Hi Ray - lop - You can chose (or may already have tried) to use the
uninstalls at the lop.com web site here (not recommended by me anymore):
http://lop.com/help.html . On this page you can find, download and run the
two un-installers (
http://lop.com/new_uninstall.exe,
http://lop.com/toolbar_uninstall.exe). If you're using a firewall that
controls this, DON'T allow the uninstallers to access the internet. BE
WARNED, HOWEVER, that these uninstalls probably will leave residual spyware
on your computer and/or probably will reinstall spyware if you've already
"cleaned" it out, so you'll need to get rid of it also.
Whether you ran the lop uninstallers or not, 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
Running BOTH of these will usually get rid of lop, but sometimes you may
need to do a little more, so you might also want to:
First, go to
http://doxdesk.com/parasite/lop.html and check the information
here out thoroughly.
In addition to the lop uninstalls or/and AdAware's or S&D's removals, you
may want to do the following, courtesy of Paul Browinski, to get rid of the
Flash popup's if they persist:
"This worked for me after the the lop.com uninstaller failed. Go to:
C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper
and look for two files: desktop.swf and desktop.html. Try renaming them and
rebooting to see if the Flash popup is gone. If it works you can then remove
the files."
You may also want to check in \Windows\Application Data\ or in
%windir%\Profiles\%UserName%\Application Data\ for "plg_ie0.dll" and delete
it if present. This is a sometimes leftover.
It has also been reported that there may be other files in
\Windows\Application Data\ or %windir%\Profiles\%UserName%\Application Data\
with the same date that also should be removed. (They perhaps will have
names such as lop*.exe and/or deskicon.lib, but these may not be exact.)
There's good information about hijacking and fixes available here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/hijacked.html
Also, in IE6 you can go to Tools|Internet Options|Programs and click on
Reset Web Settings. BE AWARE though that this will reset your homepage and
search settings to the IE6 defaults.
Lastly, if you didn't go the Reset Web Settings route, get the .reg file
here:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/RestoreSearch2.REG and run
it (right click|merge) to restore your default search settings.
Your post implies that you may have picked up a CoolWebSearch variant also.
Do the following:
You can read about it here: How to remove Coolwebsearch and affiliates:
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm#Coolwebsearch
Download and run:
http://216.180.252.218/~spywareinfo.com/downloads/tools/cwshredder.zip to
remove the parasite. This program is updated frequently, so always
re-download it before using.
Then download and run:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/iegentabs.reg to restore your
tabs and remove any restrictions that the parasite has put in place.
--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP
In
