May-Day May-Day, Im sinking (Spyware)

[Ekhaatvensters]

Id say the best anti-spyware is Microsofts at the moment, unfortuanately. But you can use Spywareblaster or Spybot to immunise if you are still using IE. Then use ZoneAlarm pro, I havent had any problems with that except for one LSP corrupting virus/spyware, which stops all internet access.

I used to find when surfing some warez sites (worse than just serials.ws, that site is harmless if you have some protection) that firefox would lock up and then id be infected with something, but that has stopped since i started using Opera 9 again, so maby thats a place to start if you want to move away from IE.

Also, I used to check windows/system32 all the time, but I've found that many viruses are a bit cleverer than that these days. Most viruses that I come across these days have got past a good bit of security and never end up in system32, but many other viruses/spyware might well reside there. Its just delting them that can be a bitch. Restart in safe mode if you have to.

 

[rwenzori]

Recommend Regseeker - faultless registry editor - with rollback - and its free!

http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm

Great proggies for free there - thanks!

 

[neio]

A good tip to remember is to disable ALL ActiveX apps running from your IE. this should (theoreticaly) stop most spyware from running.

 

[Ekhaatvensters]

A better tip would be to stop running IE. This should (almost definately) stop most spyware from running through your browser.

 

[darius]

You are a genius STOKE

Used Windows Defender as a 'Task Manager' to identify what each active system file is all about (by de-activating each file and check whether the spyware is still ACTIVE). Wallllla, I found it inside c:/windows/system32 with a file name winsrv32.exe. Tried to delete - no success - turned-on DOS - its all history. But Im still afraid of what other associated files are still up to....

Thanks to everybody....Can breath again, till next time

Hello, I'm a novice at this stuff, can you please tell me what "Windows Defender" is? I too am cursed by this same virus and pop up phoney "antispylab.com". When I try to look at my registry, or look at the processes, or open any folder like System32, it 'greys' out and i can't do anything but move the window around the screen. The adware cleaners I've tried don't work. Symantec doesn't work either.I don't know DOS commands but what did you mean by "turned-on DOS" ? thanks...

 

[Cap'n Evil]

Firefox can be just as unsecure as IE, there is really is no difference. Microsoft just happens to be the target of criticism. I recently got nailed with this stupid piece of malware. If it wasn't for Stoke's advice on the previous page I wouldn't have gotten rid of it. Windows Def. doesn't detect all of it. I don't even know how I got infected.

A really good program for manually fighting this stuff is Unlocker - http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/.

Would save the step of rebooting into DOS.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Zwick]

if you can't delete a file in windows and are not familiar with using dos then download a program called killbox. it will stop the process from running in memory, unloads the explorer, deletes the file and then reloads explorer.

this doesnt help your situation but its usefull for future reference.

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Or use the old stalwart, Format c: /s

Fixes any problem quickly and effectively...

 

[Prometheus]

Firefox can be just as unsecure as IE, there is really is no difference. Microsoft just happens to be the target of criticism.

Actually IE is the target for spyware as most people still use it. They will set their targets for Firefox as it becomes more popular. All browsers are unsecure. Us Opera guys are relatively safe for a while until they figure out that it's popular.

 

[JungleFacedJake]

Or use the old stalwart, Format c: /s

Fixes any problem quickly and effectively...

Suggest wiping partitions and recreating them too, before that.

 

[JungleFacedJake]

Firefox can be just as unsecure as IE, there is really is no difference. Microsoft just happens to be the target of criticism.

Except that IE will run Activex, which opens it up to all kinds of mayhem.

 

[Prometheus]

Except that IE will run Activex, which opens it up to all kinds of mayhem.

The person who came up with ActiveX was an idiot. Java can do things just as good if not better. Just Microsloth trying to be different again to increase market share.

 

[The_Unbeliever]

It's not ActiveX, it's better called CaptiveX, or HactiveX... sounds much better...