Arkay said:
One of our laptops is showing a red on black notice "Spyware
Infection" on the desktop. We have cleaned up the system and
re-instated antivirus tools etc. but cannot get rid of this notice.
Under Display Properties it shows a Desktop option called "Zapotec"
which we suspect is this notice, but the system will not allow us to
change it.
Anyone know where this came from and how to remove it, please?
If you are really sure the computer is clean:
Go to the Display applet in Control Panel and look on the Desktop tab.
Click on Customize Desktop, and then click on the Web tab. You will see
that there are checkmarks next to "My Current Home Page" and probably
"Lock Desktop Items". Uncheck these. By highlighting the "My Current
Home Page" and clicking on the Properties button, you will be able to
determine the name of the file that is the message. It might be called
something like "security.html" or the like.
Click Apply and OK out when you've made your changes. Then you want to
find the *.html malware file and delete it.
If you can't enable desktop backgrounds after a virus, MVP Kelly Theriot
has a fix. Look under Wallpaper-Desktop-Disable Changing here:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_w.htm
If Display tabs are missing, run Kelly's registry edit on line 285,
right-hand side "Restore all display tabs".
Make sure your computer is really clean. Take a look at the general
malware removal steps here:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware
and the Smitfraud removal steps here:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Smitfraud_Trojan
Malke
