Seemingly large problems, HELP!

[OMNOB]

My PC has become quite sick. Evidently being infected by both the Trojan Horse virus and a Downloader virus (which, according to Google is some sort of Trojan variety).

I currently have Norton System works (circa 2003, which, yeah, I know it's old) and the most up to date Registry Mechanic-neither of which seem to help at all. I have been to the Symantec website, several "computer-fix-it" forums, and called on the help of a few friends/aquaintances and after a collective effort in the 15-17 hour range my PC is still in awful, awful shape.

If anyone could help, I would forever (well, not forever, I guess my desperation brought that on, you guys, know what I mean...I'm rambling, effect of desperation) be indebted to you!

Thanks you all in advance for your time.

[------------------]

OK...download and run the following programs (all are free):

Spybot Search and Destroy: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Malwarebytes Anti-malware: http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Ad-Aware: http://www.lavasoft.com/

Advanced System Care: http://download.cnet.com/Advanced-Syste ... 07614.html

And when your computer is back to normal, get rid of Norton and get Avast Antivirus.

Hope this helps!

[Hagar]

OK...download and run the following programs (all are free):

Spybot Search and Destroy: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Malwarebytes Anti-malware: http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Ad-Aware: http://www.lavasoft.com/

Advanced System Care: http://download.cnet.com/Advanced-Syste ... 07614.html

And when your computer is back to normal, get rid of Norton and get Avast Antivirus.

Hope this helps!

I am not really a fan of Spybot personally but I run Nod 32 AV myself.

[RushB]

Eset is one of the best, definitely ditch Norton. I have been impressed by the onecare.live.com scan - very simple, and if I don't have time to go into a long explanation, I'll tell folks that ask me in passing to just hit it. 99% of the time they don't need anything else.

It is time for you to take an interest in your PC - get one of the free AV programs, AVG, Avast etc. Get JkDefrag, Glary Utils, CCleaner, Sumo,FileHippo update checker, Malwarebytes, Total Commander, and I would invest in, or find a copy of Ghost.

The Sysinternals package comes in handy, BGinfo is a great little program, it comes with it. I'll go ahead and run down the list of my "indispensable" software - Sun Virtualbox (Build a nice clean image without taking your computer down, move all your files over etc., get it perfect then use ghost to capture and image to install on your computer)

I haven't let loose of Firefox, but I have started using Chrome a lot more. It's a good bit faster than IE or Firefox. Radmin 3.3 if you want remote control over another PC. I do run Vista, and have been backing away from Linux and gravitating toward a mix of PC-BSD (FreeBSD) and Vista SP1, also running the Windows 7 beta and liking it.

VLC - Video Lan player, will play any video you can think of... Irfanview and Picasa for photos - K-Lite or Vista codec packages for movies. Notepad++ for anything... I use Microsoft Office, but I keep Open Office installed for those crazy files I need to pull into Office - Open Office will open what MS Office want, then you can save it as...

CDBurnerXP, there's another burner I have used and like, can't remember the name - Nero has become entirely too bloated, but it's still probably the best - you hardly ever need all the crud in it. Google Earth and Cooliris are a couple of "cool" must haves. Virtual Clone Drive is a must have, saves me a ton of CD's.

I'll have to think about what else I run between laptop, desktop, work. I'd be interested in any new programs folks have found...

Later,
RushB

[dgmcdowe]

Did you get the April fools worm?

[OMNOB]

Did you get the April fools worm?

Maybe, this thing will just simply not die. It seems to get killed, but never does. A friend of mine seems to think that my PC has a virus that morphs and spreads.

I am sooooooo a PC novice and many of these programs and virus descriptions are greek to me.

Sasquatch, thank you very much for your suggestions. Spybot is, I hate to say it, maybe a tad bit too complicated for me. Many, many windows would pop up and ask me to allow or deny changes to many, many different files. Most of which I did not even recognize nor know their function.

All of the other programs were really cool, though. Thanks for the help.

Rush B, also, thank you for what you have had to allow. Just recently have I been able to solve enough of the problem to even use the internet without having to wait a ridiculous amount of time, having the session cut short, etc.

And you are right. It is indeed high time that I take more interest in keeping my PC safe, and tomorrow morning I will take a look at the programs you mentioned.

Thanks fellas!

[RushB]

Can you get someone to burn you a copy of Hiren's Boot CD? You can find it anywhere on the net. It will allow you to boot from the CD and clean your computer.

Thanks,
RushB

[Memphis Jack]

[quote="RushB"]Eset is one of the best, definitely ditch Norton. I have been impressed by the onecare.live.com scan - very simple, and if I don't have time to go into a long explanation, I'll tell folks that ask me in passing to just hit it. 99% of the time they don't need anything else.

It is time for you to take an interest in your PC - get one of the free AV programs, AVG, Avast etc. Get JkDefrag, Glary Utils, CCleaner, Sumo,FileHippo update checker, Malwarebytes, Total Commander, and I would invest in, or find a copy of Ghost.

The Sysinternals package comes in handy, BGinfo is a great little program, it comes with it. I'll go ahead and run down the list of my "indispensable" software - Sun Virtualbox (Build a nice clean image without taking your computer down, move all your files over etc., get it perfect then use ghost to capture and image to install on your computer)

I haven't let loose of Firefox, but I have started using Chrome a lot more. It's a good bit faster than IE or Firefox. Radmin 3.3 if you want remote control over another PC. I do run Vista, and have been backing away from Linux and gravitating toward a mix of PC-BSD (FreeBSD) and Vista SP1, also running the Windows 7 beta and liking it.

VLC - Video Lan player, will play any video you can think of... Irfanview and Picasa for photos - K-Lite or Vista codec packages for movies. Notepad++ for anything... I use Microsoft Office, but I keep Open Office installed for those crazy files I need to pull into Office - Open Office will open what MS Office want, then you can save it as...

CDBurnerXP, there's another burner I have used and like, can't remember the name - Nero has become entirely too bloated, but it's still probably the best - you hardly ever need all the crud in it. Google Earth and Cooliris are a couple of "cool" must haves. Virtual Clone Drive is a must have, saves me a ton of CD's.

I'll have to think about what else I run between laptop, desktop, work. I'd be interested in any new programs folks have found...

Later,
RushB[/quote]

Rush
I help a friend remotely from time to time using a free program called Cross Loop. It works pretty well and I can view/control his computer as needed. The only problem is the refresh rate isn't very good so the mouse movements, etc. are very "jerky" and it's hard to move things and see mouse movements and keyboard changes as they are made. I looked at Radmin 3.3 on-line and thought I'd see if it would be better. The site I was on said the software was free for 30 days after which time a license would have to be purchased. Do you know of a totally free version somewhere? Thanks.
Jack