reboots next to catch the programs you cant remove while running. |
|
Ctprelude - That Antivir Guard thing worked. Wingnut116 - I'll try that account suggestion later on this week. Thanks. Only Hits - I don't need Opera. I already have Mozilla and plenty of updates for it. Inzane - I think I'm going to wrap a chair around your face.  Thanks folks. The problem dissappeared when I removed some software, and ran Adaware as well as Spybot at the same time. I also ran the Antivir Guard, and all icons dissappeared. No popups since then. I'm also going to download a VX2 cleaner from Lavasoft in a fwe minutes. I have declared war on this computer. Hear my mighty roar. |
|
You can't remove the icons because there is a program running in the background monitoring that. In addition, I'll be that if you were to find the program's files on the drive such as Program Files, even if you did delete them, they would reappear within about a minute. (look for stuff named coupon, bingo, deal, shopping, etc.) Going to the Task Manager in WinXP can assist in getting those processes shut down (provided you find the name of the program causing the problem. Then you can delete stuff. Another way to do it is to go to Start>Run>type in MSCONFIG. In MSCONFIG, go to Selective Startup, then the Startup tab. Look for things that shouldn't be there. I can't tell you exactly what is supposed to be there as some of it is intentionally deceptive by the spyware/adware/malware people. This page will spell out what each of those things do. Once you uncheck the stuff you don't want and reboot, those unchecked items won't run and then you can uninstall what you need to. Recapping: * The linked tool at Symantec is a good start * Add/Remove Programs...get rid of what appaers to be obvious, Google the rest to figure out what they are * If something won't uninstall or isn't on the list: * -- See if it can be stopped in Task Manager, then try to uninstall * -- See if you can locate the files on the hard drive and get rid of those * Check out Task Manager for extra crap (see the same link above for what things do) * If Task Manager isn't finding stuff...try Hijack This which is quite powerful to get rid of stuff...but it won't identify everything for you. If AdAware or Spybot find something, Hijack This can get rid of it. * MSCONFIG will help you to stop unwanted programs from starting up when Windows boots up. * If none of that works....Tannerite |
|
I use Bazooka aAdware and Spyware scanner on top of my antivirus and firewall software. It will often find stuff that the others do not. Once found, the software directs you to a webpage that walks you through cleaning the offending spyware etc completely off your system, including deleting their registry entries. (Note, be sure and backup your registry before making any changes & follow the instructions to the "t") Bazooka |
|
download some antrojan software link a squared link more usefull tools might need winsock fix too link go to download.com and to a search for etrust pestpatrol, spysweeper, just a few to help you out! |
Buy an iBook. This one never gets spyware There's a great tool in Spybot once she's switched to advanced mode, "System Startup" I believe it's called.. It goes through the list of everything that runs at boot, and you can select and deselect them as needed. Once you trim it down to what you need to boot and nothing else, the machine will run better than the day you unboxed it. Be careful though, there's a world of hurt in there if you aren't careful. |