cannot get rid of "Search toolbar" & "iguard" antispyware

[Jay]

I have several problems I think are spyware which MS
antispyware doesn't fix yet. We run current Norton
antivirus which does not find a problem. These problems all
relate to an explorer hijack before I installed MSAS which
installed a "Search" bar in explorer. Anyone know about
this and have ideas how to remove it? It causes multiple
problems.
1) Most obvious is flooding screen with many popups almost
faster than you can click them away. MSAS now blocks
re-hijack at boot time, but doesn't get rid of other
related problems.
2) In Add-Remove Programs there is a big black area maybe 5
screens to scroll through. There are also 2 programs
"Search toolbar" and "Search plug-in" which cannot be
removed from Add-Remove Programs. Search plugin puts up
some numbers on the screen and asks that you type them to
remove, but . . .
3) The keyboard has been screwed up so you cannot type
numbers in any program (this is one of the most harmful
aspects of the whole deal)
4) There is another antispyware program which installs
related to this called "security iguard" which tries to run
itself and reports spurious threats. It appears to have a
normal install with a folder in Programs with an uninstall.
But if you uninstall it, it re installs itself again after
a short time. I believe these all happened at the same
time and are related to the same attack, undoubtedly
through the browser. I have deactivated explorer as much as
I can, and have used Mozilla and Firefox a long time.
Explorer does not appear anywhere on my desktop, but this
attack apparently runs it in background, or some part of it.
I run a 5 node network with XP Pro and have a Netgear
DSL router with firewall

 

[plun]

1) Most obvious is flooding screen with many popups almost
faster than you can click them away. MSAS now blocks
re-hijack at boot time, but doesn't get rid of other
related problems.
2) In Add-Remove Programs there is a big black area maybe 5
screens to scroll through. There are also 2 programs
"Search toolbar" and "Search plug-in" which cannot be
removed from Add-Remove Programs. Search plugin puts up
some numbers on the screen and asks that you type them to
remove, but . . .
3) The keyboard has been screwed up so you cannot type
numbers in any program (this is one of the most harmful
aspects of the whole deal)
4) There is another antispyware program which installs
related to this called "security iguard" which tries to run
itself and reports spurious threats. It appears to have a
normal install with a folder in Programs with an uninstall.

Hi

- Send a suspected spywarereport to MS about this, menu tools.

Google on this:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=search+toolbar+spyware&btnG=Google+Search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=iguard+spyware&btnG=Google+Search

 

[Jay]

Plun

This was helpful. Thanks. I did not know about MSAS
being able to send a detailed report.

Jay