Need...Help... Now! :(

[Yan]

Heya all, this is probably the first time I've posted in this part of the forum but I am in serious need of help here. :p


My computer has been acting up lately. I have been using IE all these while (finally switched to ForeFox today, thanks to Happydude's persistance) and I think that has caused a significant amount of damage to my computer. I get gazillions of pop ups in a day (sometimes up to 3 per new page I open) and I am sure I have plenty of spywares and viruses going on as well.

Being the computer retard, I need someone to tell me what to do now:

-how to get rid of the adwares (which adware/spyware software to download)

-where to get a proper anti-virus software (mine expired... a year ago *runs and hides*)

Generally, how to clean up this thing. Everytime I shut down my computer a lot of warnings will pop up, saying that there are processes that I haven't finished and if I want to end the program now.

I have thought about reformatting my computer but I have way too many files that I need and I am not sure how to back everything up.

Sorry for the long post... and thanks for reading this far :p

[dropCGCF]

Go to http://download.com .

Download Ad-Aware SE, Spyware Doctor, Spyware Blaster, And Spybot Search & Destroy.

Do this first.

[Null]

anti spy/adware
Adaware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/
Spybot http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

great free virus program
Grisoft AVG http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/

[dropCGCF]

anti spy/adware
Adaware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/
Spybot http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

great free virus program
Grisoft AVG http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/

I tried AVG, and a month later, my computer needed to be reformatted. I found with the combination of what I said, along with Registry Mechanic, Hijack This, and Scotty kepp my machine primed and oiled.

[Yan]

Go to http://download.com .

Download Ad-Aware SE, Spyware Doctor, Spyware Blaster, And Spybot Search & Destroy.

Do this first.


I have Spyware Doctor and I did do some scans. I couldn't delete a lot of the things that came up though...

[KillerGremlin]

Run Spybot, then run Ad-Aware. That should take care of most of the pop-ups and viruses. However, I recommend disconnecting your computer from the internet when you do so, if you have a broadband connection. Many of the spyware files reinstal themselves when you restart your computer or when they aren't running when you're online.

Once you have all that done, go to Start - Run... and type Msconfig.

Go to "startup" and make sure that nothing weird is in there like "AutoLoaderAprposClient" or any crap like that.

And, if you really want to get fancy, you can go to "Run..." and then type "regedit" and you can just get rid of that system startup information via your registry files.

Anyway, I recommend running spybot, adaware, and then shutting down. Disconnect your Internet, load windows again, run spybot and adaware again to make sure nothing reinstalled on startup, and then run a virus scan overnight.

Of course........that's worse case scenario. Like.....if you just get random popups for penis inhancement when you have nothing running on your desktop.

Edit: Just because your virus scan's definitions are a year old doesn't mean it won't pick up on viruses. I guarantee you it will pick up on 99.999% of the viruses, if you have any. Viruses are so damn similar, there's really not that much risk in running a program that's one or two years outdated. (unless you're on like a huge work network and you're transferring super secret files, i mean, if i worked at microsoft or something and i was running a network, hell yeah i'd have that crap updated, but you should be fine =/ )

[Null]

I tried AVG, and a month later, my computer needed to be reformatted. I found with the combination of what I said, along with Registry Mechanic, Hijack This, and Scotty kepp my machine primed and oiled.


well thats too bad for you :p

but he wanted to know of a anti virus program, and thats pretty much the best one around. perhaps even better then most the ones that cost money.

i set my friends pc up with that and i absolutly love it. when my mcafee runs out. im switching to that one. :)

[Yan]

I get plenty of the penis enhancement ones, I tell you... (too bad I don't have one to test it on >.< )

I'll probably do the whole process. Plus, where can I get a decent anti-virus? I am too poor to buy the whole program so I need some suggestion. I still have Norton on my computer but the virus list hasn't been updated since last year.

[Yan]

well thats too bad for you :p

but he wanted to know of a anti virus program, and thats pretty much the best one around. perhaps even better then most the ones that cost money.

i set my friends pc up with that and i absolutly love it. when my mcafee runs out. im switching to that one. :)

she ;)

[KillerGremlin]

Eh.....I personally think Norton sucks....

Like Null said, AVG is good. I have McAfee right now, and it's scanned over 9 million files within the last like.....8 or 9 months.

[Yan]

Eh.....I personally think Norton sucks....

Like Null said, AVG is good. I have McAfee right now, and it's scanned over 9 million files within the last like.....8 or 9 months.


Norton and McAfee are probably the two antivirus software that I know of... Sooooo unenlighted :D

Most of the popups I get usually are regarding adware removers... Talk about ironic... heh.

I also get a lot of pop ups when I do searches. Lets say I type in "shirt" on Google and I get heaps of popups trying to sell me, well, shirts!

[GameMaster]

Download Microsoft's AntiSpyware beta program also:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=321cd7a2-6a57-4c57-a8bd-dbf62eda9671&displaylang=en

And thanks for the AVG referall, Null. I hadn't heard of that yet but after hearing your good review of it, I'm going to put it on my computer also.

[Null]

she ;)



sorry, +rep for your forgivness :p

[MasterMind]

Start up in safe mode, then do the scans. That may help as well.

[Yan]

Okay, so I downloaded Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware and AVG...

I tried running all of them but I can never seem to finish a scan. It takes me forever to do a scan and most of the time the program just freezes (not responding blah blah blah). My Spybot program apparently has a couple of things missing so the scan can't be continued :(

I also received a Norton virus warning at startup... something with "bloodhound" in the file name. Don't know how to get rid of it...

While doing the scans, a whole bunch of virus warnings popped up too and some of them I couldn't move to the quarantine vault nor delete it... What's going on?

:confused:

Maybe I should just reformat this darn thing...

[KillerGremlin]

What you need to understand is, viruses are often located in your registration files. Your computer doesn't want to delete running processes, and for good reason. It's not a good idea to be whacking programs while they are running on windows, that can cause problems. With McAfee, it bugs you when a program is running, and you try to delete it. McAfee has a nifty little file shredder, so you can delete programs while they are running.

Ad-Aware is a little slow, just let it run, it should un-freeze. Make sure you aren't running anything aside from Ad-Aware. Also, I recommend running Spybot, and then running Ad-Aware, and seeing if you can fix all the problems with just Ad-Aware. I've also had some trouble using Spybot.

With the virus-scan, you HAVE to not be running anything. Exit out of any programs like Winamp or Real Player that load up on startup. The virus scan might not be able to delete the virus right away, but McAfee gives you the option to quarantine the file, this way it can delete it on the boot-up when the file hasn't loaded.

If all else fails, then I guess you can reformat. However, I recommend messing with your registration files before you do so. You can get rid of a lot of the spyware, manually, without much trouble.

[Blackmane]

I recommend not messing with registry files if you are not computer savvy.

Like others have said, make sure nothing else is running, then run your programs.

Sometimes, though, spyware is tricky and it gives itself rights so that you can't get rid of it. I've seen it happen to me (Gator: DONT EVER DL THAT PROGRAM, IT DOESNT HELP YOU AT ALL!!!)

[GameMaster]

Eh.....I personally think Norton sucks....

Like Null said, AVG is good. I have McAfee right now, and it's scanned over 9 million files within the last like.....8 or 9 months.

Do you reccommend having AVG run on start-up and having it active during your computer use? Is it going to noticebly 'bog' down my speed?

I already have Microsoft AntiSpyware running.

[KillerGremlin]

If you have one program running already, you should be fine.

Any virus program will tie up system resources, I know McAfee's Virus Scan/Firewall slows down a few things on the net, but I have it set up so it's not that big of a deal. Personally, I'd rather sacrifice a little ram to keep a virus program running, instead of sacrificing 99% of my ram so penis inhancement pop-ups can spawn from nowhere and manipulate my desktop.

You're fine though...with the constant Window's XP updates, the odds of getting a seriously malicious virus that could do serious damage to your OS is pretty slim, and most spyware is easy to deal with - but you really don't need to worry about spyware if you have Firefox, so it's really a win win win situation.

[Hero2]

REFORMAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chances are that even if you run all the scans in the world some spyware somewere is going to leave its mark and **** with your computer.

If you do reformat and install windows XP the sasser worm is still out there. make sure you install some type of AV before going online or when installing XP install SP1or2 before going online.

after reformating choose any of the fine products listed above and you shouldent have any problesm as long as you run the scans and stop looking at porn.....