Reviving the Machine:

[jrittenhouse]

If I’ve been quiet again, it’s because my main PC in my office downstairs (where I’m exiled to pending the doc saying I can go up and down stairs again) has been zapped by a nasty virus. It got past my Trend Micro antivirus, and started disconnecting various things on my PC (including the virus protection) and pushing out popups that screamed

Comments

[gnomi]

The same virus got my work laptop last week. The solution was to boot in Safe mde, run Malwarebytes, then boot in normal mode and open IE. Go to (I think) Tools --> Internet Options --> Communications Tab and click the button by the LAN options. Uncheck the box having to do with the proxy server. That should fix all issues related to the virus.

[jrittenhouse]

it was already checked - but thanks!

[bigblued]

After you run Malwarebytes, also run Spybot Search & Destroy. Between the two you should get everything.

I've been reading that malware pushers hijack the machines of companies that distribute banner ads. You go to a site that is normally fine, but the banner ad at the top is infected and it gets on your machine. Don't know how true it is tho.

Also, in my experience, anti virus programs only seem to stop viruses and don't seem to be any protection against malware and spyware.

[jrittenhouse]

Had never used Malwarebytes before this; if it wasn't for the fact that it takes so dang long to run a scan on my machine, I'd use it more often.

I think that you're right about HOW I got the durn thing. Any ideas on how to prevent that from happening?

[bigblued]

The quick scan takes about half an hour. I don't use it for preventative, just for curative.

I'll let you in on a secret, I don't use any preventative AV software of any kind. It just bogs down my machine and doesn't stop the newer bugs anyway. And yet, I haven't had a virus in about 3 years. I use Chromium (the developer's version of Chrome)for my browser and it doesn't let anything through.

OTOH, I have a client who has Norton, but uses IE, and I end up cleaning viruses off of his computer every three months or so. I've installed Chrome and Firefox on his machine but he keeps going back to IE...and keeps getting infected.

[dsgood]

Ouch! My sympathies.

[dalecoz]

I had what sounds like the same virus a week or two ago. I'm on Windows 7 and kind of cheated by going back to a recent restore point. I then updated the operating system and haven't (knock on wood) had any problems since.