Damn spyware

NotMe

Everytime I turn on my computer MS Antispyware tells me that IE is trying to change it's start address from http://www.slkdajfasjgoahsghasiohfoiashgihsighiopshg.com to http://www.slkajgiohboiheiahgaiognoibihrhtrght.com (or similar URLs, different every time).

In IE this search bar has appeared:


Before anyone asks, I've run (with the latest updates) AVG, Norton AV, HijackThis, A squared, Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware and MS AntiSpyware. None of them fixed it.

I did notice the Internet Explorer process running in Task Manager though (and I'm not running IE) and when I looked in HijackThis' process explorer I saw this:


When I kill iexplore.exe it comes back right away. I killed iexplore.exe and quickly deleted pmkxybko.exe but it came back with a new name - cfkkayyj.exe

Any ideas?

Spunog UIE

i don't suppose you just installed msger plus, and didn't do a custom install. It looks like that coolweb search bar or something like that. Anyhew, if it is or some variant, check your add remove program files and sometimes it shows up in there.

Oh God I've gotten that toolbar too many times before.

I got rid of it manually I think. I recognised an odd process, and the file/program that was running it was very recent, so I deleted it.

Chong

My sentiments exactly I would say its defo CWS(Cool Web Search). Its a right pain.

Download Cool Web Search Shredder Here -->

www.soft32.com/download-CWShredder-19014-5.html

Mac daddy

Notme

Post the complete hijack this log so i can have a look at it or pm it to me

Oriel

NotMe,
Try this link. It's a free online virus scanner by Panda AV, I'm pretty sure it'll get rid of it, if it doesn't, well there's no harm in trying.
I had something like this before with Norton and AVG installed on the local machine, neither of them picked it up.
Give it a shot anyways.

S.

mp3guy

well, try linux, whether you game or not. Windows isn't worth the effort, i'm serious.

CuLT

mp3guy wrote:

well, try linux, whether you game or not. Windows isn't worth the effort, i'm serious.

Oh heavens, lets not do a linux versus windows thing here...














































... have it in a new headache-giving thread!

mp3guy

CuLT wrote:

Oh heavens, lets not do a linux versus windows thing here...
... have it in a new headache-giving thread!

i dont' want to have one of those, i'm just saying if he's having this much trouble, he should at least give it a try out, dual boot.

call_me_fish

my god that is a deeeep **** u have there! it took me really long to got rid of it, at the end i just had to Format every thing to get cleand ,

CuLT

mp3guy wrote:

i dont' want to have one of those, i'm just saying if he's having this much trouble, he should at least give it a try out, dual boot.

I'm sure you've been around long enough to remember every eejit's answer to practically any internet related computer problem was "Get Firefox" not eight months ago.

I've seen enough "Get Linux" posters, not to mention that after the first few of them I decided to actually give linux a shot, only to realize - after botching an attempt to set up dual boot - that I didn't know how to do anything with linux other than run OpenOffice. And that was only Debian. God only knows why I decided to give gentoo a shot, couldn't even install that.
Oh, and of course, I don't even play games; you can imagine how frustrating it would be for someone who actually does...

Linux users generally fail to convey just how alien linux is compared to windows, which is why I get a little irritated when they, quite irresposibly imo, tell people who are having windows problems to switch OS.

Anyway, this is all entirely off topic, apologies for the unintentional hijack.

mp3guy

CuLT wrote:

I've seen enough "Get Linux" posters, not to mention that after the first few of them I decided to actually give linux a shot, only to realize - after botching an attempt to set up dual boot - that I didn't know how to do anything with linux other than run OpenOffice. And that was only Debian. God only knows why I decided to give gentoo a shot, couldn't even install that.
Oh, and of course, I don't even play games; you can imagine how frustrating it would be for someone who actually does...

Linux users generally fail to convey just how alien linux is compared to windows, which is why I get a little irritated when they, quite irresposibly imo, tell people who are having windows problems to switch OS.

Anyway, this is all entirely off topic, apologies for the unintentional hijack.

Yup, you should have tried ubuntu... Its as simple as point and click.

astrofool

in ie on xp sp2, you should be able to manage add-ons and disable any extra's like that. Otherwise, turn off system restore, reboot in safe mode, and run hijackthis, cwshredder, and delete/remove the file causing the problem, also check msconfig for any weird startup entries named along the same lines.

Linux wise, you do have to know your stuff, computer wise, if you want to use it. For the average user, who already has Windows, there is no big reason to switch to Linux, and if a user is savvy enough with computers, they will make their own choice.

Also, support wise, alot less people are experts in Linux, so people will be less likely to be able to get help, but on the other hand, if people know where to look, there will be lots of Linux advocates (like mp3guy above), who would probably help with every little query, if only to try and further linux's market penetration. As an aside, mp3guy, you quote his whole post above, but only answer one question in it, leaving out things about gaming (Wine) and setting the system up (which is still quite messy, but far far better than it was).

NotMe

Cool I'll try all that stuff tomorrow. I had that coolWebSearch toolbar before but I got rid of it easily enough. This time it seems to be dug in.

mp3guy wrote:

i dont' want to have one of those, i'm just saying if he's having this much trouble, he should at least give it a try out, dual boot.

It's not that much trouble. It's on the family computer, I don't use even use it, I use my laptop. It only affects IE as far as I can see and I have IE blocked with ZoneAlarm. I only use Firefox. But I would like to get it fixed.

Oh yeah I have Ubuntu installed on the same machine but getting my family to use it instead of Windows.... it's not going to happen.

NotMe

sinecurea wrote:

NotMe,
Try this link. It's a free online virus scanner by Panda AV, I'm pretty sure it'll get rid of it, if it doesn't, well there's no harm in trying.

That found it alright. It identified 6 exes and some registry entries. I deleted them all and rebooted and it seems to be gone. Thanks.

Adviser

This May be of interest to ya. It's about MS Anti-spyware.....

NotMe wrote:

Everytime I turn on my computer MS Antispyware tells me that IE is trying to change it's start address from http://www.slkdajfasjgoahsghasiohfoiashgihsighiopshg.com to http://www.slkajgiohboiheiahgaiognoibihrhtrght.com (or similar URLs, different every time).

NotMe

Hmm yeah I wouldn't use it on its own.

Mac daddy

mp3guy wrote:

Yup, you should have tried ubuntu... Its as simple as point and click.

Another linux newb coming from windows world.

Linux is not meant to be point and click its made that way for the idiot windows user to make it more "user friendly"

Use a real distro and cli then post a reply till then vanish newb

Dinner

Mac daddy wrote:

Linux is not meant to be point and click its made that way for the idiot windows user to make it more "user friendly"

Well if its made that way for the "idiot windows user" then it is point and click is it not. If it wasnt point and click then it wouldnt be made like that.

And how dare they even attempt to make it more user friendly, they all should be 1337 like you I suppose.