Posted on 03/23/2005 8:42:31 PM PST by passionfruit
I have been a Mac user since the first one rolled off the assembly line. I love them, and still have one, which I am using to write this post. The problem is that I bought a notebook PC because I have some work related needs that I couldn't use my Mac for.
My teenage son asked if he could check his email on the PC, and like an idiot, I said yes. He walked off with the notebook, and went to a web site that a friend had told him was "really cool". It became infected with spyware, ad ware and goodness knows what else. We have been running Norton anti virus on it, and have deleted all of the infected files several times. Some persistant ones pop up again when the computer re-starts, and now, Norton Anti Virus won't allow us to do any repair wizard fumctions. It tells us that it has deleted fioles, but won't let us do anything manually, and of course, the files aren't really deleted.
Our version of Norton Anti Virus came with the computer, and did not come with instructions.
Any suggestions that don't include bodily injury to my son, or buying another Mac would be appreciated!
Basically, you register with them, check all their "pinned" or "sticky" posts to see what kind of info they require to help you, and go from there.
It usually takes several tries to purge that garbage, and it really helps to have an experienced forum helper read your logs and guide you through it. There's a lot of damage you can do without guidance, because sometimes you have to edit the registry as well.
I was reading on www.theeldergeek.com (forum) and got a great link that explains the CWS virus (CoolWebSearch)and how to remove it manually:
http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/CoolWebSearch.html
The about:blank cws virus is constantly changing and coming up with more ways to infect our computers.
You are right, at some point, you do need to edit the registry.
Second, download AdAware Personal SE and also, Spybot Search and Destroy. Install them and do full scans on the PC with them. All three of these software packages are easily located via Google.
Lastly, DO NOT USE MS Internet Explorer. Use it one last time to download a copy of Firefox v1.2. This should be your default browser from now on. As a matter of fact, if you use Outlook Express for a mail client, discontinue using that as well. Download Mozilla's Thunderbird mail client.
Once all of these steps are done, you can start looking into a nice little software firewall. I recommend Outpost. It too, like all others mentioned here, is free.
I know all of this probably won't sit well from your Mac trained computing habits...but it must be done.
Thanks for rementioning the SWI forum....outstanding! At some point soon, I may post my hijackthis results and let them analyze it.
Thought I would let you know that I got rid of my computer infection....after much reading, downloading and trying different things.
I found this gread little free program called X-raypc. It is 317kb but very useful. It identified 2 processes that I had seen come up in the Anti-Vir and Microsoft AntiSpyware. Processes that these programs simple blocked.
X-Raypc not only identifies the running processes but will let you get rid of it, whereas these other programs wouldn't.
These were running processes that don't show up in taskmanager.
Check it out!
http://www.x-raypc.com/
Thanks- copied & saved.
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