The wheels on the bus go 'round and POP!
After 4.5 years of relatively healthy PC computing, my Windows tower has contracted a rather nasty piece of spyware.
I consider myself bi-sys-ual but I much prefer Macs, so this is a plea for help to the more Windows-centric people on my FList.
For your reference, the most visible symptoms are listed below the cut. And this is after a few go-rounds with both Microsoft's web-based system scanning tool, as well as what was purported to be a full bleaching using a brand new purchase/install/update of Norton 360.
1. A red circle with a white "X" persists in my System Tray. It will pop up a small yellow talk-balloon alert that, if I close it, reappears about 30-60 seconds later (and if I leave it alone, it sounds like it's trying to pop up every 30-60 seconds anyway). The alert text reads verbatim:
Warning! Security report
Your computer is infected! It is recommended to start spyware cleaner tool.
2. If I happen to click on the alert or the X-circle, it normally pops up a Firefox window pointing to www [dot] antivirusxppro2009 [dot] com, a total spam shill.
3. Other Firefox and Internet Explorer windows pop up randomly, as does the Windows Explorer view of My Computer.
4. The desktop picture has been changed to some dumb "Warning! You may be at risk..." graphic.
5. Task Manager/Ctrl-Alt-Delete has been "disabled by the administrator." Following specific instructions to reset this in the Registry has not worked.
6. For a while, I lost the ability to surf my own links in Firefox and IE, then regained it, and have since lost it again. (Even the spammy antivirus page isn't showing up now.) I can get to Symantec's virus info pages via Firefox if I click on a description within Norton 360, but little else beyond that.
Oh yeah, Windows XP Professional FYI. And I think some of my prior cleaning efforts ended up quarantining or deleting some .DLL files, because I get some error messages on startup about them.
I consider myself bi-sys-ual but I much prefer Macs, so this is a plea for help to the more Windows-centric people on my FList.
For your reference, the most visible symptoms are listed below the cut. And this is after a few go-rounds with both Microsoft's web-based system scanning tool, as well as what was purported to be a full bleaching using a brand new purchase/install/update of Norton 360.
1. A red circle with a white "X" persists in my System Tray. It will pop up a small yellow talk-balloon alert that, if I close it, reappears about 30-60 seconds later (and if I leave it alone, it sounds like it's trying to pop up every 30-60 seconds anyway). The alert text reads verbatim:
Warning! Security report
Your computer is infected! It is recommended to start spyware cleaner tool.
2. If I happen to click on the alert or the X-circle, it normally pops up a Firefox window pointing to www [dot] antivirusxppro2009 [dot] com, a total spam shill.
3. Other Firefox and Internet Explorer windows pop up randomly, as does the Windows Explorer view of My Computer.
4. The desktop picture has been changed to some dumb "Warning! You may be at risk..." graphic.
5. Task Manager/Ctrl-Alt-Delete has been "disabled by the administrator." Following specific instructions to reset this in the Registry has not worked.
6. For a while, I lost the ability to surf my own links in Firefox and IE, then regained it, and have since lost it again. (Even the spammy antivirus page isn't showing up now.) I can get to Symantec's virus info pages via Firefox if I click on a description within Norton 360, but little else beyond that.
Oh yeah, Windows XP Professional FYI. And I think some of my prior cleaning efforts ended up quarantining or deleting some .DLL files, because I get some error messages on startup about them.