nasty bugger in C:\WINDOWS that refuses to be deleted

[Guest]

Lads/lasses - maybe some1 can help

a cupl of days ago my mate was browsing the web from my laptop - and now I've got this nasty program with its own icon sitting in C:\WINDOWS. when i try to delete it from there - i get the message "the disk is either full or write-protected, or the program is in use". Every time i run Spybot S&D, it picks up 2 Startmenu links related to that bugger and deletes them, bu then obviously on every new re-start it is still there. How do I get rid of this?

also, it may be unrelated, but now when I re-start I get a pop-up window "XP professional with front page preparing to install" which cannot find some odd link and cancels itself. It does not affect any of my applications, Internet, Word or Excel - but its quite annoying. Any suggestions?

 

[Jim Byrd]

Hi Chinawhite - 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


--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In

 

[Guest]

Aren't there enough games to play to keep you away from
people with real questions?

-----Original Message-----
Lads/lasses - maybe some1 can help

a cupl of days ago my mate was browsing the web from my

laptop - and now I've got this nasty program with its own
icon sitting in C:\WINDOWS. when i try to delete it from
there - i get the message "the disk is either full or
write-protected, or the program is in use". Every time i
run Spybot S&D, it picks up 2 Startmenu links related to
that bugger and deletes them, bu then obviously on every
new re-start it is still there. How do I get rid of this?

also, it may be unrelated, but now when I re-start I get

a pop-up window "XP professional with front page
preparing to install" which cannot find some odd link and
cancels itself. It does not affect any of my
applications, Internet, Word or Excel - but its quite
annoying. Any suggestions?