It's hard enough trying to help along those who are a couple of paces behind without this kind of crap.
Drama Queens should not write for the MassMind. 
Spyware ping
And that's probably the most insidious issue with spyware: having to waste the time and effort, not to mention the resources, to nuke your own equipment.
I hate these people.
Some journalist. There's freeware that could have taken care of all of this without a reformat, and all information has been posted on various threads on FR.
To review:
1. Ignore Norton. Buggy and doesn't work very well. Download Avast Anti-Virus and that will do the job.
2. Install Firefox and make it your default browser. It will work in virtually all cases.
3. Download CleanCache and run that. It will clean up all IE temporary internet files and other things that are slowing the computer down.
4. Adaware SE and Spybot should waste just about any spyware lurking on your system.
Some of these programs have commercial licenses that cost, but can be used free for personal use. Decide accordingly. The whole process isn't that hard to correct.
Two of my home systems were infected with some really hideous spyware. Sure, I've been hit before but usually AdAware and/or SpyBot Search & Destroy would quickly and cleanly remove unwanted stuff. Not this time. It tried and tried with those tools, downloaded a few more, but no luck. I finally tried Giant Anti-Spyware and it worked great on both systems. It figures that Microsoft just bought them out. Try it yourself at www.giantcompany.com.
That was his first mistake. Kazaa is spyware, and will not run when its' spyware components have been removed.
...after I had deleted Kazaa and installed Norton AntiVirus 2004...
Norton AV is as worthless as tits on a boar. It misses things. There are a number of FREE anti-virus products that are far superior (see table below).
A combination of AVG or AntiVir, Tiny Personal Firewall 2 (even if you're on dial-up), along with a bit of common sense, can go a long way to keeping your computer safe.
And here's the table: (Recommendations for additions are welcome.)
| PC security-related links & software. All software listed is freeware/open source. |
| Alternatives to Microsoft Internet Explorer, Outlook & Outlook Express: Mozilla.org Mozilla & Firefox browsers, E-mail/Usenet client(s) Off By One The world's smallest and fastest web browser Popcorn E-Mail E-Mail client Pegasus Mail E-Mail client Xnews Usenet client |
| Anti-Virus: AntiVir® Personal Edition AVG Anti-Virus Antidote SuperLite Screenshot On-demand virus checker MicroWorld AntiVirus Utilities Tookit |
| Anti-Adware/Spyware: Ad-Aware SE Spybot Search and Destroy |
| Firewall: Tiny Personal Firewall 2 (Last freeware version) |
| Miscellaneous: Ping Plotter Internet diagnostic tool |
| Links: Spyware/Adware/Malware FAQ and Removal Guide Firewall Test, Security Test and Security Scan Shields Up Firewall Test Test Your Firewall at Hackerwatch.org OldVersion.com Because newer is not always better |
$ uname -a Linux zprc 2.6.8-1.521 #1 Mon Aug 16 09:01:18 EDT 2004 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux $ |
Oh yeah! That's right. I use Linux! My computer just works without having me live in fear of infection, worms, spyware, and God knows what else.
I reformatted just the other day. Once a year reformatting is not the worst idea in the world. I did it mostly because I wanted to make a clean WinXP install with SP2. Prior to that I made a CD disc from my copy of XP that has SP2 slipstreamed into it.
I used this program -SlipStreamer2Beta21- to do the slipstreaming operation. Making the new XP/SP2 CD bootable is a little tricky but not that hard. After installing my new XP/SP2 I was pleasantly surprised to find only 4 Windows updates were needed.
The major factor that keeps me away from Linux and with XP is the cleartype option
I keep getting a suspicious looking screen that says something like "Your computer not be running at full speed. Click here."
Is that the result of spyware?
I'll bet he had a Spyware service installed. I'm seeing more and more of those these days. Windows Net Login for example. It sounds like a legitimate service. It's pure spyware.
My FR homepage has more detail.
Bump for later
It's hard enough trying to help along those who are a couple of paces behind without this kind of crap.
Drama Queens should not write for the MassMind.
fyi
bump
(I use IE6 and Firefox both because some things run better on one than the other, and I use WinXP because I want to be able to run any program I want.)
Then you deserved everything you got!
Install I.E Spy-ad. Its a simple registry patch that adds a motherlode list of known advertisers, marketers, and scumware pushers to your Internet Explorer Restricted Zones list. Think of it as wearing a software condom while browsing the Web since no matter what your browser preferences are in general, it will automatically switch to secure mode when it wanders onto sites known to be "high risk" environments. Restricted Zone simply means hackers can't run ANY code on your computer. An an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And it is FREE.
For the general interest, not all spyware removers are honest and some are spyware themselves.
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm
Bump for later employment on home pc. Dang teenagers.