I've been running AVG 9.0 (the free version) for awhile now and it's seems to have been working fine. Recently however, it has taken on a life of it's own. I'll try my best to explain.....

When I type an site into the address bar, I get diverted to a Yahoo sponsored AVG search engine. This has never happened before...



It's annoying, so I went to uninstall AVG and try something else. Trouble is, I get an error message saying that AVG cannot be uninstalled...there is an unaccessable  file in the registry apparently:



OK then. Off to Google I went and found this to be a common problem, and was lead here: AVG Free forums.... The site is tough to navigate, but I figured out that AVG itself can be corrupted by the viruses it quarantines making uninstallation  impossible. You can't do it from the control panel, and you canuse the "uninstall" option from the Start Menu.

One fix mentioned was to download AVG9.0 again, and use the uninstall option that appears in the menu....OK, seems pretty simple. Not really.

I get an error message that tells me AVG can't connect to the internet.


 ***  Edited for part two...had to kill the browser for a second....***


The AVG forums have a download link:http://www.avg.com/us-en/download-tools, and the AVG Remover is what they recommend to remove the evilness...but I can't connect to the download server. I don't know if this is an issue on AVG's end or what, but fuck.....I just want this thing gone.

My wife know tells me that when she goes to certain blogger sites, the browser redirects her to another random site. AVG runs, doesn't find anything, and keeps trying to shove this AVG/Yahoo search engine down my throat.

This may not matter much, but it is a quirk I have noticed....In the past as simple "google" in the address bar who take you to google, now unless I type "google.com" I am taken to the AVG/Yahoo thing...might not mean anything, but it looks bad for AVG.

I am not above saving data and nuking the HD, but I don;t want to go there......yet.


Please help me ARFCOM....you're my only hope.

I tried to proof read the OP really....It's three in the morning, I'm grumpy and a little cross-eyed.

Sorry for any headaches that may result in reading it.

Don't know how to help you in your problem, but should have listened to the other guys and installed Microsoft Security Essentials.

There were no "other guys" to listen to....

Do you have access to another computer that you can download the removal program to?  Use a usb drive or burnable cd to get it to the problem computer?

OP check your PMs.

Looks like you're running XP (?)... have you tried System Restore? (Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->System Restore).  Might let you roll the machine back to a point before the problems started...

Thanks...but it didn't work. Still have a hijacked address bar....typed in "ar15" should have gone right here.



No restore point that will work....

In a new tab, type 'about:config' (less the quotes) and in the Filter bar, type 'keyword.URL'. Does it match the URL of the hijack site?
 

That's not the address bar, it's the search entry.



Up near the top, where it says "http" in the address bar is where you type "www.ar15.com".



In Firefox "Tools->Manage Addons" see if you can disable any AVG stuff that is hooked into your browser.

keyword.URL: http://us.yhs.search.yahoo.com/avg/search?fr=yhs-avgb&type=yahoo_avg_hs2-tb-web_us&p=


I'll be damned. Do I kill it with fire now?



I'm not THAT computer illiterate...."ar15" pops up in the search entry (this is the obnoxious) search engine that I get re-routed to. I type "ar15.com" in the http bar and this is what I get....  

You can change it by double-clicking on the entry, then just pate in the URL I posted above. Should be G2G after that.

 

Had to check

 

Sweet....fire would have been more fun though.

Now I'll have to see if it screws with my wife later today.


I owe you one.


Now can someone point me to an anti-virus program that won't jack stuff up? I'm willing to pay....it seems you get what you pay for with the free stuff.

Avast!

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

This is what you need.  It's free, it works, and all it does is scan for viruses.  You don't have to register it, Microsoft doesn't sell a more full feature program so you won't be harassed about that, it doesn't interfere with your browser.

THIS. I love MSSE. Best AV software out there. Small, and does not suck up all your extra resources.



 

"Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at download.microsoft.com."




Same message I got when try to get the AVG Remover.....I wonder if something is still jacked here.

Have you tried downloading it with a different browser like (god forbid) internet explorer?

Same message (microsofts version) with IE. What the fuck chuck?

I'll try another machine at work tonight and put it on a USB drive.

I used to be a big AVG fan, but yeah I agree, they have been fucking up left and right the past couple of years.  I'm running Avast currently.

I'm going to be upgrading to Win7 64bit this weekend, and I'm going to try out the MS Security dealie myself, see what they hype is about.

Went and borrowed neighbors laptop....downloads just fine (in my home, on my connection)

Now what is keeping my desktop from accessing these sites? None of my Firefox settings have changed, and IE doesn't work either:





OK....put MSSE on my desk top via USB. Now MSSE is telling me it can find a connection to update the data base.

There are no exceptions in my Firefox options that would keep me from doing this....what am I doing wrong?

Probably not it but check out internet options in your control panel.  Go to Lan Settings in the connections tab, make sure there is no check mark in the option for proxy server. You probably don't want that set.  I would be surprised if this is the problem though.

AVG crashed my computer, never again. NEver had any problems til I dumped Norton and got AVG.

Might also want to manually update Microsoft Security Essentials.  You'll probably have to use a different computer and the usb drive to download it and get it to your problem computer.  

Go here to download it, you'll probably want the 32-bit version of the updates.  Once you've updated it, I'd run a scan, make sure you don't have a virus hiding in your system causing this.
https://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/Definitions/ADL.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0

Sounds like you may have a virus that's redirecting/blocking access to common anti-virus sites.

+106 for MSSE, I've had AVG and Avast! running on my parents computers and both failed to keep it from getting infected, and slowed it down to the point was useless. MSSE is light, and right off the bat found 3 viruses on the system that the others didn't.

Hit it with Malwarebytes also, if it won't let you do that you might have to dynamite and rebuild, then install MSE.

reboot in safe mode
run malwarebytes
remove all of the crap it finds
install MSSE
keep malwarebytes up to date, run occassionally

Thanks for the help fellas. I'm pretty sure there is some underlying bug jacking things up.

When I get home from work I'm gonna try the "safe mode" approach. I'll have a laptop to DL things from. Hopefully I can avoid a nuke of the HD.

Wish me luck....


EDIT: Could not connect with Malware site, but got it from cnet....running now.

Malware found 18 infected files....MSSE updated, running now.




Edit: "This first-time scan may take several minutes to complete. Please wait"......2 hours, fourteen minutes and counting.

Does it seem to be scanning files slowly?  I've never seen a scan take that long.  What processor and memory is on that system?

If Malwarebytes is finding that much crap I'd stick the Win 7 disk in and rebuild.

Files scanned quickly....It's a Pentium 4 with 2.5gb.

I've been wanting to upgrade. Now I have a really good reason to trash this one. Just have to get approval from the CFO.



It's probably since AVG was the only thing I've been using. I don't have Win7, and I don't think my current system is up to running it. It's time to upgrade.

LoL.  And I mean lol in a sad way.  My parents just got this virus.  Heh, figures.  Something new hits, and they get it straight away!  Guess I know what I'm doing this weekend....

Things are working well now for me. Thanks fellas, and good luck to those in the future....

Looks like my wife's laptop & a co-workers desktop have this same problem.

And a minor bump, as I'm having something similar happen, so I don't want this in the archives yet.