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PC overrun with spyware - please help!

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R

RuffRyder88

Member
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Joined
Sep 7, 2002
Location
UK
My laptop has been connected to broadband for about 6 months now, and I'm pretty sure its become infected with spyware. Its constantly slowing down to a halt, always crashing, and needs a restart every hour or so now. I had this problem before, and cured it with spyware. However I didnt install a firewall, which was stupid, and I will do so now. Howver I need some help getting rid of the crap on my laptop.

I've tried the stuff in the sticky, but to no avail. Adaware and Spyware blaster found a few things but it didnt change much. I can't get the link for X-x-cleaner for some reason - I've submitted about 5 different email addresses, but havent recieved a link yet. The other scanner find loads of stuff, but require me to pay to clean my laptop. A couple of others like regsumpreme say my trial period is up and i cant use them unless i buy them.

So..

Can someone recomend some good FREE programs to clean up my laptop.

My plan is to:

1) Delete all unncecessary programs
2)Run an anti-virus
3) Run all the spyware clean up prpgrams in safe and normal modes
4)Defrag


But i need some good spyware programs to run, I cant find any.

Any help would be appreciated, along with any other tips or suggestions.

Thanks!

regards,
bob
 
There is what's called a breakingpoint and at that time you backup everything you can't just redownload/reintall ie:game saves, documents and music onto DVDs and then reformat and reinstall. I think you've reached the breakingpoint.
 
I fully agree with fudgenuggets. You'd need more time cleaning than reinstalling after a certain point. And you still couldn't ever be sure you've catched it all.

Also: a firewall, while not necessarily a bad thing, is not what you need to keep spyware free. Ditch IE, ditch outlook, install XP SP2 and use that "firewall" provided by MS. Get autoruns and process explorer from sysinternals. There is no "magic bullet" anti spyware program, and never will be. Instead you need to look yourself once in a while what actually runs on tht PC and what doesn't, who made it and if it has business to run or not.
Lastly but the most importantly of all:use your brain while on the internet.
 
re:

hey guys,

I have got process explorer, and my housemate has activated a hardware firewall on our router.

However, I can't re-install everything, because I don't have my windows cd anymore. It came with my Dell comp, and I lost it ages ago. Also, my office cd is at home, where I wont be for a while.

I want to try cleaning first, and if that really doesnt work, then I will re-install, but I would really like to try cleaning first.

If you guys could recomend any other free programs, I would be extremely grateful,

regards,
bob
 
Have you tried Spybot Search & Destroy, also go here and get Microsoft Windows Defender, WinPatrol, and HijackThis.
Pickup AVG Free edition if you need an antivirus. All of these programs are free full versions, and very effective programs.

Its a lot of work to clean out a computer. Back up everything first. Run Disk Cleanup. Run msconfig and disable all items from startup. Uninstall unnecessary programs. Reboot and install the programs I mentioned. After that, start running each program and let it do its thing. When you are all finished, defrag your hard drive. It takes a while to do everything, but its worth it.

I feel your pain, we have all been there before at some point.

Good Luck :thup:
 
Well this could be a painful process for you but here's the short list:
Cleaners:
AdAware
Spybot Search and Destroy
HiJack This!
Windows Defender
CWShredder
The best is probably CounterSpy but it costs $20


Prevention:
XP(assuming you're using XP) SP2
Windows Firewall
Internet Explorer 6
better yet Internet Explorer 7 with active-X, pop-ups, pop-behinds, shockwave and flash disabled
Firefox with extensions to disable active-X, pop-ups, pop-behinds, shockwave and flash
 
fudgenuggets,

I've run:

AdAware
Spybot Search and Destroy
HiJack This!
CWShredder

I'll try windows defender and x-cleaner when I manage to download it (does it take some time for them to send you the link?).
Any other programs? I'm gonna get spyware blaster, I haven't run that yet, I mistook that for spybot cleaner.

Any other good cleaners? Im worried becuase Counterspy found so much stuff, which wasnt picked up by the above programs!

regards,
bob
 
Spyware blaster falls into the preventative category. If you've run all of that then CounterSpy is pretty much your last hope. Windows defender isn't going to pick up much more than Spybot or AdAware if anything.CounterSpy is the ****net because it has a much larger network of databases with stuff to look for instead of the one that spybot and adaware have or 2 that defender has.
 
re:

Hey guys,

Just an update, I've done the following:

1) Run diskcleanup
2) Booted into safe mode and run Adaware, Spybot and Regsupreme
3) Run AVG
4) Run disc defragment
5) Am now using AVG and Process Guard to Monitor things

The laptop seems to operating a little better, but I'll have to give it a bit longer to properly judge the situation.

I'm still going to try and download X-cleaner and run that too.

Thanks for all the help everyone!

Any other suggestions?

regards,
bob
 
First off, if you don't have anything constructive to add to this thread, then don't post. Let's try to help this guy, not just tell him he's screwed, or joke about wiping his system out.

You haven't given very good information on what EXACTLY your problems are. What kind of crashing. What error messages, what do they say EXACTLY, etc. No one can help you without better, more detailed information.

It sounds like reformatting is not an option for you if you don't have your setup CD's for whatever reason. I will admit that would probably be the "better" option, as it'd give you a fresh start, but it probably isn't the ONLY one. I've successfully cleaned out systems that were absolutely chock full of spyware. Reformatting is not always the ONLY option.

If you haven't already, download + update the programs from the sticky, and disable System Restore if you're using it.

AdAware
Spybot
SpySweeper
Windows Defender
CWS Shredder
HijackThis!

You claimed AdAware just "found a few things" then perhaps this isn't a spyware problem. Have you tried any of the free online virus scans? I'd recommend Housecall AND Panda. Do them both. Run all those programs listed above, after you update them to the latest versions, and do a full scan/remove what they find.

After that, if you're STILL having problems - post a hijackthis log and explain what problems you are having exactly. With detail.
 
Gee chambers, you come in and tell everyone how invaluable their posts are yet you repeat things that have already been mentioned... :rolleyes: :shrug: He's pretty much done everything he can at this point and exhausted all options. The crapware he has probably embedded a bunch of junk in the reg along with a ton of ocx a dll files which there are so many of that he truly is screwed as you put it... okay so you've left your OS disk back home. Get a copy of your OS of off bittorrent and then call back home and have somebody read you your CD-key/product reg code. PERFECTLY legal.
 
its time to format there is no cure for a corrupt OS you can clean it up and run it like it is but nothing runs as fast as a fresh install

once you get your rig cleaned out and a new OS installed use some prevention and it will stay clean. the most i have let any OS stay on a home system is a little over a year.
 
FudgeNuggets said:
Gee chambers, you come in and tell everyone how invaluable their posts are yet you repeat things that have already been mentioned... :rolleyes: :shrug: He's pretty much done everything he can at this point and exhausted all options. The crapware he has probably embedded a bunch of junk in the reg along with a ton of ocx a dll files which there are so many of that he truly is screwed as you put it... okay so you've left your OS disk back home. Get a copy of your OS of off bittorrent and then call back home and have somebody read you your CD-key/product reg code. PERFECTLY legal.
Click to expand...

I wasn't directing my post at anyone in particular, but I cannot stand when people just throw up their hands and say "reformat", or throw out the tried and true "deltree" joke, especially after several people have already said the same thing, and he had said that he did not have his disks...

I realize he's done just about everything I (and you and others) have said, I was simply making sure he has done the required things before posting the hijackthis log. He also had not said (at least from what I could see but I very well could have missed it) - that he had tried SpySweeper. I see that you like CounterSpy, I have not used that program yet but I've had great success with SpySweeper getting things that all other programs would not.

He also did not say what anti-virus scans he had tried. I run AVG as well, but they all miss certain malware occasionally. I like to scan with at least two or more of the online scans - almost always one finds some the others have missed.

Also, no where at least from what I saw did he state exactly (at least to us in this thread) - what files were infected. If you have had outside communication with him and know what files are giving him trouble and exactly what kind of errors/problems he's having you're one up on us - but posting that kind of information would only help get him some (hopefully) helpful responses.

Again, many apologies if I came off as having an attitude, as anyone who knows me would vouch, t'was not my intention.
 
Spysweeper is good except that it's not freeware and that it's a resource hog. I guess if the free version isn't crippled he could give it a go but one single good program isn't going to make up for all that he's tried to do already. He gave it a good shot, but was defeated as we all have been at one time or another by this crapware. If you say you've never been defeated then you haven't worked in an office with 500 idiots banging away on every sketchy website they can find 8 hours a day. LOL!
 
Mr. Chambers said:
I wasn't directing my post at anyone in particular, but I cannot stand when people just throw up their hands and say "reformat", or throw out the tried and true "deltree" joke, especially after several people have already said the same thing, and he had said that he did not have his disks...

I realize he's done just about everything I (and you and others) have said, I was simply making sure he has done the required things before posting the hijackthis log. He also had not said (at least from what I could see but I very well could have missed it) - that he had tried SpySweeper. I see that you like CounterSpy, I have not used that program yet but I've had great success with SpySweeper getting things that all other programs would not.

He also did not say what anti-virus scans he had tried. I run AVG as well, but they all miss certain malware occasionally. I like to scan with at least two or more of the online scans - almost always one finds some the others have missed.

Also, no where at least from what I saw did he state exactly (at least to us in this thread) - what files were infected. If you have had outside communication with him and know what files are giving him trouble and exactly what kind of errors/problems he's having you're one up on us - but posting that kind of information would only help get him some (hopefully) helpful responses.

Again, many apologies if I came off as having an attitude, as anyone who knows me would vouch, t'was not my intention.
Click to expand...

Even Microsoft itself throws it's hands in the air and says "reformat". And I quote:

"When you are dealing with rootkits and some advanced spyware programs, the only solution is to rebuild from scratch. In some cases, there really is no way to recover without nuking the systems from orbit," Mike Danseglio, program manager in the Security Solutions group at Microsoft, said in a presentation at the InfoSec World conference here.
Click to expand...

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1945808,00.asp
 
From reading just what was in this thread, I did not have a clear picture of what EXACTLY he was dealing with, that was my point. From what I could see, he did not givevery accurate descriptions of his problems, that makes it just a touch harder to determine if he *needs* to format as the only option left.

I saw no mention of rootkits by him in this thread before I posted, or really no mention of what exactly he was dealing with besides:

Its constantly slowing down to a halt, always crashing, and needs a restart every hour or so now.
Click to expand...

Adaware and Spyware blaster found a few things but it didnt change much.
Click to expand...

I simply wanted to size up the problem or at least have a more accurate description of what exactly he was dealing with before just telling him he was screwed and he needed to reformat. Could that be the only option? Yes, but again I didn't feel we had an accurate picture painted for us of the problem. Just my opinion, not trying to step on anyones toes ;)
 
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