Can You Remove a Virus If Your Antivirus Software Fails?

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A user reported receiving a virus after clicking a link sent via MSN Messenger, which was part of a friend's infected account. The virus altered the user's homepage and evaded detection by Norton antivirus. Recommendations for removal included using system restore, various antivirus and anti-spyware tools like Webroot Spy Sweeper, Spybot Search & Destroy, and Ad-Aware. Users emphasized the importance of not clicking unsolicited links and suggested checking for malware using Task Manager and tools like HiJackThis. If self-removal efforts failed, seeking professional help was advised, especially for those unfamiliar with advanced troubleshooting. The discussion highlighted the risks of IM viruses and the need for reliable antivirus protection.
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Ok all you computer smart people. I just got a virus and was wondering if it is possible to get rid of it. I have no idea what it is called but what happened was my friend messaged me on msn and said "I hope this isn't you and then a link" because i thought it was just my friend trying to talk to me I opened the link and nothing really seemed to happen. So I messaged my friend back and she was like oh yeah that's cause it was a virus I got that's been randomly sending that to people on my contact list ...apparently she didnt feel it was necessary to warn ppl this might happen Anyone know what this virus is and how I can get rid of it? All I can figure out so far that has happened is it reset my homepage to some stupid gaming site full of stoners, and my norton isn't picking it up and I can't seem to get on the norton site to figure out what to do. Please help me!
 
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Use system restore, it can be a very effective tool sometimes. It helped me in a few suspicious situations.
 
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Try using some other kind of anti-virus software.
 
I use Webroot Spy Sweeper for that kind of thing, anti virus software usually doesn't detect that type of program. You have spyware that's hijacked your browser.
 
hypatia said:
http://tech.msn.com/security/default.aspx?HTTP_HOST=tech.msn.com&url=/virus/

You can run a program here that detects what kind of virus you have. This next site is good for help removeing them.

http://www.happy-messaging.com/messenger/virus/

the first link wouldn't work for me but from the second one I think i have the imnames one. But when I follow the steps and make it to the msconfig startup section the program just disappears on me. It won't stay up long enough for me to find and uncheck the imnames thing. Suggestions?
 
One of the most popular anti-spyware software is Spybot Search & Destroy. If the ones suggested doesn't suit your needs, you could try this one. I've used it for over a year and it works fine for me.
 
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Moridin, Spybot, as the name suggests, in an anti-spyware software.
 
  • #10
OK I'm downloading the spysweeper thing right now. Hopefully this will work.
 
  • #11
OK so I did a full system scan with the spysweeper thing and it told me I have a trojan horse, a system monitor, and a bunch of spyware cookies but it won't let me get rid of any of them wishout paying for a subscription.
 
  • #12
Go here. Ad Aware has a free trial, maybe it will help.

http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10399602.html?tag=topic

http://www.download.com/spyware-center/2001-2023_4-0.html
 
  • #13
scorpa said:
Ok all you computer smart people. I just got a virus and was wondering if it is possible to get rid of it. I have no idea what it is called but what happened was my friend messaged me on msn and said "I hope this isn't you and then a link" because i thought it was just my friend trying to talk to me I opened the link and nothing really seemed to happen. So I messaged my friend back and she was like oh yeah that's cause it was a virus I got that's been randomly sending that to people on my contact list ...apparently she didnt feel it was necessary to warn ppl this might happen Anyone know what this virus is and how I can get rid of it? All I can figure out so far that has happened is it reset my homepage to some stupid gaming site full of stoners, and my norton isn't picking it up and I can't seem to get on the norton site to figure out what to do. Please help me!
My daughter did something similar, but the virus trashed her XP OS, or she just started deleting OS files, which some message indicated were corrupted. I could never get the complete story. I only found out about it when I noticed a startup error which indicated that NTLDR and other files could not be found.

If one ever gets a message like "I hope this isn't you and then a link" - do not click on the link! STOP - and THINK - would this friend send a message like this? If one receives an unsolicited link, put the cursor over it and look at the url. DO NOT click on the link!

We use bitdefender these days as opposed to Norton. MacAfee is another possible choice.
 
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  • #14
You can also disable hyperlinks display in your IM client. Hovering over the link won't do much on some IM clients though (this includes msn).
 
  • #15
Astronuc said:
My daughter did something similar, but the virus trashed her XP OS, or she just started deleting OS files, which some message indicated were corrupted. I could never get the complete story. I only found out about it when I noticed a startup error which indicated that NTLDR and other files could not be found.

If one ever gets a message like "I hope this isn't you and then a link" - do not click on the link! STOP - and THINK - would this friend send a message like this? If one receives an unsolicited link, put the cursor over it and look at the url. DO NOT click on the link!

We use bitdefender these days as opposed to Norton. MacAfee is another possible choice.

Yeah now I am getting messages saying "Found you and then the link" so watch out for that one to.

So how did she get rid of it? I have no idea what to do and everything I try does not work :cry:
 
  • #16
Did you try the ad aware? People say it's good.

If ad aware didn't work, then you may have to break down and buy something like spy sweeper, I personally have found it to be superior in removing spyware and trojans to any other software on the market, it removed a trojan that no other program could remove.

It also prevents trojans and spyware from being added to your computer. Whenever malware attempts to install itself, it quarantines it and notifies you.
 
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  • #17
Yeah I tried adaware and apparently it didnt work. I already payed a small fortune to buy norton. I think ill have to take the computer to future shop or something and have them fix it.
 
  • #18
scorpa said:
Yeah now I am getting messages saying "Found you and then the link" so watch out for that one to.

So how did she get rid of it? I have no idea what to do and everything I try does not work :cry:
Did you try Moridin's Spybot?

I'm going to move this to technology, perhaps someone knows of some other free spyware removal programs that might work.

Do the free spy sweeper scan again and see if ad aware failed to remove the spyware.
 
  • #19
Thanks evo, adware and spysweeper don't seem to be picking it up because I've run about 3 scans and i still seem to have it.
 
  • #20
scorpa said:
Yeah now I am getting messages saying "Found you and then the link" so watch out for that one to.

So how did she get rid of it? I have no idea what to do and everything I try does not work :cry:
She didn't get rid of it. It totally trashed Windows XP - or she deleted some key system files.

I waited several weeks for HP to send a rescue disk - but they never did - despite promises that they would take care of it.

Her boyfriend's brother-in-law did an OS replacement, which means she lost her data and some apps. The reintallation also lost the wireless NIC interface, which I still have to figure out.

MacAfee (we use ASAP at work) and Bitdefender have spyware detect and remove features IIRC. I think at work, we use xTerminator, in addition to MacAfee.

http://www.mcafeeasap.com/intl/en/content/virusscan_asap/default.asp? - for small businesses.
 
  • #21
:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

I guess I'll just have to take it to future shop and hope they can rescue me. They were advertising virus removal the other day on their billboard.
 
  • #22
scorpa - is your computer on a network or otherwise connected to the internet? If so, you should disconnect from the internet, which means you'll have to use another PC.

I wonder if this is an add-on to the browser.

One other thing would be to use Task Manager to see if you can identify the malware and stop it. Then see it you can delete it by add/remove or delete it from the registry.

In the past, I removed spyware by editing the registry, but one has to be careful in doing that.
 
  • #23
I have a highspeed connection so I am always on the internet. The problem is that I can't take my computer anywhere until wednesday because I am so swamped with work. And right now I have no choice but ot keep using it because all of my assignments that are due at the beginning of the week need to be typed and researched on the net. I tried teh task manager thing but I couldn't find what I needed to delete. It would help if I knew the name of the virus I think but I unfortunately I can't find what its called.
 
  • #24
Typically this type of thing happens when you simply typo a URL. Apparently you got the bug in an IM.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,84464-page,1/article.html?tk=dn021402X

Your Internet Explorer home page is being redirected to another web site. Here is an article that was in PCWORLD on how to deal with it. It can get complicated. You might need some on site help with this one.

Click on tools at the top of the page to find the 'Internet" options tab.



First, use Internet Explorer's Internet Options dialog box to reset your home and search pages back to what they were before.

Next, select Start, choose Run, type msconfig, and press Enter. Click the Startup tab. In the resulting list, look for a command with either the word 'regedit' or '.reg' in it (the command Zorko found was 'C:\Windows\regedit.exe/s C\Windows\System\radB9819.tmp'). When you find it, uncheck it, then click OK.

That's probably all you need to do, but to be safe, it wouldn't hurt to delete the file mentioned in that line. Don't delete regedit.exe--you need that--but delete the other file referenced there. And it wouldn't hurt to edit the Registry, searching for and removing all references to the offending site.
 
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  • #25
I did find that, but when i try to open the msconfig...it only stays up about 3 seconds before it disappears completely. It won't stay up long enough for me to find the bad files.
 
  • #26
scorpa said:
I did find that, but when i try to open the msconfig...it only stays up about 3 seconds before it disappears completely. It won't stay up long enough for me to find the bad files.
:frown: I"m afraid it's time for an excorcism.

I'd bill that "friend" that was aware of the infection and didn't warn the people in her address book for getting this fixed.

The worst worm the Evo Child managed to get was fixed by installing a Norton disk that cleaned it, doing it through the internet was not possible.

I hope someone here can come up with a free fix for you.
 
  • #27
No point in even suggesting my friend pay for it, she's more someone i had a class with and still talk to than a friend. She doesn't seem overly concerned that she's sending it to people, I didn't even get a sorry...just kind of a haha whoopsie And in all honestly it was stupid of me to open the link in the first place, I just assumed the message was from her, I wasn't even aware you could get a virus through msn messenger. Live and learn I guess. :frown:
 
  • #28
Can you go to Start -> Run -> Type "taskmgr". In the Windows Task Manager, the processes tab shows all of the processes running on your machine. Can you post those in here? Make sure the option "Show processes from all users" is checked.
 
  • #30
this is a stupid question but how do I post the task manager processes in here? I've seen how people can post an image of what their screen looks but I do not know how to do it. Yes I am slightly retarded when it comes to computers.
 
  • #31
scorpa said:
Ok all you computer smart people. I just got a virus and was wondering if it is possible to get rid of it. I have no idea what it is called but what happened was my friend messaged me on msn and said "I hope this isn't you and then a link" because i thought it was just my friend trying to talk to me I opened the link and nothing really seemed to happen. So I messaged my friend back and she was like oh yeah that's cause it was a virus I got that's been randomly sending that to people on my contact list ...apparently she didnt feel it was necessary to warn ppl this might happen Anyone know what this virus is and how I can get rid of it? All I can figure out so far that has happened is it reset my homepage to some stupid gaming site full of stoners, and my norton isn't picking it up and I can't seem to get on the norton site to figure out what to do. Please help me!
Identifying and properly removing a virus is no simple matter and without a tool like hijackthis virtually impossible.

My recommendation is to report your problem on the http://forums.majorgeeks.com/" support forum. This forum has volunteers who are very knowledgeable about viruses, Trojan horses, worms and other unwanted programs.

Beware though that you must read the info on how to post first since no-one is happy about wasting their time with unprepared information. They will ask you to properly cleanup your computer and then to download hijackthis a tool that identifies just about anything that is running on your system and perhaps even a rootkit detection program. You have to provide a report from this program for them to analyze.
Good luck!

Oh, I just noted that Job also recommended this.
 
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  • #32
scorpa said:
this is a stupid question but how do I post the task manager processes in here? I've seen how people can post an image of what their screen looks but I do not know how to do it. Yes I am slightly retarded when it comes to computers.
To do a screen shot just hit "alt" "print screen", then paste into a word document and save.
 
  • #33
On anti-virus program, I talked to my hacker and computer people, as well as posted a thread at PF computer forum, and they both said "Avast!"

I do like it much more than any other antivirus program!
 
  • #34
Thanks for your help everyone but I think i'd better take it in somewhere and have the pros do it. I'm just not good enough with computers to risk it. Plus since this first virus I've seemed to accumulate some trojans and stuff. I think it's time to suck it up and pay some money :'(
 
  • #35
Try here...

My sister got this and it took me a few hours, to try and work out how to get rid of it... :frown: but I did :biggrin:
Anyway, she uses spybot S&D, which would show there was a problem, but couldn't fix it. I also found that there wasn't much help around on the internet, so I made my own page:

Try: http://3dge.dyndns.org"

The only problem is, this is quite complicated and is best done by an advanced user. You have to delete files from parts of the system that windows doesn't easily let you get too, because you can mess up your computer if you play with them...

Also, I haven't finished writing it out properly... :rolleyes: ...and I have exams tomorrow :(
 
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  • #36
Evo said:
:frown: I"m afraid it's time for an excorcism.

{dips mouse in Holy water} "the power of PF compels you" "the power of PF compels you" "the power of PF compels you" "the power of PF compels you"
 
  • #37
hypatia said:
{dips mouse in Holy water} "the power of PF compels you" "the power of PF compels you" "the power of PF compels you" "the power of PF compels you"
:smile: :smile: Heh.
 
  • #38
Well I went to future shop and they said it would be 4 days. Only problem is that I need my computer pretty much everyday with assignments and whatnot. I guess I'll finish the assignments I'm working on now, then take it back wednesday, and then I guess I'll have to try to use the university computers for everything I need. This could get interesting.
 
  • #39
scorpa said:
Well I went to future shop and they said it would be 4 days. Only problem is that I need my computer pretty much everyday with assignments and whatnot. I guess I'll finish the assignments I'm working on now, then take it back wednesday, and then I guess I'll have to try to use the university computers for everything I need. This could get interesting.

Is there any place you can get a "loaner" computer/laptop while waiting for the repairs? And, does your school have a helpdesk that might be able to help you rid it faster than that? Maybe if you bring it to them, someone there can work with you then and there? Usually, they will do that out of self-preservation of their own computers/network to keep you from spreading viruses, worms, etc to their computers.
 
  • #40
3dge said:
My sister got this and it took me a few hours, to try and work out how to get rid of it... :frown: but I did :biggrin:
Anyway, she uses spybot S&D, which would show there was a problem, but couldn't fix it. I also found that there wasn't much help around on the internet, so I made my own page:

Try: http://3dge.dyndns.org"

The only problem is, this is quite complicated and is best done by an advanced user. You have to delete files from parts of the system that windows doesn't easily let you get too, because you can mess up your computer if you play with them...

Also, I haven't finished writing it out properly... :rolleyes: ...and I have exams tomorrow :(

Thanks for that! I'm a bit hesitant to try it because I am not exactly a computer whiz...haha. I'm afraid I will do damage to my computer. I will try to summon some bravery and try it a little later maybe.Do you know exactly what this virus is doing to my computer?
 
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  • #41
Moonbear said:
Is there any place you can get a "loaner" computer/laptop while waiting for the repairs? And, does your school have a helpdesk that might be able to help you rid it faster than that? Maybe if you bring it to them, someone there can work with you then and there? Usually, they will do that out of self-preservation of their own computers/network to keep you from spreading viruses, worms, etc to their computers.

I never thought of that, maybe there is somewhere at school I can take it. If not I may have to look into the loaner laptops. I'm going to go check into it right now.
 
  • #42
scorpa said:
Thanks for that! I'm a bit hesitant to try it because I am not exactly a computer whiz...haha. I'm afraid I will do damage to my computer. I will try to summon some bravery and try it a little later maybe.Do you know exactly what this virus is doing to my computer?
I'd be hesitant doing anything without first knowing what it is you're trying to remove, you could just make things even worse.
 
  • #43
scorpa said:
Do you know exactly what this virus is doing to my computer?
Could your PC be sending out IM's with the virus!?

If your computer is functioning, then it hasn't trashed the OS. Have you shutdown and startup the PC, or done a restart? If you do, you should startup in 'safe mode', usually by holding down the F8 key in the beginning of the startup process, then selecting the startup option.

One thing you could do is search on files modified on the date (and after) to see what files have been modified. That might give you an idea about the virus.

Just checking around, I found this recommendation -
Start up in safe mode and uninstall Norton. Restart normally and install AVG, scan and heal/Virus Vault any infected files. Restart in safe mode and uninstall MSN. Restart normally and install Yahoo Messenger.

Maybe one of your friends or someone in the computer science or university IT department could assist. University IT departments really should have a program to help students avoid virus and other malware.

The other possibility is to get a scan from bitdefender

Disable your antivirus program and go here http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html and run an online scan with BitDefender (you will need to use Internet Explorer for this scan). When the ActiveX Control has loaded, click on "Click here to scan" and grab a coffee.
The same problem is discussed here, but the remedy seems awfully complicated.
 
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  • #44
Yes my computer has sent out a few IM's with the virus in it, luckily I had sent an email to everyone on my contact list telling them not to open it. Still trying to find someone at the university that can maybe help me with it. Unfortunately none of my friends can help, they are all as computer illiterate as I am.
 
  • #45
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  • #46
I finally got round to finishing this, have another look. Hopefully it'll explain everything you need to help you and your friends:

http://3dge.dyndns.org/"

Oh, as you asked what the virus is doing. There is a file added to the startups list which (when windows starts) runs the virus and does other malicious stuff, like stopping 'msconfig' from opening.
I think the actual program is just a piece of adware that changes your homepage and adds icons to your desktop, but considering how annoying it is to get rid of it could be spyware.
 
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  • #47
Has anyone ever tried Grisoft anti-virus software?
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1

They have free downloads here:
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/downloads-trials/lng/us/tpl/tpl01
 
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  • #48
It always amazes me that there are still people out there using the internet without full protection.

XP has a firewall, it's not the most effective but it does stop incoming attacks for free.
MS Defender, again maybe not the best but it is free and I have had no Ad-ware since running it. I would also recommend ADAWARE again its free.
AVG by Grisoft is just a sgood as Norton or Symantec but better as its free.

I don't buy anti-virus software but have been unprotected. I have through my own stupidity had virus infections which are always detected as they come in, but not always stopped.

What the virus does is loads itself into an early restore point so that every time you start you computer it reinstalls itself into memory and often shuts down you anti-virus and firewall. To clear it switch off system restore, run the virus scan and it should be detected, then switch back on your system restore. You loose all your restore points but you also loose the virus.
 
  • #49
Panda said:
It always amazes me that there are still people out there using the internet without full protection.

I don't buy anti-virus software but have been unprotected. I have through my own stupidity had virus infections which are always detected as they come in, but not always stopped.

And how do you reconcile those two statements?
 

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