Viruses!
So, thinking the reason I couldn't get something to run optimally (Dragon Age Keep), I decided to update the flash player on my PC Saturday.
I didn't quite realize what I had accepted as what I though was a flash update until I noticed there were like three new pieces of software appearing on the desktop, and when I eventually checked, I'd gotten some 15-20 new programs. I deleted and uninstalled them all immediately, and didn't think anything of it.
Until Sunday morning when I was browsing Opera and an audio ad started playing. Now, that happens, you open a tab and some random thing plays in the background and you can't find it immediately... except there was NOTHING playing it. Just random ads loading in the background.
Turns out I accepted an adware virus instead. *sigh* Causing hidden backgroun ads, ads to pop up on sites like crazy, and clicking on a link would consistently send me to a new ad page instead.
Ran a scan, and it found a couple trojans and some stuff immediatley, and a ton of PUP files. Deleted all of it, but the problem still persisted. So I then got NEW virus protection scanner, and it did a much more thurough scan of the drive, and found and killed a few more things (mostly stuff hiding in the app temporary files) and deleted ALL cookies and put in adblocker... and ultimately uninstalled Opera entirely. That seemed to do it... as most of the problems vanished... but then a couple hours later on Google Chrome I got the background audio ads again, and clicking a link once again opened a new tab to an ad. (For anti virus security, ironically).
Got a THIRD virus scanner, let it run all night, and it found one more thing and killed it, then ran in safe mode and found another thing, and killed that. Now, its a question of, is that something the second scan missed, or did it appear between the scan Sunday night and the scan Monday night? And is the problem fixed now? I don't know. I hope it is, but the nature of the adware means even if everything runs fine for an hour with no signs, it doesn't mean its fixed for sure.
But if it isn't I probably need to start copying things and prep for a full blown reinstall. (Maybe pick up a terrabyte drive or something) Which... kind of sucks. A lot. And I have no idea how to do it.
I didn't quite realize what I had accepted as what I though was a flash update until I noticed there were like three new pieces of software appearing on the desktop, and when I eventually checked, I'd gotten some 15-20 new programs. I deleted and uninstalled them all immediately, and didn't think anything of it.
Until Sunday morning when I was browsing Opera and an audio ad started playing. Now, that happens, you open a tab and some random thing plays in the background and you can't find it immediately... except there was NOTHING playing it. Just random ads loading in the background.
Turns out I accepted an adware virus instead. *sigh* Causing hidden backgroun ads, ads to pop up on sites like crazy, and clicking on a link would consistently send me to a new ad page instead.
Ran a scan, and it found a couple trojans and some stuff immediatley, and a ton of PUP files. Deleted all of it, but the problem still persisted. So I then got NEW virus protection scanner, and it did a much more thurough scan of the drive, and found and killed a few more things (mostly stuff hiding in the app temporary files) and deleted ALL cookies and put in adblocker... and ultimately uninstalled Opera entirely. That seemed to do it... as most of the problems vanished... but then a couple hours later on Google Chrome I got the background audio ads again, and clicking a link once again opened a new tab to an ad. (For anti virus security, ironically).
Got a THIRD virus scanner, let it run all night, and it found one more thing and killed it, then ran in safe mode and found another thing, and killed that. Now, its a question of, is that something the second scan missed, or did it appear between the scan Sunday night and the scan Monday night? And is the problem fixed now? I don't know. I hope it is, but the nature of the adware means even if everything runs fine for an hour with no signs, it doesn't mean its fixed for sure.
But if it isn't I probably need to start copying things and prep for a full blown reinstall. (Maybe pick up a terrabyte drive or something) Which... kind of sucks. A lot. And I have no idea how to do it.