pop-up/toolbar/virus problems with IE

[Matt D]

Okay, I had a horrendous experience a few weeks ago with pop-ups and trojans. Spy-bot seems to be zapping most of it.

But some still remain. Somehow my homepage is reset to sites such as zestyfind.com and toolbars appear out of nowhere. The biggest concern is when programs install themselves on my desktop, such as "Paid Surveys". How does this happen and what can I do to stop it?

I've downloaded all the MS patches, except the big one because I don't exactly have a legit copy of win.

Thanks

[mrbigisbudgood]

Matt, you may want to try running AdAware ( lavasoft (http://www.lavasoft.de) ) on top of SpyBot, just for the sake that it may pick up something that SpyBot didn't pick up.

Do you have your security settings in your Explorer options wide open (least secure)?

[Matt D]

I've got both spybot and adaware running.

I've got IE set to whatever the default is. Are there any disadvantages to setting the secrurity higher? If not, what setting would you suggest?

[mrbigisbudgood]

I've got mine set at default as well. However, I have the advantage of a dial up connection that isn't connected 24-7 (but I would if it were available in the boonies).

Best of luck bro. Like RM said in the other thread, sounds like something is eating resources that shouldn't be.

Shuttle Reddish Knob sometime soon? :devil:

[goosemagoo]

Originally posted by Matt D
I've got both spybot and adaware running.

Do those programs constantly run in your tray? If they are, this might be the answer to your browser speed prob. in your other post. I would imagine having one isn't a problem but both might cause conflicts (just a thought, I'm no guru :) ). Also, if you've added and deleted a lot of files defragging is definitely a good start.

[Toddly]

If you are running XP. Go to Run>type msconfig and see what is running in your startup files. A lot of this stuff starts when the computer is fired up. I have also had to go and manually delete the directories of some of the spyware that the kids have gotten. Uncheck any that seem suspect. I also would recommend Zone Alarm. It can be had for free if you don't need all the functions of the Pro version. A great free pop up stopper can be had from Google. It works real good.

[kghoscht]

On top of AdAware and SpyBot, I use this:

HijackThis (http://mjc1.com/mirror/hjt/)

It won't actually remove anything, but it will give you a report that you can use to hunt down anything suspicious.

If you need help or are unsure about something in the HijackThis report, you can look here:

SpywareInfo (http://www.spywareinfo.com/)

Using HijackThis helped me get rid of an ugly unstoppable popup ap (FYI, it was called syslaunch.exe in /Program Files)