Getting rid of Spyware
-
Dear Friends, Something strage is happening with my Windows 2K box since last few days. Whenever i launch 'Internet Explorer' an unwanted site and countless popups are appearing. My default page is set to "about:blank" as usual. I used Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta and ran a full system scan, it detected many spyware and cleaned them. But my problem is still there. I also tried Anti Spyware products from other vendors (freely available), each of them detected different sets of Spyware but non of them solved my problem. Whenever i launch Internet Explorer, Norton antivirus gives message that my computer is infected with 'Trojan.StartPage' and the file 'se.dll' is quarantined. I ran full scan with Norton AntiVirus, nothing detected. Still my browser opens unwanted site with countless popups. Please tell me the solution of this problem (other than format.exe which is my second last option, obviouly the last one is Linux :-D). Imtiaz
-
Dear Friends, Something strage is happening with my Windows 2K box since last few days. Whenever i launch 'Internet Explorer' an unwanted site and countless popups are appearing. My default page is set to "about:blank" as usual. I used Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta and ran a full system scan, it detected many spyware and cleaned them. But my problem is still there. I also tried Anti Spyware products from other vendors (freely available), each of them detected different sets of Spyware but non of them solved my problem. Whenever i launch Internet Explorer, Norton antivirus gives message that my computer is infected with 'Trojan.StartPage' and the file 'se.dll' is quarantined. I ran full scan with Norton AntiVirus, nothing detected. Still my browser opens unwanted site with countless popups. Please tell me the solution of this problem (other than format.exe which is my second last option, obviouly the last one is Linux :-D). Imtiaz
Use Firefox :) "Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway." - Mary Kay Ash My Articles
-
Dear Friends, Something strage is happening with my Windows 2K box since last few days. Whenever i launch 'Internet Explorer' an unwanted site and countless popups are appearing. My default page is set to "about:blank" as usual. I used Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta and ran a full system scan, it detected many spyware and cleaned them. But my problem is still there. I also tried Anti Spyware products from other vendors (freely available), each of them detected different sets of Spyware but non of them solved my problem. Whenever i launch Internet Explorer, Norton antivirus gives message that my computer is infected with 'Trojan.StartPage' and the file 'se.dll' is quarantined. I ran full scan with Norton AntiVirus, nothing detected. Still my browser opens unwanted site with countless popups. Please tell me the solution of this problem (other than format.exe which is my second last option, obviouly the last one is Linux :-D). Imtiaz
1. Run SpyBot Search & Destroy. BTW, don't care about a DSO Exploit that it'll detect and won't go away - it's a bug; 2. Try to run regsrv32 urlmon.dll; 3. Cry, cry, reformat and next, time, use Firefox; Yes, even I am blogging now!
-
1. Run SpyBot Search & Destroy. BTW, don't care about a DSO Exploit that it'll detect and won't go away - it's a bug; 2. Try to run regsrv32 urlmon.dll; 3. Cry, cry, reformat and next, time, use Firefox; Yes, even I am blogging now!
-
Don't forget about AdAware SE it finds a few things that the others don't. It actually sucks that you have to run multiple programs to clean everything up. Firefox was seconded. I call a vote. All in favor say Aye,
Important: After installing AdAware and Spybot first update the definition files! Also try to identify and kill the offending process in the taskmanager (not always possible) and delete the spyware files manually. Good luck!
-
Dear Friends, Something strage is happening with my Windows 2K box since last few days. Whenever i launch 'Internet Explorer' an unwanted site and countless popups are appearing. My default page is set to "about:blank" as usual. I used Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta and ran a full system scan, it detected many spyware and cleaned them. But my problem is still there. I also tried Anti Spyware products from other vendors (freely available), each of them detected different sets of Spyware but non of them solved my problem. Whenever i launch Internet Explorer, Norton antivirus gives message that my computer is infected with 'Trojan.StartPage' and the file 'se.dll' is quarantined. I ran full scan with Norton AntiVirus, nothing detected. Still my browser opens unwanted site with countless popups. Please tell me the solution of this problem (other than format.exe which is my second last option, obviouly the last one is Linux :-D). Imtiaz
For three sundays I had to help a friend to solve a similar problem. Unfortunately, that MS AntiSpyware is useless when the system is already infected. It is a slow problem. 1. Launch IE, go to the Popup setup and delete the list of permitted sitess 2. Do similar to the AntiSpyware, whenever it tells you that there is change of your default page, click the hyperlink and delete the permited list there. 3. Reboat your system and never start the IE again. 4. Run "HijackThis" tool, this is the only one I found very usefull. It gives you programs that are configured to "Run" when Windows starts. 5. Follow the links and delete all these programs that you did not installed. For the friends computer, I first deleted all the unknown ActiveX loaded by the IE. ie. Tool->Internet Options... -> General Tab -> Settings button... -> View Objects... Most of the Spyware were installed in the Windows\Documents and Settings\* folders. Open each of the users, ie. "Administrator", "Default User" folders and search for strangely named folders there and delete all. You might not be able to delete all the programs and folders since some run as a service. Try to delete each one as much as you can and continue doing this until you could not delete the lock files. Then reboot and repeat the process. It will be easier if you have a multiple OS on the PC, just reboot to the OS not having the problem, if any, and try to delete those programs. If you keep getting the message from Norton, it means there are programs on your copy which kept copying those files so you need to search and delete all these. Good luck. Best regards, Paul. Jesus Christ is LOVE! Please tell somebody.
-
For three sundays I had to help a friend to solve a similar problem. Unfortunately, that MS AntiSpyware is useless when the system is already infected. It is a slow problem. 1. Launch IE, go to the Popup setup and delete the list of permitted sitess 2. Do similar to the AntiSpyware, whenever it tells you that there is change of your default page, click the hyperlink and delete the permited list there. 3. Reboat your system and never start the IE again. 4. Run "HijackThis" tool, this is the only one I found very usefull. It gives you programs that are configured to "Run" when Windows starts. 5. Follow the links and delete all these programs that you did not installed. For the friends computer, I first deleted all the unknown ActiveX loaded by the IE. ie. Tool->Internet Options... -> General Tab -> Settings button... -> View Objects... Most of the Spyware were installed in the Windows\Documents and Settings\* folders. Open each of the users, ie. "Administrator", "Default User" folders and search for strangely named folders there and delete all. You might not be able to delete all the programs and folders since some run as a service. Try to delete each one as much as you can and continue doing this until you could not delete the lock files. Then reboot and repeat the process. It will be easier if you have a multiple OS on the PC, just reboot to the OS not having the problem, if any, and try to delete those programs. If you keep getting the message from Norton, it means there are programs on your copy which kept copying those files so you need to search and delete all these. Good luck. Best regards, Paul. Jesus Christ is LOVE! Please tell somebody.
Paul Selormey wrote: 1. Launch IE, go to the Popup setup and delete the list of permitted sitess Sorry, where is "Popup Setup" ?? Imtiaz
-
Paul Selormey wrote: 1. Launch IE, go to the Popup setup and delete the list of permitted sitess Sorry, where is "Popup Setup" ?? Imtiaz
Tools Menu-->Internet Options...->(Privacy Tab) Pop-up Blocker -> Settings... Jesus Christ is LOVE! Please tell somebody.
-
Dear Friends, Something strage is happening with my Windows 2K box since last few days. Whenever i launch 'Internet Explorer' an unwanted site and countless popups are appearing. My default page is set to "about:blank" as usual. I used Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta and ran a full system scan, it detected many spyware and cleaned them. But my problem is still there. I also tried Anti Spyware products from other vendors (freely available), each of them detected different sets of Spyware but non of them solved my problem. Whenever i launch Internet Explorer, Norton antivirus gives message that my computer is infected with 'Trojan.StartPage' and the file 'se.dll' is quarantined. I ran full scan with Norton AntiVirus, nothing detected. Still my browser opens unwanted site with countless popups. Please tell me the solution of this problem (other than format.exe which is my second last option, obviouly the last one is Linux :-D). Imtiaz
I would try: 1. running anti-spyware 2. running AV software 3. Clear out ALL cookies and ALL offline content 4. Search the Program Files and Program Files/Common folders to see if there are fishy files in there. delete those. (if you have keywords you can use try searching your HD's for them, that's how I used to delete stuff) 5. Reboot 6. Retake step 1 and 2. If that fails, you have a problem. "If I don't see you in this world, I'll see you in the next one... and don't be late." ~ Jimi Hendrix
-
Tools Menu-->Internet Options...->(Privacy Tab) Pop-up Blocker -> Settings... Jesus Christ is LOVE! Please tell somebody.
Paul Selormey wrote: Tools Menu-->Internet Options...->(Privacy Tab) Pop-up Blocker -> Settings... That's only for Win XP SP 2 though, right? Explorer for previous versions of Windows was not updated, I don't believe. Dan Morris
-
Dear Friends, Something strage is happening with my Windows 2K box since last few days. Whenever i launch 'Internet Explorer' an unwanted site and countless popups are appearing. My default page is set to "about:blank" as usual. I used Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta and ran a full system scan, it detected many spyware and cleaned them. But my problem is still there. I also tried Anti Spyware products from other vendors (freely available), each of them detected different sets of Spyware but non of them solved my problem. Whenever i launch Internet Explorer, Norton antivirus gives message that my computer is infected with 'Trojan.StartPage' and the file 'se.dll' is quarantined. I ran full scan with Norton AntiVirus, nothing detected. Still my browser opens unwanted site with countless popups. Please tell me the solution of this problem (other than format.exe which is my second last option, obviouly the last one is Linux :-D). Imtiaz