Thetownend.com

.....my kid was messing with my computer  the other day, and left my firewall down :angry:

    He's a bit of a computer kid, but has now buggered off for 10 days on hols.

   The beast has now been infected with shite, which is a couple of repeating pop up icons on the bottom tool bar, which refuse to be moved, and keep informing me that machine is infected  with viruses porn and spyware.

  I've put the FW back up, run a virus check, which turned up some Trojan horses and an unidentified thing, which has been removed, run Spybot and Adaware amd got rid of some spyware.....but the annoying pop up are still there.

 Any ideas on how to get rid anyone?

you've done all the things i would suggest - apart from wait 10 days ?!

Old people are often easily confused with new fangled technology :)

I'd try hitman pro which pulls in a number of these 'removal' programs for you (spybot and adware and more). It takes a while (updates/installs) and you may be required to click the odd yes to agree to licencing,

http://www.hitmanpro.nl/

It's in dutch but I think the program has an 'English' installation option, but I bet you can speak dutch anyway Reg :)

 Tried that, doesn't seem to want to run after installation.... :|

what about a system restore.

put your system back to when it was working properly then run spybot etc etc

Oh, bummer. Which version did you download (2.4.3?). What OS are you running, just spotted it doesn't work for Win 98/ME.

Apart from that if magics advice does not work at the bottom of the link I gave there is a list of the individual programs it runs! Start at the top of he list and work through ???????!

Bit hit and miss, but you could try checking what processes are running when you first login using Task Manager (right click on taskbar and select TaskManager then select processes tab), and googling any you don't recognise (e.g. spyware.exe) - 9 times out of 10, they'll be common spyware exes and someone will have posted removal instructions.

Also worth checking under the My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run entries in the registry (Start->Run->regedit) which controls which programs run on startup. Be very very careful about editing/deleting any of these entries if you don't know what you're doing - may be an idea to grab one of the freebie "startup manager/editor" tools to do it for you.

Before you install any tool that claims to sort out spyware, viruses etc (or indeed the startup editor tools referred to above) Google it and make sure it isn't itself spyware - sadly a lot of them remove competitors' spyware and install their own.

Erm, hope that helps.

This might help:

http://www.registry-cleaner.net/download.htm

 I've tried looking at what's running under task manager there are around 30 processes,  sadly I don't know what is important and what's not without someone advising....the machine basically works but is annoying.

 So if I copy these down google them, that should tell me what they are right?

That's the idea, yeah. Otherwise (or instead) try that registry cleaner link I posted - not tried it myself I'm afraid but it looks pretty straightforward and apparently has a feature to remove startup programs. Certainly less dangerous than hand-editing the registry, but make sure you know what things are before you remove them.

First time i've known Reg to not have a clue about something  :D
Atleast you're human after all.

Magic.....is your solution a kind of last resort ?

 Will it cause other problems?

shouldn't do. it isn't a last resort really, it's an easy way of sorting the problem. not sure how you do a system restore though as i can't remember now

no it's the first thing i do.

go to start,
programmes,
accessories,
system tools,
system restore

Choose a date you know when it was working properly and fire away

Yup, that's a much better idea - lot less farting about.

I've looked throught he processes and got rid of three dodgy looking items, and I still seem to be here,

 But there still seems to be a problem....might try magics solution.

 :nod:  :thumbs:

Christ, don't do a system restore, thats drastic stuff and won't always help.

I'm at work so don't expect a reply immediatelty, but download Hijackthis http://www.merijn.org/

Then download Cleanup 4.0.

http://www.stevengould.org/downloads/cleanup/CleanUp40.exe

restart PC, Hit F8 till you get a prompt, load in safe mode without network, then when in Windows run spybot and adaware again. Then run Cleanup.

Then do a scan and save log file using hijackthis. Postthe Hijackthis log file on here and i'll see if i can help.

but a system restore is the easiest way surely

Christ, don't do a system restore, thats drastic stuff and won't always help.

I'm at work so don't expect a reply immediatelty, but download Hijackthis http://www.merijn.org/

Then download Cleanup 4.0.

http://www.stevengould.org/downloads/cleanup/CleanUp40.exe

restart PC, Hit F8 till you get a prompt, load in safe mode without network, then when in Windows run spybot and adaware again. Then run Cleanup.

Then do a scan and save log file using hijackthis. Postthe Hijackthis log file on here and i'll see if i can help.

why is it drastic???

it is a well known way of reseting your comp to a time when it worked.

it has no bad affect on your system and takes 5 mins to do.

Seems like reg has taken a lot longer than that to try and sort it

I've tried the system restore gone through the procedure, but it just says its incomplete and hasn't worked.

  At the point where it says select resore my computer to an earlier date, that box is ticked, there is a box saying create a restore point or similar, which is unticked...wouild ticking that nake a difference?

  Tried that no good.....

No it wouldn't. you need restore my computer to an earlier date.

usually when doing a system restore you need to go back about a week for it to work properly.

Fine. I'm just trying strop box.

Besides it's just a bit overkill.

It will first involve rolling system back prior to problems, so everything else is lost in between, and doesn't necessarily remove the problem.

I avoid system restore completely myself, as i use drive image. System restore does not employ a drive image, so i suspect the way in which it restores is based upon removing changes to the system which have taken place at each install of software.

In the above instance, viruses will rarely be removed.

Reg, I know it sounds obvious, but have you go into your add/remove programs list?

Some rubbish through active X ends up installed as a program within your programs list.

 It only offers me Saturday and Friday o flast week, tried both neither work.

does it not go back further than that???

is it a new comp??

 About 4 years old.....

system restore should allow you to go back further than last week though.

in theroy you should be able to go back to the very start but you don't want to do that.

AVOID SYSTEM RESTORE!!!!!!

Read my posts Reg. I doubt that it will solve your problems.

system restore is a bit drastic if you ask me.

i'd download registry cleaner or CCleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com/) which is what i use. gets rid of all the shite with the click of a few buttons.

WHY IS IT DRASTIC???

because i don't have the option to do it on win2k and things i don't know about scare me  :D

Read my posts, angry boy.

Something similar happened to me and the only way I could get rid of it was to run anti virus and anti spyware in SAFE MODE.

Restart PC in normal mode and it was ok !

Just a thought.

I use system restore all the time. Probably about eight times this year.  :D

I don't trust system restore either.

but that is your preference cos you use drive image.

where as i don't and nor does reg i imagine so for us it's fine

Its not, what im saying is to use cleanup and hijackthis, that should show you where the problem lies.

He then may need to run Killbox or silentrunners and find the root.

Its complex, but it removes the virus/spyware, not the last program you installed.

System restore is quite useful some times but no point if it doesn't go back further than last week. It's not really that drastic, you can always reverse it and it doesn't delete any of your stuff.

Well system restore doesn't work, so that's academic....Barry Scott's technique seems a bit complex, I'll leave it for later maybe.....the 3 processes deleted from task manager came back, re deleted them and that sems to have improved things.....just need to get rid permanently.

:sleep:  :sleep:  :sleep:  :sleep:  :sleep:  :sleep:  :sleep:

Try the registry cleaner link I posted earlier Reg - at least will help you identify what things are running on startup which will give you some idea of what it is you need to remove

Going to hi-jack your thread....sorry Reg.

Several times in the last day or so AOL keeps loading on it own, and when I try to sign on it says "rasautou has automatically launched AOL to access the internet"

Have run Ad-aware and a virus check but can't find it. What is it? Do I need to delete it?  :shrug:

 Right I've done that, and there was something dodgy which I've deleted, don't think its completely right yet though.

Been mentioned but the obvious one is always add/remove programs and look for any new additions  then browse to your 'program files' folder and see if there's anything in there that doesn't belong.

What are the popups directing you to?

If it's specific site you can usually google it to get some info.

An easy way of seeing what's getting booted at start up is to go to 'run' in the startmenu. type in msconfig and then check in the services and startup tabs.

System restore often doesn't get rid of spyware etc because the clever bastards who make the spyware make sure it goes in the system restore itself, so when you restore to an earlier time it effectively keeps running itself.

Oh and system restore does not have endless space so you won't be able to go back 4 years in time if you don't have a big enough hard disk drive.

Do you know what the thing is called?, there might be a removal tool you can download from symantec or something, or you can get someone kind enough on here to find the solution for you [or can you describe what things are called? e.g. it's a searchbar in Internet Explorer that seems to be called 'cool webseach'].

Failing that I would go with the hijack this solution. Copy the results output it gives you and post it here so somebody who knows what they're doing can analyse it and try and help you.