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

[ssampier]

I haven't done any research on your problem yet, but knee-jerk:

Runnce command.com clcl.exe looks very suspicious.

Everything else looks "okay", mostly just programs that are largely unnecessary and slow down your PC, but are not dangerous/malware.

 

[BOZ]

yeah, i kind of thought that one looked out of place.

 

[XCorvis]

Agreed, that clcl looks suspicious. I'd yank that. It might be some kind of clipboard related thing, but I couldn't really find info on it. Likewise, "Registry Monitor" with an executable named "1903cr.exe" looks mighty suspicious too.

The AIM6 line looks weird because it doesn't seem to do anything. I'd pull that on general principal.

You've got a lot of junk that's safe to turn off: Real Player, quicktime, AOL stuff, Winzip, MSMGS (messenger) and Yahoo Messenger. Adobe Reader's startup agent actually makes it fast enough to be useful, so I'd leave that. If there are any that you don't use, turn them off.

 

[jaerdaph]

Hey BOZ,

Have you tried starting your computer up in Windows Safe Mode and then running SpyBot (with no Internet connection open)? Doing that often lets SpyBot clean up a lot of crap that it can't when you run it in normal Windows mode.

Starting Windows XP in Safe Mode

 

[Scotley]

OK, i'm back. i've run adaware and SB S&D several times each, and while they treat the symptoms they have yet to cure the disease.



is there anything in the image below that i need to remove? i don't know how to recognize problems of this sort.

Usually, the bad ones are in red. If you are using all those programs at least occationally then I don't see anything harmful in there. You've got like three different messaging programs in there and several media players. They all like to pre-load parts of themselves and 'check for update' routines. If you don't use them all then you could kill a couple to free up resources. As long as you are happy with your system's performance then don't worry about it. If you are suspecious about any of them you can uncheck them and if something you use stops working just turn it back on and reboot.

 

[BOZ]

Hey BOZ,

Have you tried starting your computer up in Windows Safe Mode and then running SpyBot (with no Internet connection open)? Doing that often lets SpyBot clean up a lot of crap that it can't when you run it in normal Windows mode.

Starting Windows XP in Safe Mode

i might just try that.

now, here's a weird thing. i haven't done anything special or different yet, but over the last couple of days or so, the popups have practically vanished (they were copious previously). likewise, Symantec was regularly popping up stating that it had quarantined or deleted this Trojan or that whatever file - but that has just about stopped as well.

has my computer cured itself, or should i be worried that the virus is mutating into something new and different and ominous?

 

[BOZ]

OK, let me update that. I haven't done anything at all to the machine yet, but the popups have not happened at all in a few days. instead, lately, i've been getting a message in the lower right corner of the screen (see image below), and when i click on that i get a popup box (see same image). i don't know if that's legit, or if it's a trick. any idea?

also, while the popups are gone, my Symantec is going crazy (see other image). i left the computer running for about 3 hours while i went to do laundry, and all of that came up. this is typical.

any advice on how to proceed? stuff that has been posted above which i haven't tried yet (which would be most of it) or altogether different stuff based on what i've posted since?

 

[Scotley]

I'm no expert on Windows error messages, but that looks a little funny to me. I'd recommend going to the Microsoft Update site (http://update.microsoft.com/microso...update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate&ln=en-us)
and getting any patches that way as a precaution. If I'm wrong you've only lost a little extra time. I'd also consider a registry cleaner. Unfortunately, the good ones tend to cost money. Try downloading CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) which is free and running the "Issues" part of the program which is a basic registry cleaner. The program is wonderful for cleaning out the various temp files and usage trails in your computer as well.

 

[XCorvis]

Most of those are the same type of file in the temporary internet files folder. Don't worry about that too much, but your system is in bad shape. You need to get it clean ASAP, or it's going to get really bad.

This is my profession opinion: You need to boot into safe mode, as mentioned above, and run a virus scan. Do this immediately. Also run a spyware scan.

Also, stop using Internet Explorer. Seriously. Get Firefox and learn to love it.

 

[Alisanos]

how do i do this?

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