Need Help w/ security and anti-virus problems !!!!!

[Guest]

My virus protection expired without notification to me and now I have viruses and spyware, hijacker, adware, and others. I have deleted alot of these - I think. I have downloaded Norton's antivirus and adaware and another spyware program. My computer is still running slow and a microsoft warning has come up that says i have many programs that have memory leaks and that I need a high-performance memory manager. Does anyone know how I can fix this without cost? I also looked in my user accounts and someone or something has created 2 user accounts without my knowledge or permission. I have deleted one that ended with a .Net passport ( I think) and know i still have a guest account that i cannot delete!!! Help

 

[Guest]

My virus protection expired without notification to me and now I have viruses and spyware, hijacker, adware, and others. I have deleted alot of these - I think. I have downloaded Norton's antivirus and adaware and another spyware program. My computer is still running slow and a microsoft warning has come up that says i have many programs that have memory leaks and that I need a high-performance memory manager. Does anyone know how I can fix this without cost? I also looked in my user accounts and someone or something has created 2 user accounts without my knowledge or permission. I have deleted one that ended with a .Net passport ( I think) and know i still have a guest account that i cannot delete!!! Help

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Run an online to make that all viruses have been eliminated:

http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm

Try these programs to check for any spyware that may be on your system:

Ad-Aware - www.lavasoftusa.com
Spybot - http://www.safer-networking.org/
CWShredder - http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

Try SpyWareBlaster to stop intrusions:

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Also see the following links:

http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/security/articles/spyware.asp

The Guest Account is part of Windows XP and shouldn't be deleted. It should, however be disabled, until it is needed:

Control Panel>User Accounts - click on the Guest Account and then on 'Turn off the guest account.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your quick reply! I will check out these sites
right now! But - the problem with the guest account is
that I did not activate it. It says it is turned off but I
never brought it to use - I changed the accounts a couple
of months ago and the only one active was the
Administrator's account. Why would it just pop up without
me doing it and should I use a different account while I
am on the net and everywhere else and leave administrator
acct. alone until I need it? Thanks again!

-----Original Message-----
Hi

Run an online to make that all viruses have been eliminated:
ncipal.htm

Try these programs to check for any spyware that may be

Ad-Aware - www.lavasoftusa.com
Spybot - http://www.safer-networking.org/
CWShredder - http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

Try SpyWareBlaster to stop intrusions:

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Also see the following links:

http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/security/articles/spyware.asp

The Guest Account is part of Windows XP and shouldn't be

deleted. It should, however be disabled, until it is
needed:

Control Panel>User Accounts - click on the Guest Account

and then on 'Turn off the guest account.

--

Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

and now I have viruses and spyware, hijacker, adware, and
others. I have deleted alot of these - I think. I have
downloaded Norton's antivirus and adaware and another
spyware program. My computer is still running slow and a
microsoft warning has come up that says i have many
programs that have memory leaks and that I need a high-
performance memory manager. Does anyone know how I can fix
this without cost? I also looked in my user accounts and
someone or something has created 2 user accounts without
my knowledge or permission. I have deleted one that ended
with a .Net passport ( I think) and know i still have a
guest account that i cannot delete!!! Help

 

[Lil' Dave]

To minimize damage, you need to run XP from a guest account rather than the
Administrator. Minimize the guest account's rights.

 

[Guest]

: Try Norton Suite which has several useful features, McAfee, TrendMicro or AVG. All are very good although I prefer the first. Then buy a good Spy-type program, one that blocks hijackers also. You've taken the first step, which was good, but the next steps are the programs to help you. Go to the security area, the one with the shield on the top of your URL bar, and it should give you three ways to protect your computer, one of which is to use Microsoft's own firewall, but also get a good one in addition to this . In addition, update your computer, using version 4 as five will only do downloads for those doing beta work on SP2. It will probably have many downloads, and download them all, as several are critical, others are designed to make your computer run smoother and others not critical are still good for security. I know this won't be cheap and will take a lot of time, but security, not to mention peace of mind, is worth any price and today, security is of the utmost. I also have other computers, not Windows, which I have had to patch yet I don't trust any of the various programs for them. Those for Windows do work well to a large degree and help a lot. Just remember, there are people who will continue to try and get into any single or multiples of computers. Keep up with the latest security measures, anti-viral programs and never let one expire. That's why you should run updates, Microsoft as well as anti-Virus updates such as live update or intelligent updater found in Norton once a week in addition to defragmentation, etc., all in the tools section found in all programs under the accessories program or areas for updates in other anti-virus programs. Don't use easy passwords as this just makes it easie for hijackersr, just use any that pop up in your head and not names of friends, birthdates, etc. Hope this helps.