Don’t rely on an ISP web browser unless you know exactly what technology it’s based on. To be safe, download one of the Mozilla-based browsers (Firefox, Netscape, AOL Explorer) or Opera and use that instead. Very, very few companies truly make their own web browsers and most ISPs (especially in the past) just use IE and tack on their own logos and maybe one or two additional features.
Can you rephrase this, please? I don’t understand. What exactly did you see?
What have you tried so far? If you haven’t read the “Have a computer question? Read this first.” thread, do that and follow its instructions. Most spyware infections these days are too complicated for simple search & delete operations.
And I don’t believe there’s any other way to get into safemode aside from pushing F8, if that’s what you’re doing.
But there are other options… you can try disabling certain startup programs, for example, or reinstalling Windows on your current hard drive. But try the antispyware methods listed in that thread first because the other tactics are more difficult.
(Assuming you’re using Windows 2000 or XP) Yup, I’m positive that you should not use an administrator account except when absolutely necessary. Give it a password, too, and don’t store that password anywhere on the computer. This has nothing to do with whether you’re using a separate ISP or connected to the apartment’s network… spyware doesn’t care about that. Spyware generally gets installed through holes and bugs in the browser or operating system that you’re using and that’s a risk anytime you’re connected to the Internet no matter how you’re connected.
An Administrator-level account* has full access to your computer, and thus any spyware you catch while logged into that account has full access to your entire computer.
Limited accounts, on the other hand, are limited to their personal profile directories – My Documents, My Music, etc. While logged into such an account, you (or any spyware you catch) will be limited to those directories. You can’t touch the other files on the computer even if you wanted to, thus severely limiting the amount of damage the infection can do. You’re localizing the potential damage, basically.
It’s an even better idea to have multiple limited accounts… one where you store your important documents and another that you use to browse the web. Limited users can’t touch each other’s files, so if you get infected with your web-browsing account, nothing will happen to your documents in the other account.
*It’s important to note that the account called “Administrator” is NOT the only administrator-level account. Any Windows user account can be set to Administrator or Limited in the “Users” control panel, so make sure you choose the right one when you create a new user or change an existing one. Also, if you’re using XP, make sure you’re using Service Pack 2. The firewall in that update helps a lot.
Did you have another user partially logged on at the time? Windows XP has a feature called “Fast User Switching”, which means that if you don’t completely log out of an account (you’ll hear a distinct four-note melody) but instead just switch to another user (you’ll hear a short chime), the old user will still be there and waiting in the background. If you try to shut down the machine in this state, you’ll get that warning because Windows just wants to make sure you didn’t forget to save your documents or whatever in the other account.
If you don’t want a hacker getting into your Admin account, that’s precisely the reason to stay OUT of it. If you’re logged into your Admin account, anything that gets on your computer automatically has the same level of control you do – i.e., complete and utter dominance over your system. But if you’re only logged on to a Limited account, anything you get will first have to try and break into your Admin account – something that’s much harder to do.
Ya gotta decide, for yourself, how much trouble you’re willing to put up with in order to protect your data. Or you can get a Mac and hope that they stay clean in the years to come…