? for puter techies

[al_g]

One of the very best tools these days is malwarebytes http://www.malwarebytes.org/ . Ideally download it on another computer to a USB drive. Then boot the infected PC into safe mode and run malwarebytes, very good chance it will fix you up.

If it doesn't get it then you have to move onto the serious hardcore combofix or reimage the PC.

[BushMasterBoy]

I have repaired Windows XP using a Windows XP upgrade disk. Its a Microsoft Product I used to upgrade to XP from Windows 98. Sometimes you can repair from a restore disk. That, or find someone that has Internet Explorer on disk. If you are near Pueblo...we could use my Windows XP Upgrade disk and its repair feature.

[Elhuero]

+1 on malware bytes.

also run avast! anti virus in the background.

periodically run spybot search and destroy and lavasoft adaware, and ccleaner.

oh and most importantly, ditch IE and go to firefox.

IE is like flypaper for viruses and spyware.

[BadShot]

Which version of IE are you running. It's not easy to remove IE from a Windows machine, but IE8 with a reasonable security configuration (moderately annoying at times) goes a really long way to avoiding web based attacks. So if you currently have IE7, go ahead and update that to IE8.

Do give the latest version of FireFox a try, but there are somethings (gee thanks Microsoft and your proprietary ways) that you have to have IE for. These are mostly corporate things, but every once in a while you'll run into something on the MS.COM site that will require IE functionality.

[Hoosier]

Blast off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Backup your data (no .exe files) to CD-ROMs, wipe the disk with something like DBAN, and re-install.

And buy Kaspersky internet security software.

Harsh, but it's better than the risk a key logger is reporting your bank logins to Romania.

Oh, and never use IE. Firefox, Chrome are free/faster/more secure. http://getfirefox.com or just google for "Google Chrome" To find it's URL.

H.

[CrufflerSteve]

If you really want to leave viruses and malware behind, how about Ubuntu? There is a little learning curve but the new stuff is getting better and more friendly all the time. My wife still has a Windoze PC since she is tuck in her ways but all other computers in my place are running it.

You might need windows for some specialized options but open office is good enough for all my documents.

Steve

[Hoosier]

You might need windows for some specialized options but open office is good enough for all my documents.

I use Ubuntu daily, along with other POSIX variants, but I still pay the premium to run Windows/OSX on my desktops. I just can't say that it feels as fast, or that The Gimp is a replacement for Photoshop, or that the few games that will run are worth it.

I have a Ubuntu machine with a monitor attached, but it's in a rack in my wiring closet. All day long I manage unix machines from the command line.

That said, if all you want is to surf the web, and you have older/lower powered machines, then Ubuntu might make a great choice. It's free, and you can download it, burn it to a CD, and boot the computer from that CD to try out Ubuntu without changing the harddrive.

H.

[GoldFinger]

One of the very best tools these days is malwarebytes http://www.malwarebytes.org/ . Ideally download it on another computer to a USB drive. Then boot the infected PC into safe mode and run malwarebytes, very good chance it will fix you up.

If it doesn't get it then you have to move onto the serious hardcore combofix or reimage the PC.

+1 on this.

Had a very similar problem to your Mtn Man and tried McAfee, Symantec, Trend and got nothing. Malwarebytes took a while to run but isolated the problem and got me back up and running, and it was free (used to be, anyway.)

Good luck.