STUPID COMPUTER!!!!!!!!

I need some help with this computer. My hard drive is soooooo full of spyware and adware i can't even get through typing these messages without a popup of somesort comming up.

CAN SOMEONE TELL ME HOW TO WIPE MY HIND END??? OOOPPPS, I MEAN MY HARD DRIVE. YEAH THATS IT. HARD DRIVE.
got the other thing down yesterday. Finaly.
So again can someone help me with wiping the hard drive so i can see if this computer doesn't suck to much to get back in the game.

Thanks for the help.
Jose
skylineGTR

Jose.R.G@comcast.net

I've found this to work pretty well; give it a try as it might just clean your drive up so you don't have to re-install...

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

You may also want to think about doing the Windows updates for your system by going into Internet Explorer - Tools - Windows Update to patch and close any known security holes.

Umm, if you do not have Norton Antivirus, I would suggest starting there. Then if you do have some type of anti-spyware, get rid of it and go here and download this program:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
That program is free and takes care of adware/spyware that has made it to your hard drive.
Once your are free spyware, go get Yahoo Toolbar and it's built in pop-up/spyware blocker does a pretty good job.

If you are unsuccessful in getting rid of your spyware, do a little research with google to browse some technical forums. These may give you advice to remove spyware that is virtually undectectable with just about any anti-spyware program. That is where it gets tricky, (i.e. going into safe-mode and deleting files manually from system folders and registry<<Scary).

AdAware is an excellent recomandation, I use it at least twice a week, and you would be suprised at what you pick up. (considering I don't really surf much) Also, if a pay anti-virus is not to your liking, you can scan your computer for free at http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ or download AVG, a free anti-virus (heard it was ok, havent tried it) program.

As mentioned already, start by downloading a sweep program such as Adaware or Spysweeper. They're both free.

Run a full scan and get rid of the junk.

More than likely you have some nasty stuff hiding in the registry and won't be caught by sweep programs. This stuff can get through virus protection software such as Norton.

Download a program called Hijack This. It can be found here:

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

It's also free. It's not a tool for amatures, and before running the program you should read the tutorial here:

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/htlogtutorial.html

Basically the program creates a log file of your registry items. It then allows you to check off each item you wish to remove. However, even after removing them with Hijack This, you may need to reboot the system in safe mode and delete any files associated with the items you removed. DON'T REMOVE ANYTHING IF YOU AREN'T 100% SURE WHAT IT IS.

The best thing for you to do is to run the program and save the log file it creates. Then go to a tech forum such as CastleCops and post your log in their forums (you'll see others there with similar problems). Their admins/mods will (out of the goodness of their geeky hearts) analyze your log file and give you step-by-step instructions to clean up your system.

Finally, download any Windows security patches if you haven't already.

Good luck!

I also use ad-aware like Smokes, but I couldn't get the link to work so here's just a different link...
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

I use AVG http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5 as my antivirus program and it works great. (its at the bottom of the page marked avg71free_394a757.exe.
I also use AdAware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
and Spybot search and destroy http://www.spybot.info/en/index.html

Well, the yahoo toolbar is way under estimated, I would really suggest that tool, it prevents a lot of content from ever getting on your computer, that way there is no need to remove it in the 1st place. There are two versions, one for IE one for Firefox:

http://downloads.yahoo.com/

Its not just spy ware, but adware also (sounds like you have a problem witht the latter more than the former)

I used to use freeware like Adaware (goole it) and it worked pretty well.

Once I got the hang of firewalls, I quit using that as well.

Chys

My first recommendation would be to ditch windows (I am being ultra ultra nice, as my normal replacement word might get me banned) and go with Linux or some other UN*X version (I include Mac OS/X in this). Of course, not everyone can do this, and even I am forced to use that censored OS from Redmond for UT (ATI's Linux drivers do not work well at best with systems using the VIA chipsets, especially with 8x AGP, which is even a problem in XP), TurboTax, editing DVD video using Pinnacle Studio, and watching music videos on Yahoo! Launch. Every time I have to reboot to XP, I feel like saying "Gag me with a spoon! Fur sure!".

OK, with that possibility ruled out, here are some recommendations.

0) ALWAYS GET AND APPLY THE LATEST UPDATES TO YOUR SOFTWARE.

I am shouting quite intentionally there. Too many people do not do this, and it may be about as safe as walking through a working steel mill in just your undies...if you are lucky. And this also means immediately ditching 95/98 and the older OS releases, and going with XP.

1) Get AdAware, and run it quite regularly with the latest updates. But don't just stop there.

2) Skip Norton. I used SystemWorks Pro for years, but since switching to PC-Cillin from Trend Micro, I have been quite pleased with it in almost all respects. My only complaint is that there is this one time I will get a popup that I cannot seem to tell it not to do. I won't go into the details except to give the URL to their site and to say that it covers all sorts of malware. The URL to their PC-Cillin page is:

http://www.trendmicro.com/en/home/us/personal.htm

One last thing. Of the three systems we have running XP at any point (all three multiboot into non-win OSes as well), I have two running PC-Cillin, and my wife's is running the latest SystemWorks Pro (the very, very expensive version). While I like features like Ghost, the worm detection never has worked, and there have been a few viruses which got through norton which PC-Cillin found. When Norton is up for renewal on her machine, we are dropping the AV part and going with PC-Cillin.

3) If you can, I will once again suggest going with some UN*X OS for doing as much as you can, and do not use the root account to do so. Not reading email or browsing the web on Windows is a great first step, and you can do just about anything on a OS such as Fedora Core as you could on XP. And having the concept of real users with a real privilige system can save your behind if you do happen to find someone smart enough to target your OS.

4) And while mentioning email, ditch things like HTML email and Office attachments, regardless of whether you go to a UN*X OS or not. Use a text based mail reader (I use mutt), and only open attachments when you want to, not when some browser thinks you should. More damage has been done through these types of files than people expect. Indeed, back in 95 while working at CompuServe as a UN*X and security expert, I demonstrated to the execs just how bad you could nail a PC... I setup a web page which hammered the system in such a way that nothing was recoverable, and the motherboard had to be sent back to the factory for repair. Given today's systems, I am surprised that we do not see that more often.

For more on that item, just start reading http://www.birdhouse.org/etc/evilmail.html

Hope this helps.

I used pcCillin until my year ran out with no viruses or any major issues, unfortunatly when it ran out I bough Norton and after 2 or 3 months of constantly downloading large files to update it, not being able to run anything that used a larger peice of memory or processor (this is with and AMD 3200 and 1GB of RAM) I uninstalled it and got Avast. In the past year or more I have had no problems from viruses spam ect. The program updates itself but unlike norton the downloads are very small (just additions to the database no major software download.) plus its free.

Another thing I'm surprised no one mentioned (directly...) would be once you have your system back up and running create another user account without administrator priveleges or the ability to install programs and use this account as your main login, this prevents any of the auto install type spyware ect from being put on your system plus you tend not to install as many worthless programs because you have to log off or switch to the administrator account to install anything.

As far as linux goes you really need to know your hardware and your hardware really needs to have documentation (that is usable) in order to get things working right in linux... I gave up trying to enable all the features on my video card (like dual monitors...) plus a lot of input devices dont have linux support, mice in particular

[edit]
forgot to give a link for Avast

Oh, continuum's suggestion reminded me, at work our computer lab tech just LOVES this program. It's got a free download for 30 days I think, then you have to pay. I don't use it mainly because I have very few problems, but some of you might be interested.
Basically, you turn on the os (i think they have mac and linux versions too) and do as normal, but all of your stuff is "frozen". You can install any program you want, download any thing (knowingly or not). Heck, install a virus on purpose (i've actually seen this done, very cool) just to see what it does. The minute you shut off , everything goes back to it's original frozen state. Like nothing ever happened. You have to disable the "freeze" (don't forget your password, Labtech did and the company charged him to reset it) to install anything or change anything to make it stick. (there is a portion of the hard drive that is called (thawed space) drive T:, this is where any documants and whatnot you want to save, but don't want to thaw the whole drive, are kept.)
It's a neat program, give it a shot.

Personally I recommend against Norton Anti-Virus. It has gotten way too bulky and there are plenty of free alteratives that work just fine (not to mention the laundry list of viruses I've seen it not remove, even with the latest updates).

I use Anti-Vir myself. It works pretty well. http://www.free-av.com

AVG works pretty nice too.

Mix any of the free anti-virus programs with spybot and you should be set. The only other thing is if you use Internet Explorer, be sure you turn off ActiveX when it is not absolutely necessary to have it turned on. It is the sole reason Internet Explorer is so easily compromised. And don't open email attachments unless you know the person who sent it and you know that person intended for it to be sent to you.

P.S. - Doing a fresh install of Windows every now and then really isn't a bad idea. Just make sure you back up everything you want. Having somebody around who knows what they are doing is a good idea just in case.

P.S. again - I believe the software emetakleze is referring to is called Deep Freeze. The normal version costs $30 per computer. Anti-virus software becomes almost pointless if you have it.

Install Linux. You could install on a seperate harddrive or on another partition. Hardware is really not a problem these days... I'm convinced knoppix (a live linux variant) detects more hardware correctly than a windows xp default installation, and the nvidia driver is excellent (ATI's is okay but not great).

I've been running ut2k4 on a freebsd machine under *linux emulation* on a slower machine (P4 1.8ghz... slow compared to the amd's lot of you are running) with a AGP 4x slot and it works fine. I get 40-50 fps on most maps, which is very playable.

Cazius wrote:

P.S. again - I believe the software emetakleze is referring to is called Deep Freeze. The normal version costs $30 per computer. Anti-virus software becomes almost pointless if you have it.

Oops, sorry, forgot to tell you the name.

ops:
Here is a link to the site: http://www.faronics.com/html/deepfreeze.asp