no longer infected but rather screwed up

[thegayhare]

Hi hi all

I've just been hit with the Spyware Protect 2009 malware... I'm slowly working my way through it... hopping that ad-aware will take it out like it's suposed to... the other removal tools I found, the ones that delt specificly with this program wanted a fee so I'll stick with AW for now.

But in case that doesn't work  does anyone know of a free malware remover that would work against this dam prog

[LionHeart]

I don't know about that particular malware, but I've always found that Spybot Search and Destroy gives good results.

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/home/index.html

[Ryudo Lee]

Microsoft's anti-spyware program Windows Defender seems to work good too...

If you're going to use Spybot, make sure you utilize the Immunizations and keep up with it.

[Valynth]

Personally, I just use MalwareBytes, it'll get rid of almost everything that would harm your computer.

It's free, but you can't set it to auto scan without paying, but otherwise, it works well

[thegayhare]

Well Spybot Cleaned up my computer of the malware I was worried about... and several I didn't know about

how ever there seems to be a new problem

now my machine seems to be limping along barely able to function... It seems spybot taxed my cpu till it could barely function

After un installing spybot and restarting it seems to have fixed the problem

thanks everyone

[thegayhare]

Okay I take that back

un installing spybot didn't infact fix things

I'm still getting system crawl

It looks like something is causing cpu usage to spike to 100percent for no perceptible reason causing every function to slow to a crawl...  half the time it doesn't even have the processing power to follow my mouse

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

You sure you don't have a virus of some sort? I'm not 100% conversant on this sort of thing, but I know that Spybot doesn't take on the more classic Trojan viruses and the like. I had something similar until an Avast update made the thing go haywire deleting worms it found.

[Noone]

I'd certainly recommend Avast if you don't already have some other sort of virus protection, I find that and Spybot work remarkably well together. I've never had virus problems on any of the computers I have them installed on.

It can be downloaded for free here: http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

Also, if your system is running very slowly, check task manager and see how many processes you are running. If you're using Vista, you'll probably have 60-80 something on start-up. If this is the case, you might want to go through MSConfig and disable services that you aren't using, a lot of the ones that come with Vista are entirely worthless.

[VSMIT]

Assuming you're running XP, if it crawls again, open the task manager and go to the Processes tab, and find what's eating up your CPU.

[thegayhare]

I am running XP

I'm also running the latest version of Adaware  I downloaded the 2009 edition  and after 2 hours of searching it seems to have found one thing spybot missed

While watching the processes I can't see any thing that seems to be causeing the drain on the CPU  the CPU is still registering right around 100 percent ussage but it doesn't look like the processes are doing to much ...  and truthfully I don't know whats safe to shut off there are 44 processes running there and I'm not sure what I can monkey around with

[Alondro]

It's funny if you think of translating 'XP' into an emoticon.

XP

[Turnsky]

www.malwarebytes.org

try that, i had something similar a while back, this actually works extremely well, and will spare you from the troublesome "Partition Nuke"

[Ryudo Lee]

I'm also running the latest version of Adaware  I downloaded the 2009 edition  and after 2 hours of searching it seems to have found one thing spybot missed

That seems to be the case with a lot of antispyware programs.  No one program catches them all for some reason.  Spybot will find some that Adaware can't get, and vice versa.

[Tapewolf]

That seems to be the case with a lot of antispyware programs.  No one program catches them all for some reason.  Spybot will find some that Adaware can't get, and vice versa.

I've also had them start attacking each other.  It was not pretty.

[Mao]

It may not be pretty, but I've always thought it was funny when AdAware would identify SpyBot as malware and vice-versa.  Like two kids calling each other names and fighting out in the playground.

[thegayhare]

avast is currently running a boot scan on my computer now... I realy hope this works If my mom gets home from mexico and the computers acting wonky she'll kill me...

[Ryudo Lee]

Well I stopped using Adaware anyway.  I primarily use a combination of some handy Firefox Add-ons (AdBlock Plus, NoScript, FlashBlock), along with Avast, Spybot, and Windows Defender.  It all seems to work out pretty well for me.  I haven't had any serious viral/malware infections in quite some time.

[Azlan]

In our corporate environment, I use a mixture of tools... Spybot, Adaware, MalwareBytes, Windows Defender, MRT and our Norton Antivirus Corporate.

At home I have an appliance which has NAT in effect.  The local machine is protected by a corporate security suite and a number of freeware anti-spyware tools.

[Janus Whitefurr]

I realy hope this works If my mom gets home from mexico and the computers acting wonky she'll kill me...

Don't worry, we'll revive you with your cyborg outfit. We can rebuild the bunny! Make him better, harder, faster, stronger!

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

We can rebuild the bunny! Make him ... harder, ...!

I think that's what he wants. ;-]

[Alondro]

Our PC at work has Conficker A on it.  I think it snuck on there back in late October when a person in our office decided to download all the files on their dying laptop directly onto the harddrive of the PC... which is a big no-no as far as work computers are concerned.  Either that or the drive being partitioned as it was with medical data and several administrator settings all at once screwed up how the machine handled updates.

Either way, that PC never go its security updates and patches, and after last weekend, a regular virus scan found Conficker A hiding out somewhere in System 32.  Naturally, because of the nature of the worm, we likely can't download the patches and removal tools directly.  Plus, we couldn't even if the worm is properly quarantined because no one remembers what the Admin password was.

So basically we're just going to save everything to an intranet network and wipe the C drive completely, then rebuild. 

[Siirenia]

Malware Bytes and Spybot, which you already know about, are the best. At least, I think so. Running a scan or two with Avast! wouldn't hurt, either. (Or AVG, if you don't use "modified" .exe files.)

Also, I'd highly recommend the free version of the ZoneAlarm firewall. ( http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-gb/zonealarm-pc-security-free-firewall.htm )

While not a scanner, per se, it monitors every attempt to access outgoing and incoming ports on your computer, with a little pop-up window in the lower right-hand corner of your screen alerting you. You have to manually allow each and every connection; though you can add programs to the "safe" list in that same little speech bubble.

It's super-handy if you have an infection you can't quite get rid of yet. Keeps it isolated.

[Ultimatum479]

*cackles maniacally at everyone else's misfortune from behind his virtual spyware immunity*