Malware Nightmare

slumped

Hi,

Having rid my Dad's computer of an awful lot of Spyware/Adware/Malware using Microsoft's Anti Spyware Beta Programme, there is still one piece of Malware that's still there.

MS Anti Spyware tries to remove it but every time I boot up it reappears.

Have downloaded and ran the Elite Toolbar Removal programme but it still leaves it!

Anyone else know how to get rid of it?

I'm OK with technical things, but don't ask me to edit the registry!

Running Windows XP Service Pack 2 with all security updates downloaded.

S

AARRRGH

Is it the wwwcool (or something like that?)

My girlfriend has that on her laptop and I have tried EVERYTHING but it won't go away. It even makes Norton Antivirus close down.

Total scumbags...

andy1249

The whole idea of microsoft even making an anti spyware package is a tremendous cheek if you think about it , its the fact that their browser and operating system is so full of holes that makes malware adware and spyware so effective in the first place .

Anyway enough of that , you cannot trust the police to police themselves , so forget about " Microsoft " anti spyware , its actually spyware itself as it gathers information about you and sends it to microsoft.

Download " Ad-aware , this is the most comprehensive anti spyware pack I know of , get the free version , install it , follow the instructions and run your first scan , it will find lots of problems first time round including at least 5 from microsoft itself ( DSO exploits ) , these are probably the ones that keep reappearing on your PC , Ad aware should get rid of them , run it a second time to make sure your PC is clean ,

Also , if you havn't done so already , I strongly recommend getting Firefox and using that instead of Internet explorer if you are using it , IE is responsible for at least 50% of the adware and spyware that shows up on your PC.

Hope this helps ,

Karoma

Run the removal tool(s) in Safe Mode & try other tools Ad-aware,S&D spybot.

SouperComputer

if these dont get it, nothing will:

www.hitmanpro.nl (includes an automated install of 5 antispyware prog s including those above and CWShredder)

http://www.lurkhere.com/~nicefiles/HijackThis1991.exe Use this with the manual to manually remove any stubborn entires in the registry.

Capt'n Midnight

andy1249 wrote:

The whole idea of microsoft even making an anti spyware package is a tremendous cheek if you think about it , its the fact that their browser and operating system is so full of holes that makes malware adware and spyware so effective in the first place .,

Point of information

Microsoft did not write it they just bought the company that did so it actually not to bad and picks up stuff like changing hosts file in the background - can be annoying when you want to install stuff though
www.giantcompany.com/p_antispyware.htm
www.microsoft.com/freedomtoinnovate - one change M$ have added to it is to get it to ignore some of their business partners spyware

Slumped Turn off system restore or you'll be in Groundhog Day mode.
reboot in safe mode to run the cleaning apps.
try also autoruns for any other junk
if all else fails have a look at your hosts file ( love the way it's in an etc folder )
notepad %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

andy1249

just to post to capn midnights reply, microsoft are in no position to appoint themselves as anti spyware anything!!!
If anyone wants proof just run spybot search and destroy , immediatly after run this program ,ad-aware ( which is free by the way ! ) and see what you get , the first time at least , you will get at the minumum 5 exploits by microsoft !!!
As the software will explain , there is no explanation from microsoft why this is !! but if there no sinister explanation for it. Then why do it ?

The question is , are Microsoft reliable enough to police their own software ?
Everything Microsoft has shown so far has proved to be the opposite !!
Microsoft have done everything in their power so far to show that they have a hidden agenda !!
How can anyone possibly trust them ?
In Which case , only third party software can be used to verify their worth !
I do not see any kind of situation where this can be otherwise !!! ???
If anyone that doesn't work for Microsoft can show otherwise then Im completely open to arguments , otherwise, for anti spyware , its third party only which means , Mcaffee , AVG , Symantec , Etrust , or whatever other non microsoft alternative you have !!
Hope this helps ,

Regards
Andy1249

maidhc

andy1249 wrote:

The whole idea of microsoft even making an anti spyware package is a tremendous cheek if you think about it , its the fact that their browser and operating system is so full of holes that makes malware adware and spyware so effective in the first place .

I am no fan of MS, and I run a dual boot of Fedora and WinXP, and have been using firefox since it was called after a bird, but,

But i'm not sure if you can blame them for the malware/adware stuff. I suspect if Linux and Mac OS was a widely used as Windows it would suffer from the same problems. Its amazing how many highly intelligent people throw their common sense out the window when using computers; i.e. savvy business men somehow end up clicking a shaky gif saying "your computer is at risk". I agree however MS could do things like stop people running XP in administrator mode online and stuff, but that would probably annoy its customers more than the malware...