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Spyware Removal
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View this Thread in Original format
| 8Wonders |
I am currently running Spybot S&D, Superantispyware and Spywareblaster on my machine for prevent and cleanup, and HiJackThis ontop of that to see what's really going on. Now I don't have any spyware that is detectable by these anymore but I keep having spyware installed on my system even when I am not running any applications, I'd see a random exe run in the processess list and it generally adds a file to run at startup. Just a few hours ago my system was totally hijacked by these rogue exes that seemingly come out of nowhere. The only reason I even noticed something odd is becuase the mouse pointer changed to an hour glass icon, i checked processes and there was a whole bunch of new exes. This is a re-occuring process and I can't seem to get rid of it. Ontop of that, something is disabling me from downloading the latest windows update patches.
On my 2nd machine, the removal of certain spyware has caused Outlook, Internet Explorer, Netscape and Netscape mail to cease working, they just crash as soon as you run them. Only way I can run internet explorer is through the explorer shell. I ran all sorts of possible checks but i cannot find anything, there were a few remnants of the spyware left which completely disabled inet access, i've fixed that but normal browsing apps don't run.
Any hints, tips, suggestions is welcome. |
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| Tadz101 |
google.trend micro they have both free online anti spyware + anti virus scanners for free..
i recommend running those.. spybot or adaware wont help sometimes..
give those a shot |
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| 8Wonders |
| I ran the online scanner from TrendMicro and it found a bunch of stuff and promptly removed it, but it hasn't solved the problem. There's something else running somewhere that isn't being detected... I am at a loss, seems like the only viable solution is a complete re-install but I'd rather not resort to that just yet. |
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| Cosmic Fur |
You know, I haven't gotten any spyware in a few years now, and the only protection I have against it is a firewall and common sense. So my suggestions would be:
1) Use Firefox or anything else other than IE.
2) Stop visiting the of the Internet. Think before clicking.
That said, some spyware can be so nasty you can't get rid of it without a reinstall of the OS.
Oh, and Adaware is - they've been caught getting paid by spyware companies to remove some of their spyware definitions from their database. |
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| EvilTree |
| quote: | Originally posted by Cosmic Fur
Oh, and Adaware is - they've been caught getting paid by spyware companies to remove some of their spyware definitions from their database. |
Didn't know. Thanks for the info |
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| Cro_Addict |
1. Boot up in safe mode, and then run the scans all over again...including ur virus scan
2. Restart and see what processes are still running. Search for them all. Once u find them, kill the process and delete the files.
3. go to your registry,
type in regedit in run....
then go to LOCAL MACHINE=>Software=>Microsoft=>Windows=>Current Version=> then check the RUN and RUN ONCE folders....if there is any processes there that souldnt be running go search for them and once found delete them from the RUN or RUN ONCE folder and also delete them from the folder you found them in.
4. reboot and rerun all your spyware and virus scans..
5. You should be fine.
6. OH YEAH AS STATED PREVIOUSLY...DO NOT USE IE...USE FIREFOX!!! |
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| Cosmic Fur |
| quote: | Originally posted by EvilTree
Didn't know. Thanks for the info |
Yeah, and just to show I'm not talking out of my ass, here is when they got busted:
http://www.broadbandreports.com/for...65642~mode=flat
And here is a review of spyware programs by CNET:
http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/sof...25147-13,00.htm
notable quote:
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The biggest disappointment of the testing was Lavasoft, which only managed to pick up one out of the nine items. The second last, surprisingly, was Trend Micro with three detections only. Microsoft, Webroot, and McAfee all came in with four detections each.
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| Chris Allen |
| quote: | Originally posted by Cosmic Fur
Oh, and Adaware is - they've been caught getting paid by spyware companies to remove some of their spyware definitions from their database. |
Actually this was true, but since it was acquired by Google's team it was defunked.
My best option is Ad-Aware and Spybot running Avast! as your virus scanner as it has a built-in spyware prevention detector on it as well.
Lavasoft - Ad-Aware
SpyBot Search and Destroy
Avast! Antivirus Software
Arney, I would also recommend running C-Cleaner on your system as I would bet money it will clean things up quite nicely. It removes bad registry files and extra files left scattered on your system from install/uninstalls. It's completely free-ware but does a fantastic job. First time I ran it it removed nearly 3Gb of unnecessary files and commands.
C-Cleaner |
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| 8Wonders |
| quote: | Originally posted by Cro_Addict
1. Boot up in safe mode, and then run the scans all over again...including ur virus scan
2. Restart and see what processes are still running. Search for them all. Once u find them, kill the process and delete the files.
3. go to your registry,
type in regedit in run....
then go to LOCAL MACHINE=>Software=>Microsoft=>Windows=>Current Version=> then check the RUN and RUN ONCE folders....if there is any processes there that souldnt be running go search for them and once found delete them from the RUN or RUN ONCE folder and also delete them from the folder you found them in.
4. reboot and rerun all your spyware and virus scans..
5. You should be fine.
6. OH YEAH AS STATED PREVIOUSLY...DO NOT USE IE...USE FIREFOX!!! |
I've done all that! |
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| Cro_Addict |
| quote: | Originally posted by 8Wonders
I've done all that! |
hmmm interesting.. |
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| Abercrombie |
| I use uninstalled all my ant-spyware apps (had several too) when Microsoft AntiSpyware came out. It cleaned everything up and solved all spyware related problems. It's been about 2 years and it's still keeping my system clean. It's now called Windows Defender, still free. It does use up some resources, but that's up to you. |
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