Hi Chaz - Well, you kinda need to know what the parasite(s) is/are before
you can do much about fixing them except to apply some general tools like
AdAware and/or SpyBot S&D (see below). If they don't fix it then start
here:
Download HijackThis, free, here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/hijackthis.zip (Always download a
new fresh copy of HijackThis [and CWShredder also] - It's updated
frequently.)
Unzip it to any convenient folder, start it then press Scan. Click on
SaveLog when it's finished which will create hijackthis.log. Now click the
Config button, then Misc Tools and click on Generate StartupList.log which
will create Startuplist.txt
Then go to one of the following forums:
Spyware and Hijackware Removal Support, here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/index.php?s=8a236cdf61469fbad3bddbe810be0374&act=SF&f=11
or Net-Integration here:
http://www.net-integration.net/cgi-...86d536d57b5f65b6e40c55365e;act=ST;f=27;t=6949
or Tom Coyote here:
http://tomcoyote.org/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=10&t=495&s=2c6e92805e310b519b9fa61cc7098fba
Sign in, then copy and paste both files into a message asking for
assistance, Someone will answer with detailed instructions for the removal
of your parasite(s).
For the general hijack case, the best way to start is to get Ad-Aware 6.0,
Build 181 or later, here:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/.
Update and run this regularly to get rid of most "spyware/hijackware" on
your machine. If it has to fix things, be sure to re-boot and rerun
AdAware again and repeat this cycle until you get a clean scan. The reason
is that it may have to remove things which are currently "in use" before it
can then clean up others.
Another excellent program for this purpose is SpyBot Search and Destroy
available here:
http://security.kolla.de/ SpyBot Support Forum here:
http://www.net-integration.net/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi. I recommend
using both normally. After fixing things with SpyBot S&D, be sure to
re-boot and rerun SpyBot again and repeat this cycle until you get a clean
"no red" scan. The reason is that SpyBot sometimes has to remove things
which are currently "in use" before it can then clean up others.
Note that sometimes you need to make a judgement call about what these
programs report as spyware. See here, for example:
http://www.imilly.com/alexa.htm
You can use msconfig to control startups in XP. As good, but different, is
to go here:
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml and get Mike Lin's Startup
Control Panel applet. A somewhat more difficult to use but more extensive
program to do the same thing is StartupList from here:
http://www.lurkhere.com/~nicefiles/index.html, or even better, Autoruns from
here:
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/misc.shtml#autoruns. Be
very careful about doing any Registry modifications directly unless you're
comfortable with this, and be sure that you BACKUP your Registry before
making any changes, so that you can recover if something goes wrong.
Changes made with StartUpCPL are less likely to cause problems, and are
usually a matter of just re-enabling the particular program. Another
program of this type that I can recommend is StartMan, free. You'll have to
get it here:
http://www.pt.lu/comnet/files/utils/startman10396.exe, as the
pcforest site is, sadly, no longer in business. Another such free program
that I can highly recommend is StartupRun, here:
http://nirsoft.cjb.net/,
particularly if you suspect malware problems. And finally, StartupCop,
here is excellent and allows you to set up multiple "startup profiles":
http://www.pchelp911.com/files/startcop.zip. If you have problems with
suspected hijackers, you can look up and investigate suspect programs in
your StartUp lists here:
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.htm (Recommended)
http://www.3feetunder.com/krick/startup/list.html (Recommended)
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm (Recommended)
All work fine for controlling startups, however, I would recommend getting
both msconfig and one of the above. They're both free, and each has some
advantages. For example, the XP msconfig also gives you some
visibility/control over services, while Mike's applet offers much better
startup control. Some of the others are even more complete.
Also, you should read and print out/save for future reference mskb article
Q179365 here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q179365 which will
tell you the order in which things get loaded.
Two additional resources which have useful information relating to startup
issues are:
How to Delay Loading of Specific Services
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;193888
HOWTO: Control Device Driver Load Order
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q115/4/86.asp
Perhaps this will help.
--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP
In
