Help, my wife screwed up my puter

[KnowTheToe]

I need your help.

My wife used my labtop to show her mom some "funny" picture and the freaking site she visited must have downloaded some crap on my computer. Now I get pop ups all the time on every site I visit.

Is there a log somewhere that tracks what was installed and when? I went to add/remove programs, but there is too much there I am unaware of and I work out of a home office and don't want to delete the wrong thing and then have to mail my computer back to corporate.

 

[XCorvis]

You've got spyware!

Download Spybot Search & Destroy from http://www.safer-networking.org or Ad-aware from http://www.lavasoftusa.com . Install, update and scan. Either one will probably take care of the problem, but if it doesn't, try the other. Spybot also has an innoculate feature which will protect you in the future. I highly recommend it. Also, both are free, but technically the free ad-aware can't be used on business computers - you're supposed to buy a license in that case.

 

[ragboy]

You may also have to run Ad-aware or other spyware killing tools in safe mode, depending on the spy junk you have on there.

 

[KnowTheToe]

You've got spyware!

I got pissed as well.

I am pretty careful about what sites I go on and what emails I have open. I have never opened an infected email and had any other viruses. I am not supossed to download software onto the laptop, but I think I will install Mozilla or something similar for my browser.

 

[KnowTheToe]

Thanks guys, it is scanning now and I can see that it caught the offender.

 

[KnowTheToe]

one more question.

The pop up adds are actual companies, is this software just designed to annoy people? How does the spyware it pull the pop up adds up?

 

[Henry]

one more question.

The pop up adds are actual companies, is this software just designed to annoy people? How does the spyware it pull the pop up adds up?

Most spyware exists through legal loopholes. By agreeing to whatever cute screensaver / pretty picture / whatever you download, you agree to also run that person's spyware. (We get it at work all the time, despite warnings to the contrary; that's why I've been using Spybot and Ad-aware at work for a year now.) It's supposed to advertise to you, though why people think that it works is beyond my marketing savvy.

The Spyware runs like a virus, or another TSR (terminate-and-stay-resident) program, downloading snippets of ads or other spyware, and transmitting back usage info, ALL the time that you are on the Internet. Some really malicious ones download themselves AGAIN after you've removed them. One program by a company called "A Better Internet" is infamous for this - you have to find special tools from lavasoft or others to specifically remove it!

 

[XCorvis]

I got pissed as well.

I am pretty careful about what sites I go on and what emails I have open. I have never opened an infected email and had any other viruses. I am not supossed to download software onto the laptop, but I think I will install Mozilla or something similar for my browser.

I recommend Firefox. The latest version was just released less than a week ago, and it's getting rave reviews. It's based on mozilla and will be resistant (but not impervious) to most forms of spyware. I seriously doubt any admins will have a problem with you putting that on your computer. Here's a link: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

 

[Enforcer]

I too recommend Firfox. I'm using it right now in fact. In addition to the much improved popup blocking and being less exploitable than Internet Explorer, tabbed browsing will change your life. I can make one click in my bookmarks and have the EN home page and the four EN message board forums I frequent all open in the same window. It's also great for news sites.

Oh, and if you only downloaded Ad-Aware OR Spybot Search and Destroy, download the one you passed on. Sure there's a lot of overlap, but each program picks up some stuff that the other misses.

 

[KnowTheToe]

Thanks everyone, it is all fixed and I will download Firefox.