GRRRR!!! I am so sick of this shit! No matter what, it keeps invading! I have run Ad-Aware, Spybot Search & Destroy, my Norton anti-virus. I just downloaded Spyware Blaster, and now I’m downloading the Microsoft Anti-Spyware program.
Even after I get rid of everything with Ad-Aware, I STILL get these fucking pop-up ads. And there were some that said, “Ad-Aware cannot get rid of these-delete upon reboot?” And they were STILL THERE! (I ended up deleting them manually).
I went through “Add/Remove”, and found something called Zeno Ad and Zeno Search Assist. Got rid of those-still I get these pop-ups that say they’re from my Documents and Settings folder. And no, I haven’t gone with Firefox or Mozilla or whatever. Yet.
Why oh WHY do these companies keep installing this shit on my computer? WHAT are they getting out of it? Yes, I know it has to do with ads and targetting-but does this really GAIN them anything? Have they made money off of this?
It’s fucking vandalism. Most of this shit is worse than a virus.
GRRRR…
Yes, it’s lame, but I need to vent. I didn’t get much sleep last night trying to get rid of all this, and it’s still giving me grief. sigh
It’s important to root out all the little bits that are left on your machine and in your registry, otherwise they just reproduce themselves - All the protection in the world won’t help if you have the enemy already inside the walls.
We had one of those kinds of spywares a while back, a computer tech friend very kindly rescued us, and we still owe him a great debt of gratitude. If it’s similar to what we had, it “migrates” and remakes itself once the command to remove it is given. At least, that’s the layman’s terms our friend used to explain what was going on. He had to basically “herd” it, follow it through the files, and keep removing it until he “dug out all the roots” to mix a lot of metaphors. It took hours, and his specialized knowledge to do it. He advised us to delete our M3U archives, and the spyware, virus scan log because spyware can also “hide” there too. We’ve not gotten any since then thank goodness. Those things are a special kind of hell. comfort Maybe some of the computer techs here can help you? I hope you don’t have to reformat.
Someone will be along soon to blame it on you for visiting porn sites, like they did me when I ranted a few weeks ago. Ignore them they’re idiots. Spyware is evil. If you need to keep IE, go under Tool=>Internet Options=>Advanced and Deselect “Enable Third Party Browser Extensions.”
Thanks. I THINK I got it, but just to be sure, I’m gonna go with Hijack This and take a look.
This is insane. If I have to reformat, someone is going to pay! (I need to get a whole bunch of disks this weekend, so I can back up all of my files. sigh) I have about 15 gigs worth of stuff. (Although some of it is just a bunch of stuff I have yet to move off of my computer, due to lack of disks).
I know you’re going to get this advice numerous times now that you’ve started this thread, but really, do yourself a favor – switch browsers.
I use Mozilla Suite and I never, never, ever have a problem with pop-ups. I do stumble across the occasional piece of malware or spyware lurking in the bowels of my machine now and again, but not often, believe me.
Go here, download, install. It will take you 10 minutes, tops. The program automatically transfers your favorites from IE to Firefox (or Mozilla). Try it for a few days. Trust me, you won’t regret it.
I’m gonna bite the bullet and give it a try, as soon as I get back from my hair appointment.
I appologize if I sound stupid, but honestly, when it comes to computers, I have no idea what I’m doing. (As far as how everything “works” and the like).
I agree that the spyware scrubbing programs mentioned above are useful.
I also use another program that interprets the startup liat and task manager. Its at a site called answersthatwork.com and its called “the ultimate trouble shooter”. I bought the troubleshooter for four of the five computers in my house. It helps me fix all the train wrecks that occur on my teenage kids computers.
Some of the spyware/malware programs boot on startup with your computer, so it is impossible to manually or otherwise delete them until you stop the running processes – otherwise the file just comes up “in use.” This will let you see everything running on your PC, and give you warnings for questionable programs, and let you manually stop them so you can either do a manual delete or let SpyBot/Adaware/SpywareBlaster get it off your system.
I agree this is getting ridiculous; I am extremely careful about what I download, and have a hardware router, and I STILL have similar problems.
I started using Mozilla Firefox last week, and it required no special knowledge. Just go to the Mozilla website and download the browser. A setup file will be downloaded, and you’ll have to run it (which means, double click and follow directions). Prompts will tell you how to move all your favorites over from IE when you open Mozilla the first time. All you have to do is push a button.
I can’t believe I waited this long to switch. Firefox is great! Tabbed browsing is the best.
Well, that settles it-I think I’m gonna use Mozilla. So far, the Microsoft spyware program seems to be getting all of the stuff that was causing problems, but damn! No sooner did I delete all the old problems, that I ran another scan to make sure-and there’s a whole bunch of new ones!
Including a Unclassified.Trojan.Downloader.43 and Vx2.ZServ, another trojan.
Forget the porno sites. They might be bad, but my son managed to trash my computer by visiting “free online java games” sites. Those places are loaded to the brim with spyware and other crap,
The worst ever is a nasty thing called Topotun. I got it last May, and devoted many hours to researching at various computer techie forums (and here), and I could never get rid of it. It hijacked my homepage to its own (a sleaze-oriented search engine), loaded my favourites with porn and casino bookmarks, and also one or two other things I forget now. I downloaded all the stuff Guin has (minus the not then available Microsoft one) as well as all the HijackThis / CWShredder type stuff, I cleaned out all my cookes and the like, spent hours gingerly poking about in the registry doing what the techies told me (though in typical fashion, my situation seemed different to theirs), and it kept coming back. In the end, either my fumblings in the registry or the spyware itself completely trashed my IE. My computer got sicker and sicker until in January this year I had the time to bite the bullet and take it to get completely overhauled.
I use Linux as much as I can now, and when I’m on XP I don’t go near IE or Outlook.
I’ve seen many a computer of family and friends that are just loaded with a bunch of power sucking programs that they had no idea what they were or how they got there. It is always a good idea to run your spyware and antivirus program from Safe Mode. That way they can be removed before they run at startup. If it is determined that viruses are present then you will need to turn off System Restore if you are running XP.
You’d think there’d be some class-action lawsuits by now. These guys should be sued into oblivion. And anyone who buys something from a pop-up ad should be sterilized.
