ratatouille clean up

[kirsty]

My kids are getting bombarded by hyperlinks to adult sites,free stuff,meet
new people and open new accounts from other kids they have in thier msn
contact lists.
I am the only one no getting them.The kids know not to click on them.
I told them to tell the people that were sending them to run checks on thier
comps which they say they have but it hasn't worked.
After all this i sent the addresses away to microsoft to let them know and
ask them what would be the best thing for it,all i got back was an email
which was donotreply@micrososft saying ratatouille clean up.
no link ,nothing.
When i emailed again asking for a link i got th same reply.
Does anyone know about this program,if its safe and where to get it.
Thanks

 

[Malke]

My kids are getting bombarded by hyperlinks to adult sites,free stuff,meet
new people and open new accounts from other kids they have in thier msn
contact lists.
I am the only one no getting them.The kids know not to click on them.
I told them to tell the people that were sending them to run checks on
thier comps which they say they have but it hasn't worked.
After all this i sent the addresses away to microsoft to let them know and
ask them what would be the best thing for it,all i got back was an email
which was donotreply@micrososft saying ratatouille clean up.
no link ,nothing.
When i emailed again asking for a link i got th same reply.
Does anyone know about this program,if its safe and where to get it.
Thanks

I have no idea what "ratatouille clean up" is but it isn't anything from
Microsoft and I certainly wouldn't install it. It sounds like your computer
is infected with malware. At the very least, do the prep work at the link
below and scan with Malwarebytes' Anti-malware (MBAM) and/or
SuperAntiSpyware. Both these programs are free. You do *not* need to
purchase them to remove malware.

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

After you get the computer cleaned up, a free and easy way to block a lot of
garbage is by using OpenDNS (www.opendns.com). You still need to practice
"Safe Hex" but I'm pleased with how using OpenDNS for my own network is
blocking a lot of junk.

Safe Hex:
http://www.getsafeonline.org/
https://www.mysecurecyberspace.com/
http://www.getnetwise.org/

Malke

 

[Kaja]

Hi Kirsty, my name is Kaja and I would like to try to help you. If it was me
here is what i would do: first run a full virus scan to make sure there was
no virus, download spyware terminator from www.spywareterminator.com install
it and run a full scan to see if there is spyware.Then dowload and install CC
cleaner from cccleaner.com and run this once a week. Then in IE 8 and in IE
7 as well there is an option for parental controls you can activate. It
should be able to be acessed when you open up IE by going to tools, internet
options, content, parental controls. Ultimately you really need to sit down
and talk to your kids. ope this is helpful. Let me know so I can improve my
services.
kaja

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi Kirsty, my name is Kaja and I would like to try to help you.

A couple of points here. See below.

If it was me
here is what i would do: first run a full virus scan to make sure there was
no virus,

No anti-virus program can "make sure" there is no virus infection.
Each program finds viruses that some other one doesn't, and none of
them is perfect. An anti-virus program that doesn't find anything
substantially reduces the risk of being infected, but can not
guarantee it.

And also note that some anti-virus programs are *much* better than
others.

download spyware terminator from www.spywareterminator.com install
it and run a full scan to see if there is spyware.

Again, no anti-spyware program is anywhere near perfect. Moreover,
spyware terminator does not have the reputation of being one of the
better ones. The best one is MalwareBytes.

Then dowload and install CC
cleaner from cccleaner.com and run this once a week.

CC Cleaner isn't a bad program and does a number of useful things.
However one of the things it does is "clean" the registry and it
should never be used for that. Registry cleaning programs are *all*
snake oil. Cleaning of the registry isn't needed and is dangerous.
Leave the registry alone and don't use any registry cleaner. Despite
what many people think, and what vendors of registry cleaning software
try to convince you of, having unused registry entries doesn't really
hurt you.

The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner erroneously
removing an entry you need is far greater than any potential benefit
it may have.

Read http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000643.html