Apps becomes nonresponsive

  • Thread starter Thread starter AAaron123
  • Start date Start date
Ok. So I'm infected with hijackware

I have one application that I'd like to keep using for as long as I can.

I have many applications on my machine that I do not need.

Would I be better off leaving them there so the infection might work on them
and miss my important app.

Or would I be better off deleting everything don't need.


Thanks
 
There isn't a utility or combination of utilities on earth that can detect &
remove all infections.

No one said that you couldn't attempt to clean-up/remove the infections.
The question is would the time required to do so be worthwhile, especially
considering (1) you didn't have an anti-virus application installed when the
computer got infected and (2) you'd need the assistance of a paid or
volunteer expert in such matters, and (3) you can never be sure that the
computer's 100% safe to use.

For you, the quickest & most time-effective resolution would be a clean
install, after which you'll need to take appropriate precautions (see below)
to avoid such incursions in the future.

4 Steps to Protect Your Computer
http://www.microsoft.com/security/pypc.aspx

Steps To Help Prevent Spyware
http://www.microsoft.com/security/spyware/prevent.aspx

Steps to Help Prevent Computer Worms
http://www.microsoft.com/security/worms/prevent.aspx

Avoid Rogue Security Software!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/antivirus/rogue.aspx
 
Ok. So I'm infected with hijackware

I have one application that I'd like to keep using for as long as I can.

I have many applications on my machine that I do not need.

Would I be better off leaving them there so the infection might work on them
and miss my important app.
Click to expand...


Whether you leave them there or uninstall them makes no difference in
what the infection does.

Or would I be better off deleting everything don't need.
Click to expand...


In general it's a good idea to uninstall any application you don't
use. But that's really important only if you are short of disk space,
since installing them will regain some disk space. If you have plenty
of disk space, it hardly matters at all.

But if you have an infection, getting rid of it should be your primary
consideration, not uninstalling unused applications.
 
This machine still functions and I'd like to use it as long as I can.

My question below is related to what is the best approach to maximizing the
probability that I can use it until I get a new one set up.

----

Also, I can't destroy all my data files on this machine until I move them.

I guessing that if the other machine has good protection I should be able to
safely move some of them.

What about pure text files: .txt, .html. .vb, .cs ... as long as the content
is pure text are they dangerous?


Thanks a lot

I see you like to top post. I'll do that.
 
Ken Blake said:
Whether you leave them there or uninstall them makes no difference in
what the infection does.




In general it's a good idea to uninstall any application you don't
use. But that's really important only if you are short of disk space,
since installing them will regain some disk space. If you have plenty
of disk space, it hardly matters at all.

But if you have an infection, getting rid of it should be your primary
consideration, not uninstalling unused applications.
Click to expand...

I kow I don't sound like it but I have a lot of computer experience - just
not PC's (nor Macs)

Is there something I can read that might help me get rid of the infection?

Does the fact that it changes the owner to Everyone tell you which
hijackware I have.


Not that it maters now but I'd like you to know I normally had protection.
AVG 8 before AVG 9.

Also Ad-Ware and others. Are you please with AVG 9? (I'm asking for the
future)

My computer probably had too much on it. It's about 4 years old and probably
needs more resources for what I do.

Because it was running slow I tried the following.

Put the cable modem in stand by and use msconfig to disable all non-ms
startups and services.

I had already tried stopping all them (plus some ms) except the avg ones and
that didn't help. So I wanted to see if avg 9 was the problem

I probably (but don't really know) did something like restoring the modem
before I turned on avg or who know what.

Anyway that is history. The thing now is removing the infection if that is
possible. But I don't know wher to start.


Thanks

 
I kow I don't sound like it but I have a lot of computer experience - just
not PC's (nor Macs)
Click to expand...


OK, but if for example, you have a lot of mainframe experience, it
won't help you much with Windows XP.

Is there something I can read that might help me get rid of the infection?
Click to expand...


Sorry, I may have missed the early part of the thread, but I have no
idea what infection you have.

Does the fact that it changes the owner to Everyone tell you which
hijackware I have.


Not that it maters now but I'd like you to know I normally had protection.
AVG 8 before AVG 9.

Also Ad-Ware and others. Are you please with AVG 9? (I'm asking for the
future)
Click to expand...


In my view the best anti-virus program is NOD32. If you want one
that's freeware, then I would choose Avast (or Avira, with which I
have almost no personal experience but I hear very good things about
it from others whose opinions I respect) instead of AVG.

You say "Ad-Ware." Do you mean Adaware? It's OK to use it, but I
wouldn't rely on it alone. The two best anti-spyware programs are
MalwareBytes Anti-Malware and SuperAntiSpyware. I would add both of
those to your arsenal.

You say "...and others." Sorry, but that's a meaningless statement.
Tell us what the "others" are.

My computer probably had too much on it.
Click to expand...


No. What's installed has no effect on its performance. It's what's
*running* that affects performance. As I said in my last message, "In
general it's a good idea to uninstall any application you don't use.
But that's really important only if you are short of disk space, since
installing them will regain some disk space. If you have plenty of
disk space, it hardly matters at all."

It's about 4 years old and probably
needs more resources for what I do.
Click to expand...


That depends entirely on what you do and what "resources" you have
(its age is unimportant). Please describe your hardware (especially
tell us what CPU you have and how much RAM you have), and tell us what
apps you run.


Because it was running slow I tried the following.

Put the cable modem in stand by and use msconfig to disable all non-ms
startups and services.
Click to expand...


Not a good thing to do. Regarding services, you should be concerned
with what they are and what they do, not whether they are by
Microsoft. And in general, unless you are very skilled and know what
you are doing, turning off services is a dangerous thing to do.

Regarding autostarting programs, again you should be concerned with
what they are, what they do, and what their effect on performance is,
not whether they are by Microsoft. Here's my standard post on the
subject:

First, note that you should be concerned with *all* programs that
start automatically, not just with those that go into the system tray.
Not all autostarting programs manifest themselves by an icon in the
tray.

On each program you don't want to start automatically, check its
Options to see if it has the choice not to start (make sure you
actually choose the option not to run it, not just a "don't show icon"
option). Many can easily and best be stopped that way. If that doesn't
work, run MSCONFIG from the Start | Run line, and on the Startup tab,
uncheck the programs you don't want to start automatically.

However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of
running the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell
you, you should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs
you run, but *which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but
others have no effect on performance.

Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do
is determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what
the cost in performance is of its running all the time. You can try
google searches and ask about specifics here.

Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed
decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.


I had already tried stopping all them (plus some ms) except the avg ones and
that didn't help. So I wanted to see if avg 9 was the problem

I probably (but don't really know) did something like restoring the modem
before I turned on avg or who know what.

Anyway that is history. The thing now is removing the infection if that is
possible. But I don't know wher to start.
Click to expand...


How do you know you have an infection? Again, I didn't see the early
part of this thread, so I don't know what your symptoms are, but if
you've been stopping services, it's possible that that might have
caused your problem.
 
How do you know you have an infection? Again, I didn't see the early
part of this thread, so I don't know what your symptoms are, but if
you've been stopping services, it's possible that that might have
caused your problem.
Click to expand...
I not going to try to state which program and files I'll refer to because I
may not remember correctly but, I was showing the Properties/Security of an
..exe file. The box: Group or Usernames, showed a couple of usernames that
made sense.

I ran another program (I don't remember if I had to do something to refresh
the above mentioned Properties/Security page) and the usernames I mentioned
above disappeared and was replace by the name Everyone.

If I install Malwarebytes and run it, after 10 seconds the exe's
Properties/Security/Group or Usernames contents changes to Everyone as
described above and the program bombs.

Do you happen to know of a malware that does what I described above/

I'm writing this in Outlook Express which opened ok so not every .exe is so
affected.

Thanks much for spending so much time with your last post.
 
The machine still functions, yes, BUT IT IS NOT SAFE FOR YOU, YOUR FAMILY,
AND EVERYONE ELSE ONLINE FOR THE COMPUTER TO BE CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET IN
ITS CURRENT STATE.

Now, if you don't care about identity theft and/or your banking & credit
card usernames & passwords being available to every Bad Guy on the planet,
keep your head in the sand & continue to use the machine.

At this point, NONE of the data should be considered safe enough to be
transferred to another computer.

My friend, you're basically driving an uninsured car at 150 MPH towards the
edge of a cliff. Whether you decide to stop the car (or jump out) is up to
you.
 
PA said:
The machine still functions, yes, BUT IT IS NOT SAFE FOR YOU, YOUR
FAMILY, AND EVERYONE ELSE ONLINE FOR THE COMPUTER TO BE CONNECTED TO THE
INTERNET IN ITS CURRENT STATE.

Now, if you don't care about identity theft and/or your banking & credit
card usernames & passwords being available to every Bad Guy on the
planet, keep your head in the sand & continue to use the machine.

At this point, NONE of the data should be considered safe enough to be
transferred to another computer.

My friend, you're basically driving an uninsured car at 150 MPH towards
the edge of a cliff. Whether you decide to stop the car (or jump out)
is up to you.
Click to expand...

I don't know if I'd want to jump out of a car doing 150 mph.... ;-)
 
I know you've helped in the past with other things and I appreciated it then
and still do.
However, I am not throwing away years of work.
If it dies on its own I can't help that but I not killing it.
So you certainly can say: OK buddy you're on your won.
Or you can use your experience to come up with plan-B.
Just to show that thinking outside the box might produce an approach I note
that:
I could print all the files out and then use an OCR on the new machine to
read them in.
I can't believe that's not safe.

I would hope someone could do better than that.

Why would text files be dangerous. Because there may be something else on
the media? Is that it.

I'm guessing that since you did not name the malware I have you don't know
what it is. Is there some place I can research it?


Thanks for your continuing interest
 
One more then I'm done: Formatting and doing a clean install of Windows is
the only way this computer will EVER be safe to use online or on a home
network.
 
Thanks, I really appreciate your effort for me.


PA Bear said:
One more then I'm done: Formatting and doing a clean install of Windows is
the only way this computer will EVER be safe to use online or on a home
network.
Click to expand...
 
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