T
Tim Downie
My daughter picked up something via MSN the other day and it's proving an
absolute b*sta*rd to clear out.
It one of your usual fake virus alert programs that continually badgers you
about things on your system using very plausible looking messages in your
system tray. I'm also getting pop-ups for a gambling site (Skypoker) and a
search engine.
I've tried a heap of trusted anti-spyware programs, AVAST and Windows
Defender on it but it won't budge.
One program I used claimed to find (and remove) Winfixer but it keeps coming
back.
In the c:/documents and settings/XXX/local settings/temp folder (where XXX
is my our user name) I keep getting new files with names like qrjatydi.exe
and other such garbage. Whatever the name, they always say "LocusSoftware,
Installer, LocusSoftware, Inc." beside them.
So far I've used Spyware Blaster, Ad-aware, Avast, SuperAntiSpyware (free
edition), Windows defender and Trend Micro Housecall, all to no avail.
To add to the complications, the laptop won't boot into regular safe-mode,
it always hangs at the same point when loading a driver. It *will* boot
into a system admin safe mode (which still has network access) but the
malware continues to be active in this mode and makes doing anything tricky.
I just don't seem to be able to shut it down.
Where do I go from here?
TIA
Tim
absolute b*sta*rd to clear out.
It one of your usual fake virus alert programs that continually badgers you
about things on your system using very plausible looking messages in your
system tray. I'm also getting pop-ups for a gambling site (Skypoker) and a
search engine.
I've tried a heap of trusted anti-spyware programs, AVAST and Windows
Defender on it but it won't budge.
One program I used claimed to find (and remove) Winfixer but it keeps coming
back.
In the c:/documents and settings/XXX/local settings/temp folder (where XXX
is my our user name) I keep getting new files with names like qrjatydi.exe
and other such garbage. Whatever the name, they always say "LocusSoftware,
Installer, LocusSoftware, Inc." beside them.
So far I've used Spyware Blaster, Ad-aware, Avast, SuperAntiSpyware (free
edition), Windows defender and Trend Micro Housecall, all to no avail.
To add to the complications, the laptop won't boot into regular safe-mode,
it always hangs at the same point when loading a driver. It *will* boot
into a system admin safe mode (which still has network access) but the
malware continues to be active in this mode and makes doing anything tricky.
I just don't seem to be able to shut it down.
Where do I go from here?
TIA
Tim