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    Spyware help

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by Arla, Oct 2, 2006.

  1. Arla

    Arla Notebook Deity

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    Okay, so I'm dealing with a friends computer, seems they thought they might have a virus or spyware (wierd browser windows opening all the time) well a quick check revealed a bunch of viruses, and a bunch of spyware...

    Great...

    So I'm now running into two issues, first is what to use to try to remove the viruses, I'm thinking maybe going to the trendmicro free virus checking page, I tried using Antivir but it wouldn't remove them all, the PC does have Symantec but it's not picking up the viruses (probably because they got on the PC before Symantec, or maybe after or...)

    I assume that connecting the PC to the internet won't do anything bad (I'm going to take all my PC's offline first so that I won't be in any danger)

    What about spyware, normally I'd run MSCONFIG or run the taskbar and see what's starting, but the taskbar is greyed out and MSCONFIG won't run (I've tried a few things) the real pain is that it's NTFS machine so I can't just boot to dos and start deleting stuff that I know is garbage...

    *sigh*

    So any clues, if you had a PC given to you with various viruses and spyware, what are the steps you'd take in what order?
     
    Arla, Oct 2, 2006
    #1
  2. Pitabred

    Pitabred Linux geek con rat flail!

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    As bad as that is, boot into a LiveCD or something, copy off the data your friend wants to keep, then nuke the machine and rebuild it. You'll never get it completely cleaned up.

    As a side note, have you hit F8 as Windows is loading, and tried starting in Safe Mode? That will stop the loading of a lot of crapware, and allow you access to many things. That's one of the first things I do when a computer is misbehaving. It will probably allow you to access MSCONFIG as well as most other settings on the machine.
     
    Pitabred, Oct 2, 2006
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  3. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    safe mode will help a lot...Windows will not start anything that isn't absolutely essential to keeping the PC on.

    however, once a windows installation is that messed up...you might as well just get your data and nuke it. Pitabred is dead on.
     
    Greg, Oct 2, 2006
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  4. luee

    luee Notebook Deity

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    Don't you have a recovery disc?
     
    luee, Oct 2, 2006
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  5. Arla

    Arla Notebook Deity

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    Okay, recovery was my thought, but just wanted to see if anyone had other ideas...

    It's going back with a big "reformat/recover this machine" sticker on it :)
     
    Arla, Oct 2, 2006
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