Ad-ware help needed

[Winston]

Thanks, all.

I'm currently looking into Hot Mustard's linked guide which is indeed very exhaustive. It will take me days rather than hours to figure this out, if it is at all possible.

So if I don't check back here for a while, it is not because I've suddenly forgotten all about it.

What does puzzle me - and make me tend increasingly toward re-installing Windows XP again - is that these problems only started after my latest re-install. Like I've said several times now, I have never run an anti-virus program of any kind on my computer for 9 years, and there have been no problems, except for one time.

That is why any suggestions of changing browsers - however well-meaning - will be taken with a grain of salt, if you'll forgive me. It may be a browser-related problem right now, but it never was before, so I will probably re-install everything before changing to Opera or Firefox.

This is also why I'm proceeding with "caution" with regards to installing the programs and following the guides that have been kindly suggested. I do want to get rid of the problem, but on the other hand do not want to install tons and tons of things that I never used to need for browsing the Web.. If it comes to that, I'd rather try a fresh install.

Again, thanks everyone for your help. I can't say how much I appreciate it. Now to immerse myself in Hot Mustard's linked guide..

[VetLegion]

Winston, the single best preventive measure is getting rid of IE, OE and other mass products, not because they are from Microsoft, but because they are widely used and thus Target. Yes, IE can get infected if only you visit a page and not click anything on it and yes, OE can get infected if you only recieve mail and not open it. Being cautious and thinking "I won't click anything" is not enough. You can be infected without doing anything wrong.

My advice is to change the browser and mailing client (Gmail is a good alternative if you don't want new software).

The problem is that a relatively insecure, IE-using machine can have many things that have not yet made themselves apparent.

Yeah

If Winston decides to keep IE, he should get all those tools you mentioned, and make sure they are up to date.

[VetLegion]

Here is a scenario for you: someone on Apolyton posts a link to a page with a funny clip, or a flash game. Ten people before you click and comment (with lols), so you think it's safe and you do to. Unknown to you, all ten used Firefox and didn't notice anything, but you use IE and catch something nasty.

Probably how you got it in the first place

[Winston]

I've never used OE, always been on Hotmail. I may be an idiot, but I'm not a fool.

And, as in politics, I've always been a very conservative surfer, so to speak. I'm not prone to clicking on anything that I'm not confident what is. 9 years and only one virus before this, should count for something, eh? I'm convinced that this malware was attracted in the time between re-installing XP and getting Windows Update to work so I could get my system patched up. A lot of crazy things went down in that space of time (~3 days or something like that).

I've been working on following the guide that Hot Mustard linked to. But I am now much more wary to proceed with it, and here's why:

The first step it recommends is to download a program called AntiVir, which is 10 MB. The guide has a download site and I grab the file - then within 15 seconds of downloading (not installing), a giant, flashing browser window pops up informing me that my version of AntiVir Pro 2000 is not up to date! OMFGF! Get the latest version now! - And so on. Blimey, I hadn't even installed it, and what kind of computer safety guide is so enthusiastic about getting me to install a program, as to generate pop ups within a few seconds.

I will now try the applications that SlowwHand sent me, and see how things turn out.

I will, eventually, try all of the suggestions that you have given me, provided the problem does not correct itself in the meantime. I'm very thankful for it, just have patience with me as I continue to proceed carefully in all of this.

My thoughts are that if I'm unable to properly get rid of the problem, I could download the individual updates for XP from Windows Update in advance, save them on a CD and do a clean re-install, after which I can patch up my system with the updates without having to go online and expose myself, however briefly, to the risks of getting more malware.

[SlowwHand]

Go into Safe Mode and use Ewido.

[Winston]

Right.

[Hot Mustard]

Originally posted by Winston
I've been working on following the guide that Hot Mustard linked to. But I am now much more wary to proceed with it, and here's why:

The first step it recommends is to download a program called AntiVir, which is 10 MB. The guide has a download site and I grab the file - then within 15 seconds of downloading (not installing), a giant, flashing browser window pops up informing me that my version of AntiVir Pro 2000 is not up to date! OMFGF! Get the latest version now! - And so on. Blimey, I hadn't even installed it, and what kind of computer safety guide is so enthusiastic about getting me to install a program, as to generate pop ups within a few seconds.

That sounds odd to me. First, I presume you downloaded the free personal version, not Pro. Second, I would be shocked if the forum site (anandtech) had such advertising, so much so that I almost guarantee it was nothing to do with them. I suppose it might be advertising from the a/v vendor themselves, trying to get people to upgrade/buy the commercial version. Regardless, if you were using Firefox - it never would have happened.

[Winston]

Yes, well it put me off a little from following all their suggestions to the letter, but it is still a very valuable guide to me, there's lots of educational reading on the subject in there. Cudos to you.

I've now installed and run Ewido, Sloww. I couldn't run safe mode on my system in any useful way, just got a black screen with text in the corners ("Safe Mode"), but I ran Ewido normally, and performed scans of the file system, registry and memory. It found 126 infected objects, and moved them to quarantine.

It has helped, I think. The system seems more stable and responds faster to commands to open programs and windows within them. I still get the same pop ups as before, but it would seem they are less frequent now (only one in the last 15 minutes or so).

Also, I have the Ewido guard function activated, and it has alerted me to attempts of spyware installation a couple of times.

I will run it again later after having gotten the online updates for it.

Argh! Another popup!

I'll take a short breather now, and run some of the other apps a little later.