Scott said:
Thanks PA Bear, All that looks interesting. However, I don't think
I will have the time to go thro all that. This is a busness
computer. I can't kick the operator off her computer for a day.
It looks like format and reinstall. Unless anyone out there knows
how to reset IE back to default settings????
Thanks for your time "PA Bear"
Scott Burke
This is likely to help:
You do have malware of some sort that got installed on the machine,
probablyu from surfing but there are many, many ways it can happen.
You -shouldn't- have to do a reinstall IMO. Those are reasonably easy
malwares to detect and remove as a rule.
It's not surprising AVG doesn't see it but I'm mildly surprised that Spybot
didn't catch it.
Are AVG and Spybot UPDATED recently? By recently, I mean within the last
week, preferably more recent; things change daily.
Defender I'm not real familiar with but it doesn't seem to be aimed at
the sort of infestation you have.
If you haven't already, UPDATE Spybot S&D and rerun its scans.
Same for Defender; UPDATE and recan if it's not recently updated already.
Also, download, update and try the following:
Adaware from
www.lavasoft.com. This one is excellent.
Spyware Doctor from
www.pctools.com.
You could also do the following, if you're up to it; fairly quick to do:
Search the drive for:
GAIN
Claria
Gator
All of those are malware and can be difficult to remove. If you find them,
check for removal instructions by searching for them at
www.symantec.com or
www.mcafee.com or your favorite malware site if you have one. Each of the
malware tools mentioned have good info on this stuff, too.
BTW, reinstalling IE may not get rid of them.
If you have drive images saved, that may well be the fastest way to get
the machine back into working mode, though it'll likely take a few hours,
too, and depending on how recent they are ... .
It might be best if you can give her another machine until you get that
one cleaned up. If it's possible, that is.
Regards,
Pop`
