I have some malware, Winfixer, and Ad Aware is crashing my system

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
You're a big help

Well... it's a suggestion that will definitely solve your problems with malware.

And the chicks love the Powerbooks.

[Mrs. Tuberski]

the advice we got from polly and i think it was snoopy and ur that walked us through it is to use bho demon. it got rif of winfix on my pc and hasnt been back

[DaShi]

You may want to try Spyware Doctor. There's a free version of it on download.com. Spybot S&D and Ad Aware haven't been updated in ages.

[Alexander's Horse]

strangely enough I'm afraid to start my computer in safe mode

[Asher]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
I found it helps a lot to run msconfig in safe mode and go through the startup with a fine toothed comb. Do the same thing with services. Shut down everything that is strange. For this you may need Net connection to look up the functions of various sevices, however anything that is not Microsoft should be a prime target.

It's much better to download and install Windows Defender: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...e/default.mspx

It used to be MS Antispyware, but it was recoded from the ground up (MS Antispyware/GIANT Antispyware was written in Visual Basic as a userland app...Windows Defender is written in Managed C++ and runs as a system service).

It has an invaluable tool for browsing the startup programs (and easily disabling them), currently running programs, active network connections, etc. Provides a lot more information than msconfig and other tools.

It also helps that Windows Defender catches stuff a lot of other scanners miss.

Review: http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/...nder_beta2.asp

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
Well... it's a suggestion that will definitely solve your problems with malware.

And the chicks love the Powerbooks.

The Mac is starting to be targeted by malware authors. Apple just had to patch a couple serious holes today.

You're making matters worse by telling people if they get an Apple they don't need to worry about malware.

[Zopperoni]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
strangely enough I'm afraid to start my computer in safe mode

Ehm, why is that?

It's no big deal. It just looks a bit strange because not all the drivers are loaded so you get 256 colors and a lower resolution, but other than that, it's perfectly functional.

[Vince278]

I've had that lower resolution re-arrange my icons a number of times.

[Colon™]

Originally posted by Zopperoni
3) Run adware scanners (Spybot, Ad-Aware and CWShredder) in Windows Safe Mode. The safe mode thing is very important.

You know, I just tried running a scan with Spybot in safe mode but I twice got the message after about 1/3 of the scan that "user aborted scan" even though didn't do that.

[Alexander's Horse]

Guys - your advice was brilliant - I took the following steps

1. disabled one of the antivirus - the one a tech put on my system but i never asked for

2. used system restore to take my system back to 1 Feb. I haven't disabled it but will if problems return.

3. updated my anti-virus - I'm still using Norton for now cos I got a licence till October but would seriously consider AVG after that

4. Ran spybot S&D - nailed the winfixer but wasn't clean cos it seemed to have source code still running

5. In safe mode, was finally able to run Ad aware - picked up a bunch of mal ware. That mal ware might have been disabling it though something called windows data protection popped up.

Interesting thing about this trojan was it was loading out of my google toolbar when I used explorer - bastard.

All scans currently showing clean - thanks for your help!

[alva]

That mal ware might have been disabling it though something called windows data protection popped up.

You can disable that.
Though you don't really want to.

Last time I was working with the Pocket emulator in VS I had to for some reason. Not sure if still do.


Right click MyComp
Click setting on Start up and recovery
Click Edit
Change '/noexecute=optin' to '/execute=optin'.

You may need to change something else but that doesn't show up on my machine. Better do a search on it ( it's called DEP).

[Alexander's Horse]

One small remaining problem. I disabled one anti-virus but it says I need the Cd to remove it from my system. Any way to do it without the CD?

[DaShi]

Use a magnet?

[Vince278]

Originally posted by DaShi
Use a magnet?

How about locating the sector and using a hole punch?

[Alexander's Horse]

come on, is it okay just to delete the folder?

[Colon™]

You can always buy a new computer if it doesn't work out.

[Vince278]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
come on, is it okay just to delete the folder?

Probably not. It can be resident in a number of places or pop up elsewhere.

[Alexander's Horse]

er thanks.......

[Zopperoni]

Try deinstalling in Safe Mode. If that fails, try to "acquire" the CD.

[Alexander's Horse]

Z your advice has been great, thanks

[NeOmega]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
You know, the people who make spyware, adware and malware are the same people who make spyware blockers. It's a racket. They sell the offending programs to marketers, then sell the cure to consumers. They then sell more sophisticated programs to the marketers and turn around and sell new protection to the consumers.

You know, one of the peopel who make spyware ended up winning the gold medal for Australia, doing just that, causing pop-ups, then later offereing a pop-up blocker to stop it

http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showt...hreadid=149460

Winfixxer was always difficult when I was working inthe industry. It infects a windows file, that if erased, can crash the system (wininet.dll was it? I can't remember, it was long ago), and this fiel is required by many scanners to run properly.

We usually had to write a custom cleaner for it.

[Alexander's Horse]

the main ad ware killers are onto it now

I'm looking for a free good registry cleaner

[Zopperoni]

Easycleaner: http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm

It's my personal favorite. It's very easy (duh), but also not very aggressive so you don't run a chance it'll "overdelete".

If you're looking for a more preventive solution for the future, look into Regprot: http://www.diamondcs.com.au/index.php?page=regprot

It monitors your registry and warns you when some application tries to enter information into the registry.
And it's Australian

[Urban Ranger]

I think Tea Timer (part of Spybot S&D) also monitors writes to the registry.

[Zopperoni]

Tea Timer does monitor the registry, but not to a great extent. Besides, it takes 5 MB of memory to run Tea Timer, while Regprot only uses 120 KB