Can You Remove a Virus If Your Antivirus Software Fails?

[scorpa]

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!

 

[radou]

Use system restore, it can be a very effective tool sometimes. It helped me in a few suspicious situations.

 

[hypatia]

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/

 

[Moridin]

Try using some other kind of anti-virus software.

 

[Evo]

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.

 

[scorpa]

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?

 

[Evo]

Scorpa go here and get a free scan. I use this software.

http://www.webroot.com/land/freescan_ent.php?rc=4929&ac=5191751

 

[Moridin]

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.

 

[neutrino]

Moridin, Spybot, as the name suggests, in an anti-spyware software.

 

[scorpa]

OK I'm downloading the spysweeper thing right now. Hopefully this will work.

 

[scorpa]

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.

 

[Evo]

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

 

[Astronuc]

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.

 

[Moridin]

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).

 

[scorpa]

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

 

[Evo]

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.

 

[scorpa]

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.

 

[Evo]

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

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.

 

[scorpa]

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.

 

[Astronuc]

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

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.

 

[scorpa]

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.

 

[Astronuc]

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.

 

[scorpa]

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 the 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.

 

[edward]

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.

 

[scorpa]

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.

 

[Evo]

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.

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.

 

[scorpa]

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.

 

[-Job-]

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.

 

[-Job-]

It would also be helpful if you could download HiJackThis:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3155.html
...scan, and post the log here.

 

[scorpa]

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.