My computer is riddled with viruses.

So all the sudden all these fake anti spyware and virus applications decide to download themselves on my computer. It won't let me open any of my programs. I have AdAware, Windows Defender and Malware Bytes. I can double click them all day long and nothing happens. I tried in safe mode and it doesn't work there either.

Any more ideas?

Nuke and pave. (format and reload)

try spybot

Start with this program !!!!

I use it on all of my computers/laptops

[ame=http://download.cnet.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10320142.html?tag=mncol]AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com[/ame]

-Jason

jcarson83 said:

Nuke and pave. (format and reload)

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srsly...for the time you can spend chasing down all the different pieces of crap that got on to your pc you can just nuke it and be done with it...especially with how extensive it sounds like the infection is.

brewt00l said:

srsly...for the time you can spend chasing down all the different pieces of crap that got on to your pc you can just nuke it and be done with it...especially with how extensive it sounds like the infection is.

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Well then he would lose his extensive midget porn collection..


I'm using Avast virus scanner with a realtime "shield".

You really need to schedule a boot scan (scan on boot).

Can't remember if AVG can do that. I used to use AVG but found it would miss things on ocassion.

quit looking at so much pron!

Depending on your level of expertise I would suggest a linux bootable disk. Boot outside of windows. I would suggest you try the following.

Dr.Web LiveCD is a software product that features a standard, Dr.Web scanner

This is what I use on my family members computers when they get it to the point that your computer is at. Easy to use for beginners as well as effective. This is the option I would go if you don't want to nuke and re-install.

After using this you will then need to boot into windows and run complete scans as well just to double check your system. There are other easy to use Linux live cd's some are easy some are not. Either way, at this point the only real way to get out of the situation you are in is to do your cleaning OUTSIDE of windows.

Denny's Evil Concoctions said:

Well then he would lose his extensive midget porn collection..

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I'm guessing thats why hehas so many viruses in the first palce

Thanks guys. I downloaded AVG and it's actually letting me open it. But now I can't get the damn thing to scan. It just says "There are no active components" at the top of the screen.

Any clue?

I bookmarked the Dr.Web. Is it just a virus scanner or do I need to get all my files off the computer?

chefchris said:

Thanks guys. I downloaded AVG and it's actually letting me open it. But now I can't get the damn thing to scan. It just says "There are no active components" at the top of the screen.

Any clue?

I bookmarked the Dr.Web. Is it just a virus scanner or do I need to get all my files off the computer?

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You burn it as a bootable cd and then boot from you cd drive. Then you use the prgram to scan you computer. Since windows isn't running then the viruses will not be running either.

You really should burn it from a virus free computer.

i would reload Malware Bytes and give it an one more shot
its the best at remove fake antivirus 2009 2008 ect

if you can ,, using a custom install , install it to a flash drive on an other computer , get all teh updates then move the flash drive to the infected computer and run the program from the flash drive

Denny's Evil Concoctions said:

You really should burn it from a virus free computer.

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would that really matter? We're talking an iso and linux.

Denny's Evil Concoctions said:

Well then he would lose his extensive midget porn collection..

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I'm sure they are already backed up onto a disk labeled "graduation pictures" or something equally innocuous

I'll usually just burn some liveboot/UBCD variant to get to the hard disk w/o the infected windows running then grab any files and shoot them out to a USB drive or whathave you. Then you're good to go and nuke the disk. ......Otherwise the alternative boot environment is a good place to start
weeding out the nasty stuff if you have to salvage the install.

I had a nasty one like that about a year ago. It disabled all my anti virus and anti spyware software, and everytime I went online it would re-direct me to some site that said I was infected and needed to download this software I never heard of. Alarms and flashing lights all over the screen. Total chaos.

I ended up having to put an old hard drive that had an O/S on it in the machine and boot from the good drive. I went out and bought a copy of a reputable commercial anti virus program and cleaned the virus from the main drive with the second one

Take notes on what sites the virus is sending you to and/or what messages it is giving you also. After I cleaned the drive it was still kinda funky so I googled the messages I was getting from the virus and found some tech forums that helper me repair and clean the last couple bits of damage.

I just had this on my work laptop. It's relatively new malware. I got mine from a website about fungi. The Google search listing had a note below the link... "This site may harm your computer." But I had been on the site before and it was fine, so I thought it would have been OK. Now I know to heed those warnings!

My company's IT guy tried everything you tried. The malware prevents any malware removal software from working. If you have a lot of valuable files on your computer, you could try hooking your hard drive to another computer and using the malware removal software on the other machine to clean up the hard drive from the infected machine, but I'm not sure if that will even work. My IT guy chose to reformat my hard drive because I didn't have that much in valuable files on it. It was the only fast/effective way to fix the problem.

after you fix it... get you firefox and avg for your interweb surfing.

I'll throw 2 cents in . .

If you are running XP, click on Start, Run, and type MSCONFIG in the run field. Click on Diagnostic Startup, then Selective Startup. This will clear all the check marks for the load commands. Reboot in Safe Mode and try running your scan software. May take a couple of passes.

I also highly recommend Superantispyware. (free)

Happy scanning!

menschmaschine said:

I just had this on my work laptop. It's relatively new malware. I got mine from a website about fungi. The Google search listing had a note below the link... "This site may harm your computer." But I had been on the site before and it was fine, so I thought it would have been OK. Now I know to heed those warnings!

My company's IT guy tried everything you tried. The malware prevents any malware removal software from working. If you have a lot of valuable files on your computer, you could try hooking your hard drive to another computer and using the malware removal software on the other machine to clean up the hard drive from the infected machine, but I'm not sure if that will even work. My IT guy chose to reformat my hard drive because I didn't have that much in valuable files on it. It was the only fast/effective way to fix the problem.

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That might have been the fastest best solution in the end, but having to do this very often means I know that with certain software and a bootable CD I can go in and stop any problems cold.

Of course, many of these machines have way too much crap on them anyway, and the people who have me clean them usually just want their stuff backed up and them a nuke from orbit.

I usually use Bart's PE for my live CD. Sometimes I use one of the various flavors of Linux as well. A whole bunch of deleting in specific areas and then I can safely boot into safe mode for more scanning.

I like HijackThis for doing a quick scan of the registery.

I just learned a cool trick from our IT guy. You would have to have 2 computers for this option.

Buy a universal hard drive adapter.
Take out the hard drive from the infected computer.
Hook it up to the adapter. If its a desktop computer, you will need to run the power source. If its a laptop, it will draw power from the USB.
Plug the adapter into the non-infected computer. It will recognize the infected one as an external drive.
Run all the virus/spyware software on it. Since you aren't booting the drive, its not running a lot of the spyware, so its a lot easier to clean.

I got the same virus infection you have. I believe I got it because I was running an old version of Java and surfed to a web page which used an old security hole in Javascript to infect my machine. As these guys said your only option is to scan from an offline virus scanner CD or to put the drive in a clean PC and then scan/clean it using a good AV program, it is stealth so the scanners running won't see it and it also disables the installation of AV programs once it is in place. It's also kind enough to download and install additional malware as long as you remain connected to the internetz so expect to spend a lot of time cleaning it up.

First thing you are going to want to do is slave it (hook it up to another computer) and run the scan that way. That way you will definitely be able to run the scan. While you are at it, put Hijack This on the bad drive. Once the scan completes, put the drive back in the infected computer and boot into safe mode and run Hijack This. If you don't know what you are looking at, don't mess around with it. Post your log to a computer support forum (there are a million of them) and someone will help you I am sure. You could even post it here if you like. Remove the bad stuff and reboot again in safe mode with networking. Run MalwareBytes and update it. Run a full scan. Remove anything that is infected. Run Spybot, remove anything infected. Run at startup if it asks you to. Reboot into normal mode, let the scan run if necessary and I bet at that point you will be clean, or very very close.

download malwarebytes and run in safe mode. Then download avast and run its scan that runs before windows starts. Then keep trying other programs referenced in this thread. If that doesnt work format and reinstall windows.

I suggest doing the MSCONFIG to disable all your startup programs, then download Avira (Avira AntiVir Personal - FREE Antivirus). I have used Spybot and AVG exclusively in the past, but newer virus (even though software is updated) seem to get around both programs. Also, if you are unable to boot to regular windows and don't already AVG installed, it's not possible to install in safe mode.

Give Avira a try.

STAD said:

I suggest doing the MSCONFIG to disable all your startup programs, then download Avira (Avira AntiVir Personal - FREE Antivirus). I have used Spybot and AVG exclusively in the past, but newer virus (even though software is updated) seem to get around both programs. Also, if you are unable to boot to regular windows and don't already AVG installed, it's not possible to install in safe mode.

Give Avira a try.

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If he is not able to open Spybot and Malwarebytes, I doubt he is going to be able to open msconfig.

i must have looked over that detail.

safe mode should not open all the startup programs anyway and if you have internet access, you can download and install Avira from there.