For the record, I did read the sticky on asking computer questions. I have run Ad-aware, Spybot Search and Destroy, Spyware Blaster, NoAdware, and the Cleaner and probably half a dozen more that I can’t think of right now. I don’t remember which program it was, but one gives you a log of all spyware found on your computer, and the suggestion in the sticky was to post the results of the log on HijackThis’s website - my log said my computer is completely clean. It isn’t!
Lycos sidesearch keeps popping up every time I search for something, and my computer has been crashing like crazy lately. I’ve gone to the control panel to Add/Remove programs - Sidesearch isn’t listed as one of the programs. I’ve searched for it; nothing shows up. I’ve looked at the instructions for manually removing Sidesearch found on this website, and the startup entry it mentions in the registry? Yup, you guessed it - it isn’t there. By all accounts, my computer should not have sidesearch, but it must be hidden somewhere on my computer because it’s still popping up.
I hope it’s okay that I’m posting a computer/spyware question here. I just don’t know what else to do, so I’m turning this over to the smartest group of people I know. I’m using Windows ME and Internet Explorer 6.0. And I know there’s some consensus that ME can be junk, but this is the first real computer problem I’ve had in 4 years. And no, I definitely don’t plan to use IE ever again after this! In fact, would it fix the problem if I were to just completely delete Internet Explorer?
Thanks for any help you can give me. This is just driving me crazy.
Number
September 10, 2004, 2:04pm
2
Run HijackThis and post the log here. It will show all startup items and browser add-ons.
I wouldn’t recommend removing IE; some sites require it. Mozilla Firefox is an excellent substitute for everyday use though.
zut
September 10, 2004, 2:27pm
3
Alternatively, if you’re feeling particularly confident, you can research the HijackThis log on your own using this handy tutorial . I used it and was able to eliminate an exasperatingly nasty spyware problem. However, I understand that you can inadvertently screw things up by deleting the wrong items, so make sure you know what you’re doing.
Thanks for the replies so far. Here is my HijackThis log - I also posted it to the Spyware Info forums but haven’t gotten any replies yet. A great big thank you to anyone who is willing to look through this log to try to help me. I’ve lost count of how many times I had to restart my computer today, and it’s making me weary.
Logfile of HijackThis v1.98.2
Running processes:SUPPORT.COM \BIN\TGCMD.EXE
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchURL,(Default) = http://keyword.netscape.com/keyword/%s support.com \bin gcmd.exe” /server /startmonitor /deaf /nosystrayReal.com - {CD67F990-D8E9-11d2-98FE-00C0F0318AFE} - C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\Shdocvw.dllhttp://www.dellnet.com/ (file missing) (HKCU)http://www.ipix.com/viewers/ipixx.cab http://www.msnbc.com/download/nm1228.cab http://207.188.7.150/0549b0501574a3099616/netzip/RdxIE2.cab https://rr.esecurecare.net/rnt/rnl/java/RntX.cab http://photo.walmart.com/photo/upload/XUpload.ocx http://download.games.yahoo.com/games/clients/y/tvt0_x.cab http://download.games.yahoo.com/games/clients/y/ywt0_x.cab http://www.installengine.com/engine/isetup.cab http://download.games.yahoo.com/games/clients/y/sdt1_x.cab http://medsvc.cats.ohiou.edu/AxisCamControl.ocx http://web1.shutterfly.com/downloads/Uploader.cab http://download.games.yahoo.com/games/clients/y/et1_x.cab http://www.webshots.com/samplers/WSDownloader.ocx http://makeover.ivillage.com/save/makeover.cab http://www.pestscan.com/scanner/ppctlcab.cab http://www.pestscan.com/scanner/axscanner.cab
Number
September 11, 2004, 4:55pm
5
This line looks the most suspicious:
I would try removing it. Make sure that HijackThis is in its own folder and is set to make a backup of all removed items beforehand.
It looks like you have a lot of things running at startup. I would strongly recommend running msconfig and unchecking any unneeded entries on the Startup tab. You should see a major improvement in your PC’s performance.
Oh Number, Oh Number,
Number
September 15, 2004, 2:36pm
7
You’re welcome. I’m glad it worked. I don’t know if your ISP would approve of such a large email attachment though, and inserting a snowball into your PC is never a good idea.