Hi , been some time i posted.Well the circumstances are too pressing and i am finding help nowhere.I know the besides guitarist there happen to be some geeks here too.So i will ask a rather important question which may concern all of us.
I don't know how they got in , but my computer had 'internet optimizer' ,
'yoursite bar' and other such stuff loaded on my computer.My web pages take long to ppen and my computer is crashing real bad especially when i open pdf files.
And i can't even directly delete the file.It say ' file being used by windows'
Now there is a big way to get rid of this all - format my computer and i know it pretty well , but i don't want to do that because its time consuming and eventually again , these spyware come.I also installed Ad aware personal and it located spyware , deleted it too , but they got loaded again on restart :evil: :evil: .
I am really getting mad over this.Is there no way to get these weeds out of my machine.HELP ! :oops:
Thanks ,
Rahul
Rahul,
I know the feeling I said yes to a download by mistake a couple months ago and my machine got swamped with the stuff.
My IT guy here loaded the Ad aware pesonal and one other program called Spybot seach and destroy. He told me neither one of them alone will get everything out so I run each of them one after another every few days.
You should be able to download the Spybot it's free. It still won't delete one adware thing that got loaded to my PC called Wild tangent but so far it doesn't seem to have effected my PC.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
I use Spybot and adaware here at work and they work pretty good but I have to manually run adaware since it is the personal version. Cnev is correct that one of them alone wont get it all.
At home I am using Microsofts Beta spyware killer. I like it best because it is realtime and also it runs every few days with on a timer. Updates itself and I have been very pleased with it.
Geoo
“The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn” - David Russell (Scottish classical Guitarist. b.1942)
Adaware is free for personal use and does a pretty good job of cleanup. Like cnev said run it and Spybot and it will help.
Also, if you are windows XP get to sp2 to get the firewall (security center) update and the ad blocking which helps also.
three things:
First please quit swearing in your posts. Even you ** out some letters, it just isn't necessary.
Second, on to your issues
In XP or 2000 go to your command prompt.
Change directory to c:windowssystem32driversetc
Now type edit hosts. Take a look and see if there are any entries in there besides the ones marked with an # and the one for local host. There shouldn't be others unless you put them in.
Exit that.
The adobe issue is different. When adobe opens pdfs it creates multiple tmp files. When the folder fills up, it completely screws up adobes opening time. It can take minutes. This is a known issue.
To fix it:
command prompt
c:
cd
del acr*.tmp /s
That should fix that. It will take a while to run because you probably have more than 20,000 of them.
Ad-aware and spybot should do the rest
what do you do after the spyware program makes out a scan.quartertine it or delete it.Don't the spywares come back again.In my case it almost never helps.Well i am now going to download spybot too.Lets see what it can do really :oops:
thanks for your reply (no more swearing nick though i was really frustated so i used the forums lol :lol: )
rahul
delete it. go do the adobe fix, it will speed up your scans dramatically.
Here is the direct link to the abode site:
I used to have the same problem but have completely gotten spyware and adware under control.
I used Adaware and spybot but it just couldn't fix or block everything, Many of the problems would have required manual fixes, meaning editing my system registry, Dangerous to do and takes longer than reformating your drive.
The Fix, Nortons internet security. I Have not had a spyware or adware problem in close to a year now. (Note: your system really needs to be clean before using Nortons but once it is you wont have any more problems)
Another good one and it's free is the beta Microsoft anti spyware program.
Anybody have to deal with a lousy spyware program called PS Guard? I can't get rid of it. It's in the key registry or registry key :? There's also a file that every time I try to delete the computer goes goofy on me.
I have Spy Sweeper, Norton Internet Security 05, Ad-Aware SE Personal, Spybot Search & Destory, CW Shredder, and Hijackthis. I also delete *tmp files and defrag the hard drive with little improvement.
My computer hard drive may be damaged too.
Sorry if I hijacked your post Rahul. I hate spyware too. :evil:
"If I had a time machine, I'd go back and tell me to practise that bloody guitar!" -Vic Lewis
Everything is 42..... again.
this may or not be true for you.
the thing about spyware is that you got it because you probably have some sleazy software for p2p lol. If you choose to use kazza or limwire or something like that you should no that your comp is gunna suck forever. With spyware liek you have it probably isnt that hard to remove, but you will lose your program along with it. if your going to use a p2p downloading software (bad) atleast use a safe one.
- like i said it may or may not be the way you got it...
but i reccomend ad-aware it should kill or quarinteen that crud
good luck
$MAX$
If you go to the Nortons website and look around (kind of hard to find) there is a list of all known adware, spyware and malware with removal instructions. Alot of them require you to edit your system registry. Make sure you save a copy of your registry in case you mess anything up.
Fixing your own PC without the help of spyware is best.
As an IT systems administrator for a large MFG firm I deal with this alot.
*****The information posted below is just that. Information. If you attempt to try any of this you are on your own. I deal with this repetitively and have a grasp for what I'm doing. Similarly, I'm not ready to rebuild a guitar yet so I leave that up to the people that know what they are doing.
I post this information only as information and will not be responsible for you trying this on your own. (MY DISCLAIMER)**
Best case for most spyware solutions....
The very first thing you should do is make sure you are not "hiding files" or extensions of files. You will be surprised what the OS hides by default.
Assuming your OS is newer than '98....First, from the Run utility type msconfig, click OK. This applet pops up. Go to the startup tab and look at what's being loaded. Suspected undesireable executables will have names that don't makes sense...ie... lntsvj...to most that first letter looks like an I when it's actually a lower case L. This can trip you up when looking for the file.
To first identify if the file loading is not good, you can Google most of them and find out if they are a Windows file or not. So you identify what files don't look normal and target them. You can uncheck their start up and restart your computer. Some won't startup again, while others will. If they won't start back up then you go find them in the file structure and delete them.
Now for files that are running, you can right click the start bar (not button) and choose Task Manager. Go to processes tab and look for the suspected files as running. Right click the culprit and choose stop or terminate. You will get a warning message which is normal. Once you've successfully shut down the program go delete it from its startup location.
If all else fails, restart the computer in safe mode and since most things won't start that way you can usually play hardball with stubborn programs.
To find the origins of most of these files, I've found the a lot of them will reside in the Windows or WINNT folder as hidden exe's. Others will be found in the system32 folders under Windows/WINNT. Another great hiding location is in Documents and Settings under the users profile folder. Also, some will reside in Program files in a number of different folder structures. That's why it's important to be sure you uncheck the options for hiding file extensions and hidden files/folders so you can find these files.
Lastly, there will be registry entries for most of these as well.
So recapping, the files that are on your drive will be either in the folders on the hard disk or in the registry. To clean the registry, I will open the editor and 'CTRL + F' to find them. Once I find them I simply delete the entire registry key they reside in.
The most common place to find them in the registry is HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionrun
That is where the items for msconfig are found. Simply go in and remove the entries seperately not as a group.
Also you should check your ADD and REMOVE programs applet to see what is visible that you can uninstall if need be. I believe Wild Tangent actually shows up and can be uninstalled. As with all uninstalls be sure to confirm removal of the original folder as it may stay behind and leave another install exe that can be triggered later.
Please feel free to contact me in other ways if anyone has more questions.
I'm $150 an hour after work. :wink:
Bish
"I play live as playing dead is harder than it sounds!"
Bish you wrote great.But now the problem -
EVEN WHEN I UNCHECK SPYWARE LIKE SURFACCURACY AND ALL STILL IT REMAINS RUNNING.THERE'S NO WAY TO GET RID OF THIS ALL.
ARRRGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:
Rahul
You need to go to the RUN entry in the registry as bish indicated and delete them and reboot. Just make sure the run statement you delete is the spyware.
