Posted on 06/05/2004 8:06:55 PM PDT by Long Cut
by brother-in-laws computer was so completely overwhelmed by
spyware and adware -- CWS was the last and most difficult
to slay -- that it would take LITERALLY 10 minutes to come
up, run out of virtual memory (there were so many IE
instances in the task bar that it wasn't worth counting them) and crash.
I made two trips; made it somewhat better one day, and then
came back later in the week with several other adware tools,
and finally eradicated what turned out to be over 450 bugs.
I defragged him (35%+ fragmented. just mangled), installed
mozille firefox and told him to never run IE EVER AGAIN.
Oh man, PestPatrol has saved me several times from infestation.
I've been hit like this before, with pornographic pop-ups, porn sites added to my favorites list, a strange toolbar beneath my standard internet buttons, etc.
Pest Patrol killed it, thank goodness.
I find it interesting that IE still managed to pick up stuff when you weren't actually using it. THat would point to one of two things, either you have been hijacked and none of your scanners have spotted it, or some other program on your computer is using IE to do something. The most likely culpret in the latter case is if you are using Outlook for your email.
Outlook makes etensive use of IE, and I'm not sure that there is any way to stop it.
Very, very cool. Sounds like you've got a good handle on things. Do check out The Proxomitron though. I think I posted that advice on this thread. With that proxy running on port 8080 and setting IE and Firefox to use port 8080 you'll be looked down tighter than a medieval virgin in a chastity. belt.
Google for a program called Clean My PC, Download it.
In trial mode it will only remove 2 things per category. Uncheck all clean categories to speed up the iteration of the test.
I did this after getting Rid of CWS and everything else everything active, and found several registry entries and other stuff I wanted to clean up too. If the registry entries are gone, and the files are gone, revert to Keep The H!@# out of my machine mode and enjoy your surfing (Safe surfing anyway)
Speaking of Active things I regularly compare my Task list to a File I have made of things I want running ;-D anything new, I look up on the internet Google for swchost.exe for Example. If it is benign, and I like what it does, ok, add to good list, if not, I add it to the BAD list and go into kill mode. If it is benign, but I don't want it I keep clutter from slowing down my machine.
Been doing this since Windows 3.1 and I always seem to have fewer problems than those who do not. (Yep, I'm a NERD, no two ways about it, but If'n I didn't want to know how my computer was runnin' Id buy me a MAC.)
BTTT
Thanks, I'll have to check that one out.
Trouble is, I'm not knowlegeable enough to do that "proxy" and "port" stuff yet. Hey, I freely admit to what I have no clues about, and stuff like that is some of it.
The download of the program has complete point-and-click instructions. It's actually isn't a bunch of computerese mumbo-jumbo...it IS just point and click on 2 or 3 items.
Since The Proxomitron is so mind bogglingly useful and won't be available forever...I suggest just downloading it and saving it for a rainy day.
I have also learned with this not only to update Windows, Norton, and my spyware stuff - but also MS Office and Front Page and all those. I had my Access and Front Page hacked before I was done, but have it all restored now.
Hope this helps any of the rest of you.
I'm as dumb as stump when it comes to computers and I was able to download it with no problem. I went with the foxfire edition and went with all the upgrades there is another download for that.
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