OK, I ignored my own advice and decided to be stupid...

[Allura]

The only thing I can add to that is don't use that "update" that's popping up. The grammar is horrible. Yes, sounds like a silly thing for me to notice, but both MS and Norton usually use proper English on their popups. Also, see how the title bar says "Question"? The legit programs usually identify themselves in those windows. That image just seems...off...to me.

Oh, and I endorse Defender, for what it's worth. I've been using the whole Windows Live OneCare package for months now, and haven't had any problems. Of course, my primary browser is Opera, so that could have something to do with it...

 

[BOZ]

If you are using IE7, Select "Tools-Manage Add-Ons". I dont remember exactly where the menu item is in IE6.

pretty sure i'm on 1E6, but i found out how to get there on the work computer - now just need to try it at home.

 

[BOZ]

OK, went into Windows Safe Mode, and i ran S S&D, a full scan on adaware, and a full scan on symantec. the first two finished after awhile and i got rid of some stuff that way. symantec, i left on all night and after 8 hours or so it was still not done. :\ well, it did find some things that it hadn't before, so i just restarted the computer. i'll let it run again maybe when i go off to work.

the popups are still there, but the internet is much faster and symantec's auto-protect is popping up a lot less often. that little icon at the bottom right is still there, so i'm definitely running another scan in the near future.

 

[Scotley]

Did you visit the microsoft update sight yet? Yesterday was a patch Tuesday and several threats were patched. That might help.

 

[XCorvis]

Most viruses create multiple copies of themselves so unless you clean out ALL of them, they will just work their way back in. Make sure you let the scan totally finish, otherwise you'll start from scratch next time. You might also want to download and run STINGER, a small virus scanning program. It only scans for the most common current viruses, so run a full symantec scan after that.

http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

 

[BOZ]

Did you visit the microsoft update sight yet? Yesterday was a patch Tuesday and several threats were patched. That might help.

cool, i'll take a look.

due to other things going on in my life, fixing up my computer's problems hasn't been as high a priority as it probably should be.

right now, i'm letting the Symantec full scan run again. i started it at 8AM CST, and i'll get home around 6PM - since the damn thing ran for over 8 hours without finishing last night, i won't be the least bit surprised if it's still not done when i get home. regardless, this time i'm going to let it finish. tonight is D&D night, so that's a few more hours i won't be at home.

 

[Scotley]

You might speed up the scan by taking out the trash first. That's the beauty of clean up programs such as CCleaner. If you don't set limits on your temp. internet files then you could easily have hundreds of megs of junk on your drive. By deleting it first there is a lot less for the Anti-Virus to look through. Lots of viruses (viri? virusi?) and spyware lurk in those temp files. Just keeping it clean will reduce your problems. The first time you run the cleaner, it might take a few minutes, but subsequent runs will only be a few seconds. I run the cleaner several times a week like after online banking, bill paying or heavy surfing and it is almost instant.

 

[frankthedm]

So, who here does not have a genuine copy of XP?

Oh, it's genuinely a copy, IYKWIM&ITYD

BOZ, Unless you have things on your PC you cannot lose, reformating may be the best option. That crap sounds like it got in there good.

A reformat every day keeps the feds away. ​

 

[BOZ]

you might be right. still, combatting it hasn't been all hopeless. just today symantec was going crazy asking me to reboot time and again, so i just took it to safe mode and ran SS&D and adaware, which found a bunch of crazy stuff, and for the last 3-4 hours i haven't had any popups nor activity from symantec (which is really good considering what i've been seeing from this machine lately). i'd been getting browser hijacking and everything, but now it seems to have either stopped or at least paused.

previously, i had run the full scan from Symantec... which ran for 40 hours, which is part of why i haven't been around here. what did that do? not a whole lot, it seemed. i still had the icons on my desktop pictured below, as well as yet another suspicious item in the tray at bottom right.

however, both of those suspicious "spyware remover" items are gone as of today's Safe Mode cleaning, which leads me to believe even stronger that they were not kosher (and very annoying they were).

those icons are still on my desktop, however. nothing removed them, so do you figure it's safe to trash them? like i said, nothing's been happening since that last scan, so i'm hoping with fingers crossed that it's all over (for now at the very least).

 

[XCorvis]

Oh yah, chuck that desktop stuff. That's just there to trick you into running it and re-installing the virus or spyware. Glad to hear it's getting better. Grab STINGER (like I mentioned before) and run that while in safe mode. Some viruses can cripple your regular scanner, so it's a precaution against that.