Trojan/Virus thingy...again
I like to make records of this, in case I ever need to remind myself how to deal with it. So far I haven't forgotten what is supposed to work, or the fact that it usually doesn't. If my account spares anyone else from wasting two hours like I did, all the better.
So I got the "vista internet security 2012 trojan/virus" thing popping up on my screen. I've gotten it before, but word on the net is that they've improved greatly since then. I had logged into a forum I never visit in order to reply to a pm. I then closed the tab. A few minutes later firefox disappeared and the alerts popped up. I recognized them and closed the tabs. Then I ran "runkill" to stop the badstuff that was running on my computer. Then I ran malwarebytes on a full scan for two hours, it found 6 trojan thingies and claimed to have isolated them. Malwarebytes prompted me to restart my computer right away, so I clicked okay. Then I got this bluescreen of death that kept the computer from restarting normally. I retried twice, bluescreen of death, and finally opened up safe mode. There I got an error report that said the "problem event name" was BlueScreen. Yeah, how original, right?
I did a system restore to the 25 (just in case I got it a few days ago and not a few hours ago) and the computer shut down and restarted normally and now it's fine.
Malwarebytes? No help. After looking this up (which I couldn't do because I didn't have internet access in safemode and I could only restart in safemode after malwarebytes told me to restart my computer) I find out that some people say Malwarebytes isn't meant to fix this problem. Excuses excuses. It said it had isolated the trojans. It told me to restart. If I had gone with my gut instinct, I'd have run a system restore as soon as runkill stopped the badstuff. I would have saved myself two hours and two aborted restarts of my computer.
Long live system restore. When I'm able to run it, it never fails. And praises be to runkill for stopping the badstuff so that I *can* run system restore.
I'm still going to do another malwarebytes scan, but this time if it asks me to restart my computer, I'm going to make sure I have a system restore point set up in advance so I can undo any crap malwarebytes creates. So far every time malwarebytes has told me to 'restart to complete the process' it makes things worse and I just have to run a system restore, presumably replacing all the crap malwarebytes was trying to get rid of. Malwarebytes bites. At least for me. I realize it is the wonderchild for everyone else on the net. It just doesn't like me.
EDIT/UPDATE
I spoke (typed) too soon. When I tried to run MB I got a runtime error and it wouldn't open. I looked it up and they said to uninstall and reinstall it. When I tried to uninstall it, I got another error. I looked it up and they (various forums for this very common issue after a virus cleanup, apparently) said to run a mbam_clean program to uninstall MB. I created a system restore point, just in case. Then I ran the 'clean' program and when it told me to restart my computer, I clicked the ok button. It restarted fine, MB now gone. I reinstalled it and it opened up.
Now here is where I am not following the tips. They said to restart the computer a second time to make sure that MB doesn't disappear or get buggy again. I'm not doing that. Restarting my computer for the sake of MB has only caused me troubles every single time. Let's see if not following their advice to the letter bites me in the ass.
I'm running a full scan. If it asks me to restart my computer, I'll make *another* system restore point just in case. If the bluescreen comes back *again* then I'm going to assume that bluescreen is being caused by MB itself. I've always suspected a link between the people making the viruses and the people offering to get rid of them for free (while also offering *more* protection if you buy a full account).
I miss SpybotS&D. They accepted donations, but they sold nothing. So it was easy to believe they weren't the ones creating the badstuff they were fighting. I wouldn't use MB at all but sadly S&D no longer helps with all these viruses and trojans that MB knows all about. Almost as if MB had insider information about them... No, I'm sure that's not the case. I'm just frustrated and taking it out on the program that's supposed to help me but rarely does. If I thought for one moment that the 'full version' would help me more than the free version does, I would pay for it in a heartbeat.
Why can't the FBI go after the people making these viruses and trojans instead of worrying about copyright theft? People send their credit card information to these people, so they should be traceable. And unlike copyright issues, there is no 'fair use' when it comes to stealing money from people, destroying their property, and causing all sorts of emotional damage to go with the cost of cleaning the infested computers. I'm sure countries around the world would celebrate if the FBI targetted a universally hated group like these guys. Instead they worry about some crappily encoded movie downloads as if we can't watch those on youtube for free already. Idiots.
So I got the "vista internet security 2012 trojan/virus" thing popping up on my screen. I've gotten it before, but word on the net is that they've improved greatly since then. I had logged into a forum I never visit in order to reply to a pm. I then closed the tab. A few minutes later firefox disappeared and the alerts popped up. I recognized them and closed the tabs. Then I ran "runkill" to stop the badstuff that was running on my computer. Then I ran malwarebytes on a full scan for two hours, it found 6 trojan thingies and claimed to have isolated them. Malwarebytes prompted me to restart my computer right away, so I clicked okay. Then I got this bluescreen of death that kept the computer from restarting normally. I retried twice, bluescreen of death, and finally opened up safe mode. There I got an error report that said the "problem event name" was BlueScreen. Yeah, how original, right?
I did a system restore to the 25 (just in case I got it a few days ago and not a few hours ago) and the computer shut down and restarted normally and now it's fine.
Malwarebytes? No help. After looking this up (which I couldn't do because I didn't have internet access in safemode and I could only restart in safemode after malwarebytes told me to restart my computer) I find out that some people say Malwarebytes isn't meant to fix this problem. Excuses excuses. It said it had isolated the trojans. It told me to restart. If I had gone with my gut instinct, I'd have run a system restore as soon as runkill stopped the badstuff. I would have saved myself two hours and two aborted restarts of my computer.
Long live system restore. When I'm able to run it, it never fails. And praises be to runkill for stopping the badstuff so that I *can* run system restore.
I'm still going to do another malwarebytes scan, but this time if it asks me to restart my computer, I'm going to make sure I have a system restore point set up in advance so I can undo any crap malwarebytes creates. So far every time malwarebytes has told me to 'restart to complete the process' it makes things worse and I just have to run a system restore, presumably replacing all the crap malwarebytes was trying to get rid of. Malwarebytes bites. At least for me. I realize it is the wonderchild for everyone else on the net. It just doesn't like me.
EDIT/UPDATE
I spoke (typed) too soon. When I tried to run MB I got a runtime error and it wouldn't open. I looked it up and they said to uninstall and reinstall it. When I tried to uninstall it, I got another error. I looked it up and they (various forums for this very common issue after a virus cleanup, apparently) said to run a mbam_clean program to uninstall MB. I created a system restore point, just in case. Then I ran the 'clean' program and when it told me to restart my computer, I clicked the ok button. It restarted fine, MB now gone. I reinstalled it and it opened up.
Now here is where I am not following the tips. They said to restart the computer a second time to make sure that MB doesn't disappear or get buggy again. I'm not doing that. Restarting my computer for the sake of MB has only caused me troubles every single time. Let's see if not following their advice to the letter bites me in the ass.
I'm running a full scan. If it asks me to restart my computer, I'll make *another* system restore point just in case. If the bluescreen comes back *again* then I'm going to assume that bluescreen is being caused by MB itself. I've always suspected a link between the people making the viruses and the people offering to get rid of them for free (while also offering *more* protection if you buy a full account).
I miss SpybotS&D. They accepted donations, but they sold nothing. So it was easy to believe they weren't the ones creating the badstuff they were fighting. I wouldn't use MB at all but sadly S&D no longer helps with all these viruses and trojans that MB knows all about. Almost as if MB had insider information about them... No, I'm sure that's not the case. I'm just frustrated and taking it out on the program that's supposed to help me but rarely does. If I thought for one moment that the 'full version' would help me more than the free version does, I would pay for it in a heartbeat.
Why can't the FBI go after the people making these viruses and trojans instead of worrying about copyright theft? People send their credit card information to these people, so they should be traceable. And unlike copyright issues, there is no 'fair use' when it comes to stealing money from people, destroying their property, and causing all sorts of emotional damage to go with the cost of cleaning the infested computers. I'm sure countries around the world would celebrate if the FBI targetted a universally hated group like these guys. Instead they worry about some crappily encoded movie downloads as if we can't watch those on youtube for free already. Idiots.