I've been caught in a spyware deluge the last day or so.

Here's the things I've done:

1) Run Spyware Doctor (now finds the same 11 things wrong every time and deletes them...obviously a worthless piece of software)
2) Run Ad-Aware (now finds nothing wrong)
3) Updated Windows Completely
4) Run Microsoft Anti-Spyware Beta (now finds nothing wrong)
4) Run Spy Bot (now finds nothing wrong)

After all that, I still get pop-ups in explorer (I'm running firefox and was running mozilla before all this started) and occasionally, my firefox page just decides to switch to some ad (while I'm typing a post mid-sentence for example)

Is there anything else I can do short of backing up my c: drive and reformatting?

Assuming the Ad-aware and Spybot S&D were up-to-date, the only thing I can suggest is trying RegCleaner. Once you install it, just use Tools -> Registry Cleanup -> Do Them All

Try start->run->msconfig, go to the startup tab and check the things that are selected and that you don't recognize against http://www.processlibrary.com to see what they are, then find those that are malware in the registry and delete the keys that reference them (particularly if they are in a "run" group). Be careful.

I've had Spyware Doc for a while & think it's doing a great job. But that's all I use.

The computer guru at The Chronicle sez this:

It's probably not worth operating 2 antivirus programs

David Einstein

Monday, September 12, 2005

Q: I've been using McAfee's antivirus software, which came installed on my computer. Recently I was given Norton's latest antivirus program, and I'm wondering whether it makes sense to install it as well. Are there any benefits to having two antivirus programs running at the same time?

A: Any benefits may be outweighed by potential conflicts between the programs. Symantec, the maker of Norton Antivirus, strongly recommends you run only one antivirus program at a time. The reason: "Having more than one antivirus program active in memory uses additional resources and can result in program conflicts and false virus alerts." Microsoft also discourages Windows XP users from running multiple antivirus programs.

You can avoid the problem by making sure only one antivirus program is active at any given time. But given the fact that McAfee and Norton are pretty comparable, it's probably not worth the trouble of separately running the two programs.

By the way, you probably don't even need an antivirus program. Most viruses arrive via e-mail, and all big Internet providers and Web mail services check for viruses before they send messages.

fp

Don't use two antivirus programs, they will just fight with each other. I use AVG, great free program. This link below is a step by step instructions on how to cleanse your computer.

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/You-Must ... t2852.html

Good luck

Also, the link above does not say so, but it is a good idea to run those programs (AdAware, CWShredder) in safe mode.

This was something I learned the hard way back in the spring. Good advice indeed.

well, I did run the registry cleanup to no avail

deleted some startup items that didn't appear kosher but didn't check the restart as I had to leave for work

I'm only running McAfee as an Antivirus program...I am running several spyware programs though. Are those in conflict?

Specifically, the errors that Spyware Doctor routinely come up with are "Slotchbar", "Altnet" and a bunch of cookies. Like every time I reboot. I don't think these are the source of the problem though, since the same scan came up with this stuff before I ever had these problems with popups.

not sure if you've taken this step yet, and other people have also offered some good advice about the registry cleaner. i would reccomend this: it sounds like you've not yet used spybot search and destroy, and you should, but not in the way you've been using it. Download the program, but don't yet install it. also go the spybot s and d homepage and download the latest definitions, but don't install that either. next, restart windows in safe mode by holding F8 while it's booting up, and then install both spybot and the latest definition update. then run it to see what it finds, it should find a few things. also, running your registry cleaner in safe mode will also be a good idea. i had a very similar problem that i successfully fixed on my roommate's computer just a few nights ago. and if you haven't yet installed windows service pack 2 do so immediately.

thanks, I will try these things as well.

At least I'm learning a lot about how to fix software problems

stop looking at porn

now that's just crazytalk

well I've tried just about everything and it looks like I may be fucked

time for a new computer I guess

Buy a Mac.

every person I know who has a mac has a lot more problems than I've ever had with a pc

in fact, this is the first problem I've ever really had

hmm...I haven't had an issue in the 5 years I've been a mac owner

even with the porn surfing and whatnot.

a new computer? why not just backup and format?

Yeah.

We went through this not too long ago. For several months they kept taking over our computer no matter what we did or installed.

Then our hard drive went bye bye(not saying the same will happen to you).

I don't know what he did, but my ex is an IT dude and came over and totally rehabbed our computer, installed a new hard drive and all these other safety codes. It's been peachy ever since.

But, my advice to you right now is to make sure every thing you can back up and save to disc in between getting attacked by pop-ups, I recommend you do so asap.

Also, don't you have the EXACT same model as I do,Matt? And you got yours not long after I got mine right? I wonder if it's this computer.

have a look at these notes for a podcast. if you do plan to format and reinstall, i heavily recommend you partition your hard drive so you can get the operating system on a seperate partition. that means that if you ever need to reinstall the operating system again, you only lose whats on that partition, not everything thats on the drive. and anyway, its been documented that windows slows down the longer its run without reinstallation.

I found a spyware forum and they recommend installing "hijack this", I'm going to try that.

you also might want to look at this.

If you're not running Spybot S&D, you're crazy. Spybot has a little app called TeaTimer that runs in the background and actually prevents anything from installing that you don't specifically okay. Best of all? It's FREE. Anyone not using this is just asking for trouble. Spybot and the antivirus program of your choice (I use AVG) have kept my computer free of malicious crap since I started using it a couple years ago.

That's really surprising. From 1990-2001 I had 3 Macs and absolutely no problems.

I didn't even know what the hell an error message, freeze or any of that shit was until I started using PC's. I think you are definitely in the minority as far as people who have heard more Mac horror stories than PC.

Sorry about your problems, though. I had some issues last week which I in fact posted about and it took all weekend to figure them out. Turned out that MCafee's "privacy service" was doing some weird shit.

Steve