Brian said:
I have just discovered a new malicious program, it's called "Spyware Quake"
It claims to be a antivirus program but It will not uninstall. It does have
a uninstall feature but keeps reinstalling when I boot up. I've used all my
antivirus software to no avail. Here's the link to this program.
http://www.spywarequake.com/
P.S. I didn't download this program. It just showed up. Maybe my kid
accidentally did? I was using a firewall and McAffee but I'm trying Avast
right now because I think McAffee is sub par.
Try AVG from Grisoft, and get ZoneAlarm from Zone labs. Both offer free
versions for home use, but I have sprung for the "pro" versions, which
in essence pays for a year's worth of updates, as well as having a few
extras. If you get ZoneAlarm with an anti-virus component, do not turn
that on - it fights with AVG. Also look for Spybot (free) and Counterspy
(not free). Run both once a week, since no anti-malware program will
detect everything. Don't dump MacAfee - just run it once a week, too.
Whatever anti-malware you use, make sure you keep it up-to-date. If you
have to pay to do so, well, consider it a line item under "computer
maintenance", which IMO should be a line item under "household
expenses". ;-)
Any help would be great. Thanks guys/gals
Brian
a) uninstall never removes all references to a program. Run Registry
Mechanic or a similar registry cleaner immediately after uninstalling,
_before_ you reboot. You may also have to remove references to the bad
program in the registry's start list. (The "Startup" list of programs
does not list all the programs started when the computer boots.)
b) if a) doesn't work, the malware may have installed a rootkit. There
is some anti-rootkit software out there. Google "rootkit", and you'll
find some.
Problem is, rootkits are really nasty, and it's not easy to eliminate
them. Sometimes the only remedy is to wipe the disk clean and reinstall.
If you must go that route, make sure to burn all data to CD first - even
the stuff you think you no longer need. And use a disk-wiping utility,
just to be sure - that's a utility that you boot from floppy disk or CD,
which will erase the whole disk several times, thus eliminating all
traces of the previous contents.
Good luck.
