computer infected. help!

[kman025]

Originally Posted by RickB

No no no! You don't need to back anything up and start over.

Are you familiar with msconfig? Here's where you disable as much ugly stuff as possible. Click Start>Run then type msconfig then click OK. You DO have to be careful though not to disable important stuff. Look at the paths of the files and you'll know what it belongs to. If it looks funny, it probably is. If you aren't comfortable at all....skip this.

You'll need to reboot afterwards. If it boots back up, Right-click on My Computer and choose properties. Go to the System Restore tab and put a check where it says to Disable System Restore.

Go here and download (red link):
ATF-Cleaner.exe - www.atribune.org
Select all after you run it and let it clean your temp files

Then go to:
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com
Let it update and then do a quick scan. Then proceed


Then go here with Internet Explorer:
Free Online Scanner - Online Virus Scanner | F-Secure

or

Free Online Virus Scan | BitDefender Online Scanner (any browser)

or

HouseCall - Free Online Virus Scan - Trend Micro USA

i'll try it out when i get back from picking up and eating my CHEAT MEAL!

[ElementalVirago]

Rick I'm sure you know more about computers than me (hell a cockroach knows more about computers than me), but this happened to me and I used the Malwarebytes etc. and I ended up focking up my registry really bad. Probably because I disabled/deleted important stuff (as you said) quite by accident. Just giving kman a forewarning that that's what happened to me. I wish I had saved everything off my hard drive on a consistent basis so that I could have just wiped everything, reloaded Windows and started anew.

[ricka182]

Ric, if he has the samr thing I had there won't be anything odd listed in the msconfig tabs.. Mine looked as normal as it should be...either way, Kman those are some good tip in RickBs post for sure. The link I used to download the rescue disk is no longer valid. But if you can get on the internet without the browser being hijacked, do what Rick says..the other Rick..RickB, not ricka... keep us posted.

[RickB]

Originally Posted by ricka182

Ric, if he has the samr thing I had there won't be anything odd listed in the msconfig tabs..

True, but often times if not nixed in a hurry, one bad thing can open the flood gates for many more to come in. I do this for a living and I have many users that should never even look at a computer....if ya know what I mean

[Bodybygamma]

Malware Bytes Anti Mal-ware Works pretty good. Just be sure to update it and run it in safe mode, so it scans faster.

For the future:

I found it helpful to download Zone Alarm Firewall, best free one out there IMO.

If you can get Malware Bytes Anti Malware registered, it is pretty awesome at blocking dangerous torrent sites and blocking sketchy ip addresses from file sharing with your torrents.

And go with AVG or AVAST or any other free anti-virus,opposed to none. I believe AVG scans no problem in safe mode. I used to have McAffee and without updating it, it was useless and sucked. Also a major resource hog. I had fended off to ad/spyware attacks before having to reformat my cpu. If it comes to that make sure you have all your drivers and installation discs handy.

I currently run Norton/Symantec,Zone Alarm and Malware Bytes Anti Malware, and have had no problems.

Hopefully it don't come to that and you can fix it, set up recovery discs, depending on how much stuff you have on your cpu it can use about 10-20dvds, so be prepared.

[Bodybygamma]

Originally Posted by Bodybygamma

Malware Bytes Anti Mal-ware Works pretty good. Just be sure to update it and run it in safe mode, so it scans faster.

For the future:

I found it helpful to download Zone Alarm Firewall, best free one out there IMO.

If you can get Malware Bytes Anti Malware registered, it is pretty awesome at blocking dangerous torrent sites and blocking sketchy ip addresses from file sharing with your torrents.

And go with AVG or AVAST or any other free anti-virus,opposed to none. I believe AVG scans no problem in safe mode. I used to have McAffee and without updating it, it was useless and sucked. Also a major resource hog. I had fended off to ad/spyware attacks before having to reformat my cpu. If it comes to that make sure you have all your drivers and installation discs handy.

I currently run Norton/Symantec,Zone Alarm and Malware Bytes Anti Malware, and have had no problems. Also use a CC-priform cleaner to get rid of any excess crap and bad registries.

Hopefully it don't come to that and you can fix it, set up recovery discs, depending on how much stuff you have on your cpu it can use about 10-20dvds, so be prepared.

One thing I forgot to mention is google ways to deal with the specific virus/adware you have. When I got the vista guardian virus, I had to use a specific registry fix to allow my computer to run malware anti malbytes.

If you really really don't want to reformat and its looking bad, you will have to get a good IT site, and let them guide you through programs like combo fix and what not but if you not good with computers, I consider myself knowledgeable enough just to get in more trouble, I would take it a computer repair shop.

[RickB]

Yeah Avira is a very solid free program. You'll get a banner once a day asking you to get the paid version, but it's a great one for the price

I'm not very high on Software Firewalls though. I find they are more of a nuisance than they are worth. Maybe for the average internet user, they are okay, but I'm always tweaking sh!t and they bug the fudge out of me.