Virus?

Damnit! Computer got some sort of virus. I have McAfee, which comes with Comcast Internet, but I'm not sure how good it is. What's the best antivirus to run in safe mode? Avast doesn't work in safe mode and McAfee does funky stuff. Computer boots up OK and seems to run OK. Have scanned with McAfee in norma mode and it finds nothing but something is there. Ran Malaware and Adaware and they find just trivial stuff. Hijack this is above my comfort level. Any ideas? I'm not going to do any online banking, etc until I get this figured out. I guess I could just reload XP but that's a last resort.

 

What is the computer doing to make you think there is a virus - are you getting those fake alerts?? If so, I have Webroot Spysweeper with Antivirus, that's what worked for me - I picked up a nasty worm on facebook that propagated itself into all kinds of stuff. It took me running Spysweeper 3 times to completely clean it all out - most likely you have something running in memory that Spysweeper will clean, but you have to wait for the prompt that it has detected it, and then reboot it again. Be sure that once you remove all the infected items, it gives you an option to "always quarantine" the items found on the options menu, be sure to select everything it detects, and that it has the "always quarantine" status.

If it doesn't fix the problem, if you buy the Webroot software and send them your symptoms via e-mail, they have online help that will help you by phone or e-mail. They just sent me an e-mail fix which I ran after I think I had already gotten rid of the viruses, but I ran it to be sure, and it involved running 2 programs from links they sent me and running them in safe mode.

Good luck!

 

Well, for starters the computer went bonkers and started telling me there was a intrusion, infection, the system was compromised and whatnot. What was odd is when this happened all I could get for a while was ads to upgrade antivirus software. After that nothing would run, like when I tried to open Firefox it asked me what software I wanted to run Firefox. I discovered the EXE thing was gone and had to add that back and now the computer isn't asking me what softwire to run everything. I just have a feeling something is still on the computer. I'll try what you recommended this evening.

Also, this initially happened on my PC downstairs. We have wireless internet and my wife's laptop had the same thing happen two days later. Weird.

 

It sounds like the same thing I had - somehow it infects Firefox - I use IE, BUT, when I ran the safe mode programs, it deleted a whole bunch of Firefox files from my system and now Firefox is gone completely, other than the shortcuts, I haven't re-installed it, because I never use it. but if you DO want to reinstall it, just use IE8 and then download it again - it should be un-corrupted if you do all the stuff above. You may not even need the safe mode programs - so I'd try running Spysweeper a few times 1st.

 

i've had this sort of thing before. malwarebytes and spybot fixed it.

 

bingo

 

Don't surf porn on an admin account + don't use Internet Explorer = ultimately better than any anti-spyware software or virus protection.

But Adaware and McAfee aren't bad. AVG (virus) is free and also good.

 

In that world we don't get close to other people and don't catch colds. Now you can get spyware and adawre from embedded ads on safe sites. Facebook has become notorius for it. Oh and BTW the latest reports are that IE is more secure than Firefox. By latest... the last 2 years.

AVG is useless compared to Avast. Avast can't scan in Safe Mode, but you're less likley to get a virus with Avast in the first place. Actually a pretty good one is the new Microsoft Antivirus/Antispyware. I think its something like security essentials. At least as far as free goes. McAfee is crap BTW. You'd be better off with Trend Micro or Kaspersky if you're wanting to pay for an AV.

 

I think Avast took care of it. After I realized Avast couldn't scan in Safe Mode I did a Avast boot scan and it picked up something so I deleted it. Did a rescan and found nothing. I have McAfee since it comes with cable internet but I may just turn it off as it never found anything.

 

All malwarebytes found was stuff related to Adaware.