Posted on 11/24/2005 8:24:54 AM PST by johniegrad
I have somehow picked up a program called "Spyaxe3.0" on my HP laptop running Windows XP. It claims to be an antispyware program. Since it appears to have installed itself, I have removed it several times with "Add/Remove Programs". I have also done a search and deleted all files related to it that I can find. It causes me to obtain "security alerts" on the toolbar at the bottom of my screen that lead to the Spyaxe website when clicked. Despite my attempts to remove it, it will often reappear when I reboot or start the computer.
I have scanned the system with AVGFree and with NortonAntivirus and have eliminated some other stuff I found which may or may not have been related to the problem.
I am not particularly computer literate so I hope I'm not posting something here that shows off my stupidity. I suspect that there is some obvious fix to this problem that I am just not seeing.
BTW, I hope you have installed xP Service Pack 2. If not, please do this.
An alternative that will accomplish this task with minimal effort from you is to download and install a tool called "HiJackThis!"
It will give you a printout to screen of all your BHOs (Browser Helper Objects) and associated registry keys. You can, if you like, post it here or to me in a FReepmail. From this output, it can be determined which things need to be purged. The second part of the "HiJackThis!" tool is that it will do the deletions for you.
Good luck!
Norton 2006 Virus/Spyware will usually remove these problems. Best scan is to do a full machine scan in safe mode. Select safe mode boot by running 'msconfig' from RUN in XP. After full scan and corrections, do 'msconfig' again to return to normal boot.
I removed a ton of bad adware from spouse's computer two weeks ago using this method and it has been running great ever since.
Free virus software is worth what you payed for it.
getting rid of pests and crap is ALWAYS easier in safe mode.
(http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=321CD7A2-6A57-4C57-A8BD-DBF62EDA9671&displaylang=en ).
I would also recommend AdAware
( http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ ),
and Clean-up
( http://www.stevengould.org/ ).
The free program available from Yahoo is nalso pretty good.
I have that and do all the updates. Have anti virus and anti spyware running. I now need one gig memory whereas 512mb was good enough. I use Windows XP
I didn't know about the deletion tool though......
FRegards,
See my second link. :-)
GMTA. :-)
Nice tool, that HJT.
Trend Micro has a free personal online scan that I've seen catch stuff that Spybot and AdAware didn't (each has their strengths and weaknesses).
http://www.trendmicro.com/en/home/us/personal.htm
bump for later, off to eat turkey.
Found the discussion you linked and they suggest the following:
In order to clean your PC from infections related to Spyware Axe product, please follow the instructions below:
1) Save Uninstallers.zip from http://www.spyaxe.com/uninstall/uninstallers.zip to your desktop or HDD.
2) Extract 2 files "illegal_adv_uninstall1.exe" and "illegal_adv_uninstall2.exe" to your desktop or your HDD using WinZip.
3) Execute both of them one by one by double-clicking with your mouse.
4) Reboot your PC
5) Your PC is now clean from the infections.
If I can figure out how to follow the instructions, I'll do just that. Also in the process of downloading Ewido Security Suite.
Thanks!
Should've known not to rely on a solution published by Spyaxe!
Did you know that just playing a newer Sony CD will install the Sony Root-kit? Like you said there are lawsuits being filed.
The government is getting involved because, to my knowledge, gov't and business have no rules against allowing employees to play music CD's on their computer. And just playing a newer Sony CD will install a malicious virus. This is illegal tampering with gov't computers.
The reason this is so wrong is that Sony Root-kit is designed to block any reference to itself. And it allows other viruses to run undetected.
These are articles about Sony's Root-kit.
Wikipedia's information about Rootkits:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_kit
This was the guy who originally discovered the Root Kit. This is a very long
technical article, other pages take out the key pieces
http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights.html
This writer has a bit of a chip on his shoulder, but he also has a passion for
computer security.
http://www.spywareinfo.net/nov4,2005#sonyrootkit
Cheaters in online video games using this technology:
http://www.spywareinfo.net/nov4,2005#rootkitmore
About the patch Sony provides, and that this software "phones-home" without user
consent.
http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/11/more-on-sony-dangerous-decloaking.html
President of Sony's opinion about root-kits:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/09/sony_drm_who_cares/
Virus writers take advantage of root-kit infected computers:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/10/sony_drm_trojan/
A recap of the above:
http://www.spywareinfo.net/nov11,2005#sony
Update: who's making lawsuits, government computers infected, and copyright
infringment:
http://www.spywareinfo.net/nov23,2005#yasa
Thanks for the info. I haven't played any CDs. There is a fair amount of discussion going on in some of the links listed above about Spyaxe. I think I'm getting in over my head. I may need to save all my documents to disc and simply reinstall my entire system. The only problem is that some of my stuff is downloaded from the net and I have dial-up only.
Get System Mechanic (great software), then run its registry cleaner after you've deleted the software. Then, there is another tool in SM called Windows Startup Manager wherein you can delete any unwanted programs that load on startup.
(their Web site is www.iolo.com)
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