Posted on 01/02/2010 7:51:53 AM PST by Former Fetus
I find it happens more often on foreign web sites, too. Happens a lot when you are looking for drivers or support from a Chinese manufacturer, or you somehow end up on a Russian web site.
I also went from AVG to Avast, and liked it better. About 6 months ago, I moved to Microsoft Security Essentials. It seems to be working just fine, and no annoying renewals.
SUPER ANTISPYWARE
I’ve used AVAST free addition for several years and haven’t had a problem.
Before that...I had Symantec and was re-installing windows every 6 or so months. Drove me nuts!
We have AVAST on 4 home computers now and they all, are doing well. And I do use FIREFOX.
But I even used that during the Symantec mess.
Anyway... we had to have Norton Symantec un-installed on my husband’s laptop at the store where we purchased it, simply because we couldn’t.
It’s a scam. You browsed a website that’s running a script that is trying to trick you into downloading a malicious program. (Note that you may not have gone to the site deliberately; it could have been passed to your computer via an ad on an otherwise legitimate page you browsed.)
Press ctl-alt-del and click the Task Manager button. Find the browser on the Applications tab and close it from there. Also, go to the Processes tab and check that the browser isn’t shown as running there. If it is, kill it there as well. If you still have problems, reboot the machine.
Tried it and it screwed my computer up. Had to restore!
Oh great, I’ve got to call my 84 year old mother?
Sounds exactly like a problem I had, esp the Shield and popup warnings. I did a search on the “Windows Security Center Alert” (the wording in the pop-up) and finally fixed the problem with Smitfraudfix, following the directions from this helpful post: http://forums.techguy.org/malware-removal-hijackthis-logs/489632-solved-windows-security-center-alert.html
The key was to run the cleaner in Windows Safe Mode.
2 weeks later I am still running fine.
Good luck!
Papa Joe
Minneapolis
I had a similar virus that prevented running already installed anti-spyware, prevented use of Google or installing a new browser, and when offending processes deleted from task manager; would re-execute withing a few minutes. System restore was disabled.
In all probability, someone clicked "OK" on some not clearly worded installation dialog box. So the offending company is in the clear theoretically.
Only solution was to re-image Windows XP. Then download SP2/SP3. Then restore applications such as Word/Excel, then restore the MyDocuments folder from an external drive.
Many hours of my time wasted on this.
Malware bytes will fix it.
But you want something that will prevent such viruses from attaching themeselves to your computer rather than fixing it later.
I’ve been using a free program called Threatfire from PCTools for several years. It uses a heuristic approach to analyze anything that enters your computer to see if it begins to change your registry or any other foul deeds. It stops them and asks if you want the program deleted or left alone to install itself.
So far I’ve been clean and I surf a lot.
Is it possible to download that to a thumbdrive? If so, how do I do that? I also have a laptop that could use some help!
I just fixed one a few days ago on a friend’s kids computer. She got it from Face Book.
In the Task Manager there was a program running called settdebugx.exe. I found and deleted the registry key and the file. When the computer was rebooted the problem went away.
Did you have it actually remove any items it found? It shouldn’t screw anything up. That would be a first. How much memory do you have?
Save it to your desktop. Plug in your thumbdrive and then drag and drop the Malwarebytes icon into your thumbdrive. That’s it.
Vundo is nothing compared to more recent infections, such as Virut - a polymorphic file-infector - which compromises/patches your executable/system files and usually they can’t properly be cured, so the only solution is to reformat/reinstall Windows. Vundo is bad, but it can be fixed without having to reformat.
Thanks much. :~) I was finally able to copy Malwarebyte’s to the laptop. I’ve run it twice and found a bunch of crap. Next step after a third run is to try to do a system restore.
Make sure to push the REMOVE SELECTED button in the bottom right-hand corner, after the scan completes. Otherwise, the program won’t remove any bad stuff it finds.
I wouldn’t do a system restore. You run the risk of putting the malware back on your computer that way.
Too late. Already did it. Whatever I did seems to be working. I at least have all the icons back on my desktop along with the start tab. Avast is running in what seems to be a safe mode right now and cleaning more stuff. Going to run Malwarebyte’s again afterward.
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