Just went through and cleared an obscene amount of spyware and malware off of my buddy’s computer, using varying combinations of Adaware, Bazooka, and Spysweeper. And bejesus, there was a lot.
Anyway… now, the computer loads up seemingly fine, except… programs - any program - that connects to the Internet crashes before anything useful happens. IE crashes just when the window appears, AIM crashes just before the Buddy list loads up, Windows Update won’t work. Now, it says that his network connection is still plugged in.
I’ve got a couple of Recovery Console tricks to play, and I’m gonna try DL-ing a copy of Stinger (at my house, and bring it over there) to check for viruses… however, my question: Anything else the problem might be? A corrupted or damaged file in Windows? I just wanna make sure I got all bases covered, here.
Some of the malware modify the windows sockets, so you can only connect to the internet through them. I you remove the malware, you cannot connect to the internet.
Either use the Windows repair console to repair the existing instalation, or undo the changes performed by Adaware and Spybot (they offer that option).
