This behavior is associated with spyware programs and viruses. Anti-virus
software and
firewalls do not fully protect your system against the majority of spyware
and privacy threats. Spyware is commonly bundled with software downloads,
attached to e-mails, or transmitted through networks so it can appear to be
legitimate software, but once installed it can be nearly impossible to
detect and remove without the help of a dedicated spyware removal tool such
as:
Ad-Aware 6.0 (build 6.181)
http://www.lavasoftusa.com
SpyBot 1.3
http://www.safer-networking.org/
SpyWare Blaster
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html/
HiJackThis
http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html
Please make sure that you download the updates for each of these programs to
ensure complete detection of known spyware programs. Although nothing is
absolute in removing spyware and keeping it off, downloading and executing
the programs above can dramically decrease future infections.
Also please utilize free virus scans from the following sites:
Trend Micro
http://www.trend.com
Bit Defender
http://www.bitdefender.com
Panda
http://www.pandasoftware.com/
McAfee
http://www.vil.nai.com/vil/stinger
After Spyware / Adware is remove, you may get an error finding files on
reboot
After you use anyone of these programs (with the exception of HiJackThis)
you may receive an error of some sort after rebooting your system. This is
pretty common. Many spyware programs add themselves in the Startup location
and execute when Windows boots. If you recieve an error when rebooting after
removing spyware, do not panic. This is more than likely a startup remnant
trying to access the spyware program that is no longer on your computer.
HiJackThis is a great utility to find and remove these startup remnants.
However, there is a less technical way of removing these items:
(1) Click START to RUN and type: msconfig
(2) Select the STARTUP tab
(3) Uncheck the file that pertained to the startup error message you
received
(4) Click APPLY and OK
(5) Reboot your system
If this fails to fix the startup error message after reboot, there are still
options:
(1) Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start
Menu\Programs\Startup
(2) Delete the icon that pertained to the startup error message you received
(3) Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\username\Start
Menu\Programs\Startup
(4) Delete the icon that pertained to the startup error message you received
(5) Reboot your system
--
Best of luck!
Michael D. Alligood
MCSA, MCP, CCNA, A+,
Network+, i-Net+, CIW A, CIW CI
