PC TIP !

[instar]

Thought I'd share a handy discovery. earlier today I had a problem with a particularly viscious spyware. ads kept popping up all over, so much that it stopped my pc dead. it just locked up completely. several reboots and a few runs of adaware and spybot later, it was still there worse than ever. It even caused my internet connetion to close down.
I assumed it was a virus, so i had go thru turning off system restor and losing restore points so i could scan with AV. scan came up clean, no virus, i was ready to take the drastic step of wiping my pc clean and starting from scratch, i even ran a registry repair program, i figured it must be hidden deep in there. I called a PC savvy mate who put me onto a spyware program called "spysweeper" by webroot. I downloaded it and ran it. The first run took a while and came up with 29 software bugs and over 800 spyware traces that spybot and adaware had been missing.
That viscious hybrid spyware was among them, and afterward my pc just absolutly flew! speeds were much faster than since it was new.
I recommend you give it a go if your pc is slowing down. You can find the free download hyperlink at:
http://spysweeper.com/ :wink:

 

[jimmy_the_kid]

sounds like u had fun

 

[JunglePython]

adaware is a very good program as well.

 

[instar]

It was a nightmare, I was sure it was a worm of some kind and couldnt work out how it got thru a firewall and Av . My email, both incoming and outgoing are scanned by Av so it was a mystery. I really reccomend spysweeper, its much better than adaware or spybot, it really scans deep.
Spyware creaters are getting smarter, B*st*rds ! :evil:

forgot to mention, the bug that did the deed was called" Vx2 transponder"
Whatever the heck that is! :?

 

[dobermanmick]

Thanks instar i have had problems lateley with my pc and spybot and adaware cant get rid of them either
Does anyone know how to get rid of the when you search toolbar it really sh@#ts me off when it keeps reinstalling itself 5 mins after i uninstall it !

 

[Fuscus]

dobermanmick - more details please give us as much info as possible

 

[instar]

Reinstalls itself? sounds like something in the registry.

 

[dobermanmick]

It comes on the taskbar it is called whenusearch desktop toolbar i uninstall it from the windows add remove and it just keeps comming back when i turn it off in the toolbar it then turns into a desktop search bar
I use cntrl alt del and turn it off in applications running with endtask but it just keeps comming back
i use norton antivirus 2004 and norton antispam and spybot and adaware

 

[instar]

Mate, i reccomend add/removeing it again, download spysweeper and run it. "x-search" toolbars are a nightmare that useually come packaged with spyware among other junk.
They load to registry so even add/remove dosent get them out of the registry. so when you reboot, the sneaky buggers reinstall themselves again and again, all the while sending data to the host and targeting you with ads of the sponsers. 9thats roughly how they work anyway) Fuscus will know more, he's a supergeek! LOL Just a freindly joke Fuscus, no offence meant meant cleverbum

 

[Fuscus]

Has the toolbar got a name?

 

[instar]

Think he said it was "whenusearch".

 

[dobermanmick]

yep thats what they call it in add remove i have got that spysweeper from your link i am installing it and see what happens then !

 

[dobermanmick]

yep over 800 and 47 programs wow that program works great

 

[herptrader]

Another one that is very useful is "SpyBot - search and destroy" which is genuine free ware. (I think I downloaded it from www.downloads.com)

I run SpyBot and Adaware in additon to the basic antivirus stuff.

I have concluded that none of them are perfect and a couple should be used in combination, if you want a fairly clean system.

I also turned off the ActiveX stuff in the browser and that seems to have helped a lot.

 

[dobermanmick]

I have both of these and they still did not find all of these but spysweeper did maybe it wont find the ones the others find but all together it may work

 

[saikrett]

if all else fails looks like its time for a re-format

 

[Fuscus]

http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/library/whenusearch/index.phtml

 

[dobermanmick]

that would be okay but my wife runs a business off this pc and does not have the time to let me do it !

 

[nuthn2do]

If you have an win OS that?s equipped with System Restore most programs will not be able to delete malicious files in the restore folder because it is protected, so next time you use a ?restore point? you?re back to square one.

Damn ?? I hear you say. I wish someone nice person could help

Try this.
If you have system restore enabled turn it off. ?Control panel? > ?system? > ?performance? tab > ?file system? button > ?troubleshooting? tab and then check ?disable system restore?.
Restart in ?Safe Mode? ? ?Ctrl? or ?F8? on start up.
Run the spyware/adware/malware program.
Any nasties in the restore folder should now be removable.
Restart and turn restore back on if you want by unchecking the disable box that you checked first up.
Restart again normally.

This method has saved me from reformatting 4 Win ME systems so far.
BTW if you bugger up your computer or lose restore points or backup files, it?s your fault not mine and I don't want to know you.
Craig

 

[Nome]

LOL :lol:

We run Norton's Ghost here, and have 2 hard drives- one to run windows off, and one we save stuff one, so as soon as a worm gets on the computer (usually gets into windows ini files) we re-ghost the windows hard drive with an original image that we have made earlier. I still have all my stuff on the other hard drive, so it's all still there, but just no worm. Worms still get through my firewall and antivirus occaisonally, so this re-ghost is great, it takes around half an hour and we are back online. Sounds complex, but it is really very easy and the least annoying way, by far better than reformatting.