Spyware

[Bob U]

I brought myself a new laptop at the weekend and the second time I used it it has picked up a virus despite installing 2 virus checks. A message appears saying YOUR COMPUTER IS INFECTED WITH SPYWARE, a strange toolbar has appeared and cant be got rid of,my home page changes to spyware and the computer keeps closing down.
Has anyone experienced this and knows how to rectify it and prevent it happening again.

Any help would be much appreciated

[SIMONR]

You can turn the messenger service to disabled to stop the pop-ups. Install the MS Anti Spyware application (download it from microsoft.com) to clean up the rest.


Simon

[Neal]

Simon
As a complete cretin when it comes to computers, how do you turn the messaging service off please? I am plagued by pop ups

Cheers

Whitey

[chrisbeatty]

Well it depends a little on how the pop ups are displayed on your PC but if you want to turn off the messenger service for good on windows 2000/xp

Right click "My Computer" (XP users can do this in the start menu) & select manage, then find services on the left hand side of this window, open it up, click the stop button & set it to disabled, clikc ok to save the settings.

Here's a picture if that doesn't explain it well enough....http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/chris_bea/messenger.jpg

I'd highly recommend using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer to surf the internet, don't worry you can use this forum fine with it!!! get that from here http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

& be sure to run windows update (you'll have to do this in internet explorer I'm afraid ) do that at this link right now!! http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/

That's the basics, but you'll most likely need some sort of firewall software as well. be sure to clean your pc by downloading the software simon mentioned as well!!

[smokie]

Sounds like you have a browser hijack. They can be very hard to clean.

If it's a new laptop then you can't have much important stuff on it yet. I'd be inclined to restore it to factory settings, if they gave you a disk.

Get your virus checker on before connecting. Then as soon as you get connected, get the Microsoft Anti Spyware thing and all the M$ updates, as well as updating the virus checker, before you start browsing anywhere else.

[Bob U]

Thanks a lot guys. Sounds like restoring facyory settings is the best option.

[Ron Jeremy]

Zone alarm firewall is free

zonealarm full suite is ok

ad aware se personal is free

grisoft/AVG free anti virus stuff


free stuff available from webattack .com

switch to mozilla firefox and thunderbird emailer safer than IE6 and outlook

though it makes this site look odd and the photos don't come down, but its less prone to attack  

[smokie]

I use Firefox and this site looks fine to me...  

[Chris (Liverpool Boys)]

mee too and looks fine

[Andy Zarse]

I am plagued by pop ups

Cheers

Whitey

Whitey,

I can offer no better advise than that given by Big H in similar thread last year. See eighth posting on this page.

http://www.clubarnage.com/yabbse/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=2621

[Neal]

Advice taken Andy  

[Jem]

Aternatively, ditch the PC and get a Mac which seems never to get a problem. Probably because there are so few users that the nerds who spend their time infecting PC's can't be bothered with Macs.

Jem