Need some Computer help!

[ccCapt]

Glad it's all worked out.
Like the other mentioned, McAfee isn't exactly all they make it out to be. I use NOD32, but a very good free antivirus is AVG. I always install it on my clients pc's when they have expired antivirus programs loaded.

 

[Ziggy953]

Like I said...I've been out of the loop for a while. McAfee was once one of the best options. I guess you go with what you know. I just renewed the software too. I'll check into some of your suggestions.

I'm also going to keep EVERYONE away from my computer.

Thanks for all the help everyone! I really do appreciate it!

 

[roka64]

In these days, out of the loop is about 3-6 months (used to be about 2 years...about 4 years ago!). Glad it worked!

 

[mlpbarrett]

Sorry I only know about macs, hope your problem gets fixed!

 

[Ziggy953]

Well I am pleased to say that my computer is happy again. Thank you all for the help!

mlpbarrett....I'm planning on going MAC with my next computer purchase!

 

[jrp1588]

heh, I worked at a computer repair shop up until a week ago. We'd get about 3 or 4 machines a day with different variation of windows antivirus 2009. It is a major pain to remove, and usually a system that has this malware installed has other malware as well, so we always just recommended a windows reload.

And go Mac if you want, but I'll always say a well built and well maintained PC will blow any Mac out of the water. I know my custom built $500 PC dominates the $2000 macs at my university. hah

 

[ccCapt]

heh, I worked at a computer repair shop up until a week ago. We'd get about 3 or 4 machines a day with different variation of windows antivirus 2009. It is a major pain to remove, and usually a system that has this malware installed has other malware as well, so we always just recommended a windows reload.

Yep....shops like that are what keeps my "side job" so busy. 99.999% of the time there is no reason to wipe out the drive and reinstall.
The XP Antivirus 2009 is a simply hoax. It's not malware, spyware or a virus. The problems start when it's run and people click try to have it fix the problems. To remove it, open task manager and stop the task. I believe it's antivirus2009.exe. Once the task is stopped, go into windows explorer and delete the folder.
I use 3 tools to fix infected pc's. Combofix, AVG Antivirus and Winternals System Commander. I have not had to format and reinstall an operating system on any pc because of an infection (and if your in college, I've been doing this since you were in grade school ).

 

[Tank2379]

Yep....shops like that are what keeps my "side job" so busy. 99.999% of the time there is no reason to wipe out the drive and reinstall.
The XP Antivirus 2009 is a simply hoax. It's not malware, spyware or a virus. The problems start when it's run and people click try to have it fix the problems. To remove it, open task manager and stop the task. I believe it's antivirus2009.exe. Once the task is stopped, go into windows explorer and delete the folder.
I use 3 tools to fix infected pc's. Combofix, AVG Antivirus and Winternals System Commander. I have not had to format and reinstall an operating system on any pc because of an infection (and if your in college, I've been doing this since you were in grade school ).

I agree you should never have to format or reinstall an OS. Always a way to fix the problem.

 

[jrp1588]

well, generally the systems that these people brought in had many other things wrong with them. I don't remember a single time when I worked with a system that had this installed that ran even close to acceptable. And sure, you can run malware scans, and registry cleaners, and virus scans, and all kinds of little tweaks and and scans and such, but there comes a time when reformatting is just easier and better in my opinion.

 

[roka64]

I agree on both sides. I back up my stuff so have no issues wiping out my OS and starting over, on the other hand, it is fun playing in the registry and searching out the nasty little programs.
And sometimes, I just like a clean start. I usually build a new PC every few years....ever tried to move a HD over from an older MB to a new one? It's fun trying to remove all the old drivers...lol...I only did that once!

 

[aveldina]

Mac's are great machines.. they've slowly taken over my life. My gaming rig PC at home is now the only non-mac I use between work, school and home. I'm even starting to consider running Mandriva on this thing instead of Vista. Whether Unix outperforms windows depends on the task at hand, when it comes to security Unix certainly has a better model than windows XP. The only problem with Macs these days is the price tag but if you're willing to pay it they make excellent desktop systems.

My boyfriend and I ran into an issue like this on a PC his parents asked us to look at, some "fake" antivirus was messing with windows. It was a mess to remove that one as well. It's sad but true that reinstalling windows is often the easiest way to deal with stuff like this.. but sometimes that's just not an option.

 

[Ziggy953]

I wasn't prepared to do it because I had not backed up all my pics and things. The last time my nephews messed up my computer I lost over 30gigs of music.

Oh...btw...someone said something about ctrl+alt+delete and stop the application. Just so you know what ever version of the malware I had on my computer it disabled my control panel, task manager, and all other windows related utilities. I had to go in through the back door...explorer...to get to any usable program.

 

[Tank2379]

I wasn't prepared to do it because I had not backed up all my pics and things. The last time my nephews messed up my computer I lost over 30gigs of music.

Oh...btw...someone said something about ctrl+alt+delete and stop the application. Just so you know what ever version of the malware I had on my computer it disabled my control panel, task manager, and all other windows related utilities. I had to go in through the back door...explorer...to get to any usable program.

Yeah most Malware is very bad and it looks like you might of have a bad one, some of them you can just Disable it throught the task manager but thats not always true... Sorry I use to be a programmer and a Hardware tech (Still work on the side like ccCapt does) but not really into the field like I use to be... but anyways these malware can be altered at anytime before they are release...

 

[Ziggy953]

I'm just glad it is gone. My computer is swept daily now for them.

 

[marchmaxima]

I've come in a bit late to this discussion.... I missed this thread.

Agree that there is always ways to fix a problem, but I have to confess, I do I rebuild my PCs every couple of years, but that's cos I'm constantly mucking around with things, putting things on, taking things off, etc... Fortuinately this process is much easier that it used to be with Nortons Ghost! I have an image for each PC, so (assuming I keep to my regular backup routines) I can re-image a PC in 20 minutes. I can not crow about it enough!

If you can, use a hardware firewall. No anti-virus is fool-proof and there is no anti-virus package out there that is guarenteed to take care of all malware, viruses, etc. All the ones mentioned here are good (assuming you definitions are up to date) and everyone will have their own favourites. Personally, I use AVG on all my machines. It's as good as any of the others, but it has the added benefit of being free.

Glad you fixed the issue.

 

[Ziggy953]

Thanks for all the info. Once upon a time I knew how to deal with things on a pc, I've been out of it for far too long to have even a slight idea on how to fix anything.