Replies to post #39157 on Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[mmoy]

Did you save the name of the website? If so, type it in google web and groups to see if someone else has run into it.

In general, I'd be inclined to reformat and reinstall if I had
spyware on my system. And use one of my browsers instead of
IE. If you have a Pentium 4, I recommend http://www.pryan.org/firefox/mmoy/mmoy-2004-05-05-Pentium3H.exe

There are so many places in Windows that you'd have to check
and cleaning out stuff and resetting stuff to clean out a virus
or spybot may be less effort than a reformat.

[mmoy]

This might be of some help:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=92321

BTW, if someone as sharp as you have these kinds of problems,
I can't imagine how many non-techies are struggling with this
stuff. A coworker reported that he routinely gets over 100
spybots a week on his systems and uses Ad-Aware to get rid
of them.

I'd be paranoid if even one of these things got on my machines.

[rlweitz]

I empathize, as I have a teenage son who is always infecting our PCs with some type of scumware or other. Now, you've probably already checked this stuff, so forgive me if these suggestions sound condescending.

Did you already check HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run in the registry for any suspiscious entries? If so, delete the entry and associated executable.

Did you check both your Startup and the All User Startup groups for the same? If so, do the same.

At system idle are there any suspcious processes in say the top 5 or 10 on CPU Utilization? You can check this by pulling up the Task Manager, clicking on the Processes tab, and sorting by the CPU Utilization column (click on the CPU heading). If you do find a suspicious process, note it's name and check Google for a cleaning procedures.

What was the site? Again, you might find a cleaning procedure if you do a search on the site in Google.

[CombJelly]

"Windows problem. "

Make sure it didn't set up a proxy and is routing you through there.

[winemkr]

Sgolds, can't you just delete the cookie?

Or am I spoiled rotten?

[Not a Short]

Adaware from lavasoft and Spybot search and destroy 1.3 in combination will remove 99% of these things.

Adaware won't do it all with the default settings though. You also have to be sure you update the definition files on both programs. After updating do a custom scan on adaware and check all the options on the scan settings screen (normally scan withing archives is unchecked and the same goes for "scan my IE favorites..." and "scan my hosts file".

After Adaware is done scanning with the custom options reboot and scan again with adaware custom options.

After that scan with Spybot Search and destroy (with the latest definitions) and be sure to immunize the first time you immunize you should see a number near 1700 items it will block. If you see less than 1500 you have outdated definitions.

If you aren't already add Zone Alarm or Black Ice to the mix of windows programs you use all the time.

Finally do all your web browsing with Netscape or one of it's offshoots or web browse only from restricted user accounts. IE is just too integrated to be safe for general use by an admin level account.

Assuming you use Windows Critical updates, Netscape, Zone Alarm, Adaware, and Spybot, and any ond of the major antivirus programs you should do ok.

If for any reason you really hate Netscape at least add the Google toolbar to your IE install so you aren't wide open to popups.

Reformatting your drive is only a good option if you know how to make your system immune from viruses and spyware to begin with. Most users will save data from the old build and reinfect the new build. It is possible to work around issues like that but there are no hard and fast rules and no easy answers.

Spyware is probably worse than any traditional virus when it comes to the amount of work our MIS dept has to do.

[SemiconEng]

Windows problem. Help? -
OK, I had the misfortune of mispelling a web site URL yesterday, and the bogus site installed some adware without any prompting. When I bring up my browser, normally set to start with a blank page, instead I get a screen full of URLs to products (they all go to the same .tv domain site) and a popup that says spyware is detected (no sh--, Sherlock!). Of course, it offers to scan my system, and I am not that big a fool!
I have tried the following unsuccessfully to get rid of this:


I had the same issue several weeks ago, and a co-worker of mine described the same type of issue with his laptop. I'm no software wizard, but as I understand it, what happened to me, was that a line had been added to the windows registry, that loaded up this issue every time I booted up the machine. In both my case, and my co-workers, Adaware was able to diagnose, and remove the added registry entry, when spybot was clueless in both cases. There's a free version.

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/