N
nick
Hi there,
I was running the 32 bit XP version of Windows Defender until last week,
when upon attempting to update automatically , the installation unexpectedly
failed three-quarters of the way through the install process. The error
message that flashed up was to the effect that I did not have sufficient
privileges as Administrator to complete the installation. I tried again and
was met with the same message. My computer proceeded to run agonisingly
slowly, and crash sporadically. I suspect my pc has contracted a Trojan, as
on booting up (very slow) disk check finds that various files have been
corrupted (mostly installers and zipped files within various program
folders). The pc was crashing to the infamous Blue Screen, or booting to a
dark screen then hanging. Virus and antispyware scans from Iobit and AVG find
nothing, and neither does the Windows Anti-Malicious Software Tool, but the
files to a prompted update to my DivX player were corrupted during the
install, and then my music program WinAmp suffered the same fate.
I have since performed a full reinstall of windows XP, which has brought
some form of stability to the system, though the pc is still labouring. Also,
I removed all trace of AVG anti-virus, and replaced it with Avast (free). A
full scan and bootscan found a couple more corrupted folders which have been
dealt with, and I have closed the holes in the Registry where DivX used to be
and reinstalled it again.
Still, no virus as such has been detected. Having failed to install the
latest version of Windows Defender, I went back and using Regedit tried to
remove the file fragments leftover by the corrupted program, but cannot
delete these keys. Defender no longer registers on the Add/Remove Programs
List so cannot be removed that way. In addition, I have downloaded Windows
uninstaller from Microsoft, but this too does not see Defender anywhere on my
system.
Please can anyone suggest a way to remove Windows defender from an XP
system? And/or tell me how to detect and remove this suspected trojan?
I was running the 32 bit XP version of Windows Defender until last week,
when upon attempting to update automatically , the installation unexpectedly
failed three-quarters of the way through the install process. The error
message that flashed up was to the effect that I did not have sufficient
privileges as Administrator to complete the installation. I tried again and
was met with the same message. My computer proceeded to run agonisingly
slowly, and crash sporadically. I suspect my pc has contracted a Trojan, as
on booting up (very slow) disk check finds that various files have been
corrupted (mostly installers and zipped files within various program
folders). The pc was crashing to the infamous Blue Screen, or booting to a
dark screen then hanging. Virus and antispyware scans from Iobit and AVG find
nothing, and neither does the Windows Anti-Malicious Software Tool, but the
files to a prompted update to my DivX player were corrupted during the
install, and then my music program WinAmp suffered the same fate.
I have since performed a full reinstall of windows XP, which has brought
some form of stability to the system, though the pc is still labouring. Also,
I removed all trace of AVG anti-virus, and replaced it with Avast (free). A
full scan and bootscan found a couple more corrupted folders which have been
dealt with, and I have closed the holes in the Registry where DivX used to be
and reinstalled it again.
Still, no virus as such has been detected. Having failed to install the
latest version of Windows Defender, I went back and using Regedit tried to
remove the file fragments leftover by the corrupted program, but cannot
delete these keys. Defender no longer registers on the Add/Remove Programs
List so cannot be removed that way. In addition, I have downloaded Windows
uninstaller from Microsoft, but this too does not see Defender anywhere on my
system.
Please can anyone suggest a way to remove Windows defender from an XP
system? And/or tell me how to detect and remove this suspected trojan?