Posted on 02/01/2009 9:56:47 AM PST by Hildy
Anyone have any experience with this nasty piece of spyware. I had not even heard about it, until this morning when I put it on my neighbor's computer. It would have been bad enough if I had done it to my own, it's horribe I did it to his...so...what's the best way of ridding myself of this evil interloper. And for once, I'm using that term about something other than Obama!
Thanks!
I’ve used AVG for years but I really am not very impressed with version 8. The older versions, if an update was scheduled, would pop up a little window, update themselves and close after 30 sedonds if you didn’t press the Close button. The new one opens a big window, drops down a “Notification” that’s basically an ad trying to get you to buy the paid version, and open up a little window down by the system tray, then after the update, you have to go to the trouble to close like three different things. Now all that is somewhat trivial, but when I first “upgraded” to version 8, it seems like half the time the definition updates would fail several tries/several days in a row, and it would be in some kind of faulted/disabled state till the next time the update worked. They seem to have worked that out now, but the infuriating user interface issues are still there. I hated it so much I was trying out Comodo, but that seemed to use a lot more resources (less efficient or working harder, I don’t know) that seemed to slug a couple machines that I have that aren’t bleeding edge, so I went back to AVG for the moment, but I’m still not happy and still looking for an alternative.
Format c:
Seriously, the only way I've to complete eradicate this bug is do completely wipe the system and reprogram it.
Just switch to avast free, when they are free you don’t lose anything by searching for your preference, and AVG is receiving a lot of glitch complaints this year.
I have always gone back to avast everytime I have ever tried AVG.
Comodo firewall is supposed to be very good and I used it for a year or so after using zonealarm free for many years, but I found commodo just too demanding (a common complaint) and when I saw zonealarm pro offered for free, I snagged it.
Clamwin (http://www.clamwin.com/) is supposed to be pretty good (I haven’t used it), but it doesn’t have a real-time scanner.
Wrong advice to anyone who has any documents of value. Worst case, you can reinstall Windows, overwriting the registry and all program files. The bad news is this uninstalls everything. The good news is it leaves all your documents untouched.
If you are still paranoid, you can at least backup your documents before reformatting.
My FR homepage has some detail on how to rid yourself of this one.
After backing up everything important, then type FORMAT C:.
Better?
I’ve dealt with most of the viruses mentioned on these threads — everything from business computers to people’s home computers infested with more popups than Pillsbury.
I’ve never had to reformat. If it’s too far gone to disinfect, I just reinstall Windows, deleting the old installation.
I’m realizing that..I”m having a hard time of it, because evertime I go to a site, the antivirus page pops up and I can’t get where I want to go. Might just have to reload the system.
You have cleaned seven machines of this and your solution seems pretty easy. Do you also suggest a flash drive for people that can’t download the needed programs?
bookmark
That is a nasty, nasty program...by today, it was impossible to go on any webpage without being bumped off to the antivirus 2009 page. Scary stuff. I can't believe I had never heard about it.
Have always had AVG free but do not like the new version 8.0 (?) Just got my two laptops checked over and They told me that Norton was the only way to go. Had problems with Norton in the distant past, but they swear that that it new version is now good and the only way to go. Any ideas!
Since I'm a technician, I have a flash drive with all the tools on it, and besides, they are cheap. If you can't download the items, get a flash drive and download it somewhere else and take it to the infected machine.
“Since I’m a technician, I have a flash drive with all the tools on it, and besides, they are cheap. If you can’t download the items, get a flash drive and download it somewhere else and take it to the infected machine.”
That is what I have been doing, it is a really neat thing to have for situations like this.
F11? I know that Dell has a hidden partition with an original image of the OS which is accessed that way. Is your machine a Dell or something else?
Also, Norton has a program that comes with their security package that's called GHOST? and it does the same thing.
It was running really fast when we did this..like brand new.
Yes, Dell uses Ghost. Acronis TrueImage is another good program for that.
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