Posted on 01/30/2012 5:07:43 PM PST by Don@VB
Booted up my Acer Aspire One with Win XP and found this Win XP virus. Have Microsoft Security Essentials running and up to date and it got thru. Don't know how but it disabled most applications so could not run virus scan. Everything backed up but still a hassel. Its out there, any tips on avoiding this appreciated.
Yes, its free and yes I’m a cheapskate, however, I followed advice from Freepers. Quite a few think/thought MSE was #1. Hope they can chime in!
I got one of those on a borrowed computer.. it had to be reinstalled... I was in trouble..
The strongest and best antivirus software is called Prevx, www.prevx.com.
+1 Sophos. Been on my MacBook for 2 years... caught a grand total of 2 things, both recently.
That may be more than some can handle psychologically but no question it works. Ubuntu LINUX for people with complex software needs, Puppy LINUX for people who need the internet, word processing, and spreadsheets or who have older computers.
There are a great number of malware infections that actually install itself into the "system restore." One of the first things I always do is disable the system restore to protect against the possibility.
I've also seen some that installs itself onto the hidden partition restore files, so when you tell the system to reset itself back to the factory default installation, the system will still be infected.
Mark
Yes - Linux is great these days. Distrowatch.com is a great website for trying out various Linux distributions and it’s always a good idea to have a Linux liveCD around so you can at least boot your virus infected Windows computer and save all of your important files.
1. Push f8 repeatedly during startup before boot up
2. if you have adequate antivirus protection, select “safe mode”
if not, pick “safe mode with networking,” and download some.
3. get a program called “startup mechanic” this will instantly allow you to remove startup processes and thus keep viruses/trojans from starting up
4. you might need a rootkit virus detector and these new viruses hide in vital windows .sys and .dll processes and are difficult to detect.
5. KILL KILL KILL
Mark
>>3) Stay away from porn sites (caught ya, didn’t I?)
Porn sights arent the only thing that spread this anymore.
Try typing in goggle.com in your address bar sometime.
Ubuntu has actually become very complete, as of 11.0. It installs nearly flawlessly on almost anything - ready to go with all drivers and all essential software (accepting a few third party drivers along the way, but it finds and installs them with permissions). I think presently, Ubuntu would be an easy transition for any Windows user. For me, Ubuntu server is indispensible and rock solid. Linux rocks!
There has been a nasty popup that claims your system is infected, and includes a dialog box. Even clicking the close (x) box on the popup loads the malware. Next thing you know you try to go to any site, either by CTRL-O or typing the URL, you get directed somewhere else, and the sites get progressively offensive. The popup continues to show up, and asks for a credit card number to “renew your coverage”, so it’s a fishing scam as well. So if a popup shows up, don’t click on anything. SHUT DOWN YOU SYSTEM IMMEDIATELY! Reboot in the safe mode, scan your system, including with Malwarebytes. As for McAfee, I have found it to be useless. I have been using Kaspersky, with updates released daily.
If it is really bad, boot in the safe mode, DOS prompt, and run Malwarebytes from the DOS prompt.
Part of the problem is likely that there are just too many known vulnerabilities in older OS’s.. It may help to make sure you’re fully patched up to the last patches for XP. But the end is the end... And there won’t be more. There will always be risks for such machines, and they’ll need to really strictly firewalled and locked down.
Boot to F8 safemode
run system restore, pick last week
done.
The crappy “Windows Virus Protector” imitation virus sucks ass. I got it after a mistype of facebook and it popped up. Ctrl+Alt+Del’ed firefox but the sucker already installed through javascript or something.
It was a nasty rootkit virus, too, but now it’s dead. It’s just amazing the crap they make nowadays.
A word of caution: I tried that with System Restore a few weeks ago and afterward Thunderbird mail would not even start. Search disclosed that System Restore has been known to corrupt the mail database. I recomment backing up your profile first.
Linux is great! When running in a VM on a Mac!
I'll take that. You've gotta start somewhere - baby steps....
YUP...That’s the one!....by the time I get to them, either malwarebytes kills it or I reload the system.
that will teach them to save work to the shared drive and stay off those funky web sites.
Avast caught it, why doesn’t google take it down?
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