A virus?

[Morrus]

Whenever I look at the Windows Task Manager, I see there's an application called "pup" (all lower case) running. I have no idea what it is, and it's not in my start-up sequence anywhere.

I've been suffering no end of computer problems recently, and wonder if this is the cause? A virus scan doesn't pick anything up, though. Anyone heard of this, and, if so, what to do about it?

 

[Heretic Apostate]

I'm a total non-techie, so take this with a salt tablet:

Try running a search on the file, to see what directory it is located in. If it looks okay, that's a good start. If you don't recognize it, disable the file in your Task Manager.

So says the guy who has successfully wiped his hard drive, by accident.

 

[Piratecat]

It's a trojan, Russ. Is your virus scanner up to date?

http://www.net-security.org/virus_news.php?id=318

 

[Morrus]

Thanks, Kev.

I use an online virus scanner which is allegedly updated every day, but it didn't pick this up. I guess I should start doing it the traditional way!

I've found a couple of places which advise how to remove this virus, and it is a dreadfully complicated process. Involves editing registries, deleting files, all sorts of thing - more complicated than I trust myself to attempt. I think I'm going to have to ask a more techie-friend to fix it.

I'm usually really careful about downloading stuff or opening attachments in emails. However, someone else has been using my PC a lot recently, so I imagine that's how it got there.