Is anyone IT-savvy? Virus emergency at home.

[wendalah]

This weekend I was on my home computer and got a pop-up, which I quickly went to close and inadvertently clicked instead.

All hell broke loose. It put a bunch of trojan horses on my computer, which I attempted to remove with Norton antivirus remover--didn't work. The trojans are deep in my memory it seems, and keep regenerating.

Most troubling it put a desktop hijack on my computer. The desktop goes inactive and a sign pops up saying "YOUR SYSTEM IS INFECTED--USE SPYWARE TO REMOVE." I know this is not microsoft because they misspelled some words. :rolleyes: Also, Norton found the trojan responsible but was unable to remove or quarantine it.

What can I do besides run antivirus software???!?!? My computer is screwed! (I'm obviously writing this from work.)

[houseblend]

Try going to www.trendmicro.com. http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ They have a free online virus scanner that often removes things that other virus programs can't. They have saved my hide a couple of times. Also, try their Adware scanner, since those can wreak havoc on computers, too.

Whatever you do, do NOT click on those pop-ups! Right click them and "close."

Good luck! Viruses are a pain!!!

[Bloomwood]

I totally feel your pain. I did the same thing trying to give myself a new IM icon. I recommend the following FREE programs:

spybot
Ad-aware
AVG (the BEST antivirus out there - I haven't had a single pop-up since I installed it)

Microsoft anti-spyware is okay too.

[lawyerlee]

I just wanted to offer sympathy. I'd be so freaking screwed if that happened to me, too. :( I hope you are able to make some progress on it. :(

[wendalah]

Real quick: I CANNOT get on IE because the virus has disabled my desktop. I can run Norton from a disc. But I can't get on the net to download anything!

I also ran microsoft antispyware in addition to the Norton stuff (it was already on my desktop). Didn't do anything. I'm sooooo screwed.

[emmjay]

So you can't even get onto your Start menu? A few months ago I couldn't get onto IE because of a virus, but I could get into the Start menu and do "Add/Remove Programs" - I manually deleted a lot of the viruses and was eventually able to get on IE to download some spyware.

Of course this won't help you if you can't even get onto your desktop. Sorry you are dealing with this - I know it SUCKS. :(

[lawyerlee]

Real quick: I CANNOT get on IE because the virus has disabled my desktop. I can run Norton from a disc. But I can't get on the net to download anything!

I also ran microsoft antispyware in addition to the Norton stuff (it was already on my desktop). Didn't do anything. I'm sooooo screwed.
Man alive. I guess you will have to get someone to service it unless your hubby can do some computer magic with it. :(

[wendalah]

I can get onto my start program, and I went there to try and manually remove the programs, but the trojans are not showing up there.

The main problem is, the Norton disc identified the trojans and then either deleted or quarantined them. But they keep regenerating because they're in the memory or something. The most persistent one is the desktop hijack.

[emmjay]

Can you do a search for any new programs installed in the last X days and try to delete them that way? I have no idea if that will work - just a thought.

[houseblend]

Ouch! :( Do you have all your data backed-up? I had one like you are talking about once and DH (my computer genius) had to reinstall my OS. Somehow through his magic he was able to save everything for me, but it was not fun. Could you take it someplace to see what they can do? (I don't know how much they charge.)

I feel your pain.

[houseblend]

Oh - I thought of one more thing! Do you remember the name of the trojan? If you do, you can google it (from work) and learn the best way to remove it.

[wendalah]

Here's what I've done so far:
1) Ran microsoft antispyware. (Did nothing.)
2) Inserted the Norton antivirus disc and did two separate virus scans (each took almost two hours!). Norton disc said it removed or quarantined everything on first scan. I restarted computer and the hijack was still there, so I ran the scan again. This time it removed the viruses again, but said it could not remove or quarantine two of them. I checked in the booklet and it said if the viruses keep regenerating they might be deep in the memory and I need to use some sort of rescue disc thing to get them off (????).
3) I then went to the system tools menu and in a last ditch attempt tried to restart my computer from an earlier date (you can go back to a start point in the past)--hoping this would bypass the viruses and take me back to an earlier point when things were still safe. That didn't work either.

I guess I should look into the rescue discs. I'm googling the viruses right now and it's all so confusing--most of them are saying I need to download things from the net, which I can't do.

I'd like to find whoever started these viruses and TORTURE THEM MERCILESSLY.

[Bloomwood]

I had geek squad out here to try and fix mine, but some of these viruses get so far into your computer that you can't get them off without taking everything off your computer and re-installing (like houseblend said). Do you have Netscape on your computer by chance or mozilla?

IE is bad because since it is the most prevalent browser, these horrible viruses are made just for IE (the bad guys get more for their money this way). Once you are able to access the internet again, I highly recommend you download mozilla and use it exclusively.

[wendalah]

How do you take everything off your computer? There's nothing on there that I need to save.

[houseblend]

How do you take everything off your computer? There's nothing on there that I need to save.

You need the disks that came with your computer. I believe if you put them in your computer, they will guide you through the process.

Your life will be much, much easier since you don't need to save anything!

[kam]

Is this a desktop or laptop? I've rebuilt my laptop several times so I can definitely guide you there. Otherwise try to find those disks as houseblend recommended. Essentially you're overwriting your OS with a reinstall of the disks.

[wendalah]

It's a desktop...just your basic Dell...I know we have the startup discs somewhere. DH is going to attempt to wipe everything when he gets home this afternoon.