spyware guru anyone?

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i was recently trying to fix my mates pc as he'd been infected with winfx or winfixer spyware. tried everything i could, forums and programs like hijackthis, ad-aware,ms anti-spyware,regcleaner, x-cleaner....etc but still he's getting damn pop ups, free scans, re-directed searches!! any advice would be great.

 

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don't know winfx/winfixer spyware, but i always use spybot for cleaning: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

 

i did try ms anti-spy, absolutely nothing has picked it up but from my small experience it is pretty severe cos it manages to interrupt your searches and then hijacks whatever you're doing on ie to only having it's own page connected. along with some weird "arty" pics popping up with the re-directed search.even tried system restore off-reboot-system restore on, in case it was hiding ih there but no joy.....

 

yes indeedy, altho, when ive started in safe on my pc, everything was fast because nothing really starts up yeah? well, on his it took a lot longer to boot in safe than normal, again ran hijackthis, regcleaner,xclaener, and a few anti-spy progs in safe but..... nada! strangely enuff, after doing all that in safe, it came back named something else, then after a while returned as winfixer

 

cheers aj, i'll try that later on and either skulk or skip back here!

 

Have you run HiJackThis? Post a log and I'm sure that together a bunch of us can help you out with most of it. However, in many severe infestation cases it's just quicker and easier to do a format and reinstall of the OS.

 

Dont know if this will help.....but seems to be someone who had same prob.

Looks a bit lengthy...

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=57536

 

For my experience, I will recomend you format and reinstall the SO.
Everytime you run all that programs and you dont found what is damaging the SO, it messes even more the entire system.

It take less head hacke to formatt and puit all fresh, thats what ai learn to do, to my mates computers when something big happens.

I always instal SpyWareBlaster after that, it works in background and it does a very good job, blocking a lots of crap.

Besides that did you tryed Adaware away ?

It cleans a big number of crap too, if you want to try it, give it a go, but I will formatt.

 

Yup these infections are worse than viri IMHO. If you are still riddled with pop ups etc after running the full gambit of cleaning apps mentioned here then you have two choices, and they both take time and effort.

1) Run highjack this as Freddy mentioned and post the output here or on their expert site. Be warned that the advice might be difficult to follow and require you to try things and follow up.

2) Blow away the install, this also takes many hours, as you will have to re-load all the updates, anti-virus software and updates, drivers for cameras, scanners, all your applications and restore your personal files from backup, re-establish your email settings, Internet connectivity etc etc

The choice is yours!

Pete

 

Am I the only one who finds formatting a PC that's choc full of rubbish like spyware and viruses quite theraputic? Kinda like taking a large dump...

 

That was an analogy I could have lived without, Uruloke.

 

What I find to be theraputic is taking a Windows PC full of malware, viruses, and spyware and dumping all of that for Linux PC.

 

And after you have done this what do you use the PC as next? A big expensive clock?

Most spyware stuff installs its self in the following registry key (the key will also disclose the file locations too):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

The latest spyware rubbish now has a secondary program thats sole purpose in life is to either restart the service when you end it, re-intsall it when you delete it or re-install it on startup. The trick is to ID this program in the registry and remove it! Then remove the rest!

Reformating and Reinstalling the OS on a PC to get rid of a 5k process is rather drastic/ OTT, more time consuming and displays to customers/users/employers a lack of experiance and competence! In a support position you cannot just re-format a PC...you have to research and fix so the next time it happens you can nip it in the bud quicker!

So grab your spyware problem by the balls and use it as part of the learning process!

 

good advice that drum dude, just a few questions from the previous page, rickbanr suggested formatting which i'd rather not do for the same reason drum dude said, formatting is not curing the problem, it's euthanasia. but i'd still like to know how if anyone knows any good links for this? also, for blurinse on prev. page, what do you mean by blow away? manually go thru registry to find it? tried but it's being sneaky and has no id pointing to winfx/winfixer. and , last one promise ;), ffreeloader, i take it as linux is less well-known so virus/~ware writers don't bother as much with it? cheers all for your time and advice, adn funny analogies!

 

Nah... That's what it was before I put Linux on it....

 

I find it theraputic to educate users on how not to be stupid in my usual friendly manner!

you can live without spyware, virii, dialers, whatever, and have no anti spyware/virii products in place

IF ofcourse, you have a brain, and use it from time to time

 

harsh but fair point phoenix but i did say my mates pc, he's from newcastle so.....