I have beenm invaded!

[vetplus40]

I have been invaded by what appears to be spyware and popup adds. I downloaded something by mistake and have lost control over my own computer. I did a disk clean up and deleted 1,135 cookies. My task manager shows 43 processes running, could some of the culprits be residing in there too? Thanks.

 

[skyking]

adaware 6.0 from lavasoft.com
spybot search and destroy from kolla.de
run both of those, it will clean up the majority of problems. after that, google each process you are not sure of. 43 is not a huge number in xp though.

 

[Mitzi]

Do a virus check too...AVG is a good free one.

 

[vetplus40]

Thanks for the replies.

 

[Gravity]

spybot search and destroy. Do a google search, get the proggy, clean your box.

Gravity

 

[imported_Phil]

Let us know how much spyware you got

My personal record (not my machine, I hasten to add) is 845 objects. I'll post a screenie if you don't believe me

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: DopeFiend
Let us know how much spyware you got

My personal record (not my machine, I hasten to add) is 845 objects. I'll post a screenie if you don't believe me

Also post a screenshot of your task manager with those processes.. Let's see what kind of crap you've got installed and running...

 

[imported_Phil]

1. Not my machine, it was a machine at work.
2. They had around 12 processes running, from BonziBuddy to Gator, Comet Cursor, etc.
3. The files are gone from their machine but I might have the pic around somewhere

 

[vetplus40]

The system was so problematic that I had to re-install XP. I had several folders of junk that kept giving me an "access denied" message whenever I tried to delete them. No other programs were running when I was trying to delete them, so I do not know why they would not delete. I have a dual boot system so I was able to boot to 98 and delete them that way, but I still had to reload XP.
I thought that XP would simply reload over the existing installation since the set-up screen never asked me where I wanted the os located at. I now have a bootloader screen showing TWO XP options. I might have two XP os's on my pc, but I am not sure. This has been a harrowing experience........

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: vetplus40
The system was so problematic that I had to re-install XP. I had several folders of junk that kept giving me an "access denied" message whenever I tried to delete them. No other programs were running when I was trying to delete them, so I do not know why they would not delete. I have a dual boot system so I was able to boot to 98 and delete them that way, but I still had to reload XP.
I thought that XP would simply reload over the existing installation since the set-up screen never asked me where I wanted the os located at. I now have a bootloader screen showing TWO XP options. I might have two XP os's on my pc, but I am not sure. This has been a harrowing experience........

As said above, next time install SpyBot and enable it's "Block Spyware" feature. It acts like a SpyWare firewall and is really very cool.

 

[vetplus40]

I am certainly going to heed to any advise. I do not wish to have to go through this again. I will have to do some troubleshooting to see exactly how many operating systems that I have. If I now have two installations of XP, I need to make sure I do not select the problematic one.

 

[KF]

>I will have to do some troubleshooting to see exactly how many operating systems that I have
Here is one way you might figure that out.

In the file C:\BOOT.INI, there is something like this

[boot loader]
timeout=4
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(8)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
C:\="Microsoft Windows"

The stuff between quotation marks is the title put on the selection screen. It can be changed to anything you please.

This part
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
gives you the partition and the directory. If both are identical, then you have two listings of the same XP installation. Otherwise you have two.