Just one little bug

  • Thread starter Thread starter Menno Hershberger
  • Start date Start date
M

Menno Hershberger

I just did an exorcism on a computer that was really really bad.
Ordinarily I would just clone the drive, wipe it clean and start over.
However, preliminary attempts to clean it were working pretty well, so I
went ahead and cleaned it all up. It was SP1 so I went ahead and did the
SP2 update and got all the latest updates to that. MSAS, Spybot S&D, and
AdAware all come up clean in all four user accounts.
BUT... about every other time I log off and log back in as another
user (user switching is turned off), I get the red popup... "Warning -
SureSideKick Settings Modifier is trying to install". Down below...
"Microsoft Antispyware has detected SureSideKick trying to install a URL
Search Hook on your computer." Of course I then pick "remove", MSAS
removes it and asks if I want to do a full scan. I do and the scan always
comes up zero.
There isn't an ssk*.* file on the computer other than an ssk.log it
creates when it tries to install. All that Hijack This shows is "Unknown
Search Hook - (no file)"
Anyone have an idea how to get rid of this one last little glitch?
 
Hello Menno;


If you choose to uninstall Surf Sidekick, you can do so easily from the
Add/Remove Programs option available in the Control Panel in your Windows'
Settings.


http://www.surfsidekick.com/faq.htm#uninstall


If you have problems download Ewido and Ccleaner,

Download Ewido

http://www.ewido.net/en/download/

Install ewido.
During the installation, under "Additional Options"
uncheck "Install background guard" and "Install scan via
context menu".
Launch ewido
It will prompt you to update click the OK button and it
will go to the main screen
On the left side of the main screen click update
Click on Start and let it update.
DO NOT run a scan yet. You will do that later in safe
mode.

Download Ccleaner

http://www.ccleaner.com/ccdownload.asp


Reboot into safe mode (Reboot and tap F8 and choose safe
mode)

Open Add/Remove screen and remove SurfSideKick

Run Ewido and choose scanner then Complete System Scan
During the scan it will prompt you to clean files, click
remove for each

(When it finishes scanning it will give some options at
the bottom of the screen, choose save report and save it
to your desktop)


Run MSAS on a full scan and remove anything found

Run Ccleaner and press "Run cleaner"


Then Reboot back to normal mode

Let us know if you have any problems


Engel
 
Menno I've seen and replied to posts about this exact type of problem.

The root-cause of this problem is MSAS' lack of support for multiple user
accounts. Even though SurfSideKick has been removed, MSAS "detects" it on
the other accounts when it really isn't there. Although, there's the
possiblility that each user's portion of the registry still contains some
keys that are associated with SurfSideKick. I'd suggest looking at the
registry under each user and see if any keys are associatied with
SurfSideKick.

Alan
 
Hello Menno;


If you choose to uninstall Surf Sidekick, you can do so easily from
the Add/Remove Programs option available in the Control Panel in your
Windows' Settings.
Click to expand...

It's not there.
If you have problems download Ewido and Ccleaner,
Click to expand...

Those are already in my arsenal. However, I hadn't run Ewido this time.
So, at your suggestion, I did. It found 80 objects, none of which were
Surfsidekicker. It wiped out Minibug, which is OK, I guess, since they
said they weren't using it (it came installed on the Dell).
Let us know if you have any problems
Click to expand...

I can't get rid of Surfsidekick.... :-)
 
Thanks. At least I don't feel alone any more!
Hell, under each user I have....
1. Searched the registry for "surfsidekick".
2. Searched the registry for "ssk" (yields a few "accesskey's"
3. Searched the drive with Agent Ransack for files or folders
containing "ssk" or "surfsidekick". Zilch.
4. Searched the entire drive for TEXT with "surfsidekick". It only
shows up in Spybot, AdAware, Symantec, and MSAS quarantine files.

It still pops up. The last time I decided to let it install ("allow"). It
didn't. I couldn't find a trace of it anywhere. I'm about ready to
uncheck gcas*.* in msconfig and just let them run it manually on
occasion.
Actually, I feel that MSAS has come a long way since it was first
introduced. It is getting some tough ones that it didn't use to get.

Menno I've seen and replied to posts about this exact type of problem.

The root-cause of this problem is MSAS' lack of support for multiple
user accounts. Even though SurfSideKick has been removed, MSAS
"detects" it on the other accounts when it really isn't there.
Although, there's the possiblility that each user's portion of the
registry still contains some keys that are associated with
SurfSideKick. I'd suggest looking at the registry under each user and
see if any keys are associatied with SurfSideKick.

Alan
Click to expand...
 
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