Computer Gurus, HELP!!!!!!!

[reefrunner69]

Ok, I have my supervisors computer trying to get it running properly (I am not the best, but in this area I'm close to it), he had allowed his children to get a WHOLE lot of spyware, adware and a few nasty viruses. I got all that stuff off, updated his virus protection turned on his personal firewall (one of his boys had turned it off) updated windows, updated adaware and it shows clean now, after days of continous scans and some manual deletions. The problem is, Internet Explorer changes the home page everytime I get it on the internet. As soon as t accesses the internet, it changes the home page to netspry.com. When I first got it from him, it would then open a hundred pop up windows or so and finally crash, now it doesn't do that, but it changes the homepage. How can I fix it? I'm ready to be done with this nightmare, LOL.

 

[fishfreek]

What program did you use for adware?

At work we combat adware with a tagteam of adaware and spybot.

 

[reefrunner69]

I just used adaware.

 

[Atari]

I use spybot too.. it catches a lot of stuff adaware misses so it might be worth a try.

Also, did you try searching the registry?

 

[youronlysin]

I have adaware and spybot both on my home pc and I'll tell you this: They are a short term fix for annoyances, but in the end those will catch up and you will still be plagued with computer problems. Your best bet and the only sure way to fix it is to reformat the drive and reinstall everything. Other than that, all you can do is apply band-aid, short term fixes that dont solve 100 percent of your problems and in turn cause a few more of their own. Something to think about.

 

[youronlysin]

FYI, spybot can remedy your homepage Hi-jacking, but be aware that it is not 100 percent fool proof. There are some malicious softwares that just cant be stopped easily.

 

[Atari]

Nevermind.. see next post.

 

[Atari]

Actually.. scratch that last one..

This page has instructions for manual removal from Netspry itself.. alternatively you could get PestPatrol which will remove it automatically.

http://www.pestpatrol.com/pestinfo/n/netspry.asp

 

[reefrunner69]

Thanks, yeah Atari, I just found that.

 

[William]

If his personal firewall is the windows XP built in, don't bother turning it on. It does nothing.


Other than that

Make sure no virus has installed itself and tampered with the antivirus [ Norton has safeguards against this, unsure about others ]

Run AdAware and Spybot Search and Destroy, not at the same time of course.

Also, run Spybots immunization, it prevents known adware from installing itself again.

 

[reefrunner69]

If his personal firewall is the windows XP built in, don't bother turning it on. It does nothing.

It's Norton's personal firewall.

Is spybot a free download? Where can I get it?

 

[William]

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

and norton is very good, all Norton products have safeguards that prevent outside programs from tampering with their files.

 

[greenfish]

A great site to get spyware removal tools and other computer stuff is
http://www.majorgeeks.com/

 

[TankGirl]

Try CWShredder, also. The problem is that these programs need to be removed from the registry, as they are installed so that as soon as the main program is found by spyware removal programs, it automatically re-installs itself. I have Adaware and Spybot, and PestPatrol (bundled with Zone Alarm) found and removed some programs that the previous two could not.

If you see some exe programs in the registry that are questionable, google the name and you can find out what they are, then remove them.

Anyone who is not familiar with messing around in the registry, do NOT do it! You can trash your computer if you don't know what you are doing.

This has become an epidemic over the past few months, it seems. I am reading about this everywhere lately, though I know it is nothing new - just coming to a head.

 

[reefrunner69]

CWShredder, adaware and spybot will not fix it. I ended up finding an article that said to download a program called hijackthis, scan the registry and then told me which files to remove. Worked like a charm

 

[krap101]

lol. talking about hacking. its kinda funny. like 3 years ago my bro downloaded this thing called "sub-seven". he got onto aim connected with his friend and got the ip address. then he hacked into their comp and it was funny. he was printing stuff on their comp, playing their music on their comp, and there even was a matrix thing to go on the screen. ya know the blackout with all those green numbers?.... that was fun. a couple mins afterwards they called us and they were all freaked out. oh yeah you can open their cd rom drive . i tried doing it to my friend but i didnt know the command for the c:_ or watever . thats why aim and everyone says not to connect with anyone you dont trust... my bros friend said that if i try to download it frmo the site again ill prolly get hacked

 

[Atari]

ill prolly get hacked

You probably already have and just didn't know it

 

[deli_conker]

I usually go straight into the registry and fix it from there. Adaware is nice, but I always double check it as I can make a decision based on what I know is supposed to be in certain areas. But like TG said,

Anyone who is not familiar with messing around in the registry, do NOT do it! You can trash your computer if you don't know what you are doing.

http://www.scumware.com has some good info on all sorts of spyware etc.

 

[TankGirl]

Hijack this is a wonderful thing, especially if you are not familiar with the registry, because you can take the info it gives you about your registry and post it online and the experts can tell you what is a nasty thing and what to leave alone.

 

[Atari]

I just had a poke around the registry and found a couple things spybot missed.

There's also a nice little utility that comes with Windows called msconfig. You can use it to stop malicious things loading when you boot up.