need a pc experts help.....Please

[unreal.freak]

Well thanks to all that helped or tried to help. I tried to uninstall the Mcaffee and it seems that the virus i had changed all my acess on my pc. I could get into anything with my login. I could click on things and i just wouldnt respond at all. I went to uninstall Mcaffee and when the window promted to uninstall it said i didnt have proper administrative rights to perform it. I reformatted and let the pc reinstall a mirror image of what this pc had from dell. All was lost......i guess i can consider it a learning experience. I can tell you....that was a powerfull bug/virus/whatever the heck it was! It hijacked my browser and installed itself before i could even do anything about it. The pop up i recieved was something to do with my computer may be infected and did i want to run a free virus scan. I clicked the exit button and all heck broke loose. So beware!!! dont click anything on any free scans...not even the exit button!! the virus name was called antivirus2009, it is said to be undetectable by firewalls and virus software because it gets in through IE browser and the firwall and virus software thinks its part of the browser. My first clue i had something was when i booted up, my IE wouldnt run.....it kept giving a googletoolbar1.dll error and said IE has to shut down.

Hope everyone can learn from this......i know i have!
Im working with a fresh install of windows vista homepro again.
i guess i can redo my wifes and my resume in the future as needed

Thanks Again,
Tommy

 

[Adam]

Tommy, very sorry that happened to you. Thanks for the heads up, though!

I looked up "antivirus2009" on Google and found a number of sites regarding how to get rid of it, including this one. If you lost all priviledges, those instructions might have done you no good. However, maybe someone else will find it helpful if they get infected by this thing.

 

[unreal.freak]

Tommy, very sorry that happened to you. Thanks for the heads up, though!

I looked up "antivirus2009" on Google and found a number of sites regarding how to get rid of it, including this one. If you lost all priviledges, those instructions might have done you no good. However, maybe someone else will find it helpful if they get infected by this thing.

Thats the first time i seen that site, maybe it is new or maybe i just overlooked it. In either case i think im done with it now. I will however download the spyhunter and run it to see if i have anything still.

I havent ever heard of anything making it through a total reformat, but i guess it doesnt hurt to be sure.

Thanks,
Tommy

 

[MinusTheBear]

From the sounds of it, you did the right move by re-formating. Your computer seemed pretty messed up and I think its best giving your computer a fresh start. Whenever I get pop-up I never click on them, what I do is press Ctrl + Alt + Delete which brings up the task manager and click "end task" to get rid of it. What are you going to use for your computer security now?

 

[unreal.freak]

From the sounds of it, you did the right move by re-formating. Your computer seemed pretty messed up and I think its best giving your computer a fresh start. Whenever I get pop-up I never click on them, what I do is press Ctrl + Alt + Delete which brings up the task manager and click "end task" to get rid of it. What are you going to use for your computer security now?

the same thing.....Mcaffee. I guess when the subscription of Mcaffee runs out i may try whatever the best is at the time.



Peace,
Tommy

 

[MinusTheBear]

What do you use your computer for? If there is a lot of sensitive material on your computer, I am sure some people know of some great interet security software but that will come at a price. If you use your computer for just basic things such as downloading, browsing interenet, email etc there are a bunch of good free anti-virus program as well. It all depends on the user. For myself I always use the free anti-virus and spyware programs and if my computer gets %?&*()$ I just reformat like you did.

 

[unreal.freak]

What do you use your computer for? If there is a lot of sensitive material on your computer, I am sure some people know of some great interet security software but that will come at a price. If you use your computer for just basic things such as downloading, browsing interenet, email etc there are a bunch of good free anti-virus program as well. It all depends on the user. For myself I always use the free anti-virus and spyware programs and if my computer gets %?&*()$ I just reformat like you did.

We purchase items over the internet, email, online banking, etc. Nothing we do involves work or anything, it all personal info......however i dont want my credit cards and bank account numbers in cyber criminals grubby little hands.


Peace,
Tommy

 

[gus6464]

Sorry to hear that you had to nuke the hdd but that is the only sure fire way to remove a virus. Also I would suggest you get rid of the retail McAfee immediately and not even install it on your new OS install.

BTW there are a couple of easy tweaks you can do to lock down XP so it allows you to have a warning next time this happens. It doesn't involve messing with the registry at all and it's just some little services you can disable and uninstall which are vulnerable to attacks and serve no purpose. If you want just send me a PM and will give you a quick primer on what to do. With this you can even get away with not using McAfee at all and just some free apps that will lock the system tight.

 

[Phil Taylor]

AVG's latest version is another good one but I had trouble with the new 'link scanner' feature and had to disable it or it slowed my page loading on a racing forum I frequent (but the admin there hand wrote the forum's code so it is a rarity). I also use Firefox - you couldn't pay me to use IE. And Spybot Search and Destroy handles any spyware. All of these I highly recommend.

 

[MinusTheBear]

AVG's latest version is another good one but I had trouble with the new 'link scanner' feature and had to disable it or it slowed my page loading on a racing forum I frequent (but the admin there hand wrote the forum's code so it is a rarity). I also use Firefox - you couldn't pay me to use IE. And Spybot Search and Destroy handles any spyware. All of these I highly recommend.

Gotta love free security software. They work great too.

 

[Djizasse]

AVG's latest version is another good one but I had trouble with the new 'link scanner' feature and had to disable it or it slowed my page loading on a racing forum I frequent (but the admin there hand wrote the forum's code so it is a rarity).

AVG acknowledged this and released a fix. But I can still notice the load. I turn it off when visiting foruns.