Computer help

Oh yeah, this whole thing started after an automatic Windows update, if that mean anything.

Reading between the lines, you may have a lawsuit.

Thanks, but my washing machine is better than ever.

Mine isn't. I'm about to buy a new one.

I'm pretty sure I have a serious problem here.

Where's Eugene when you need him?

I wish I could help you, Smokey, but I'm not familiar with any of the problems you are experiencing. I have a Mac.

Is it really a Windows popup, or some popup trying to sell you an anti-spyware package? Try also running Spybot Search and Destroy. Free

The popup is a scam ad, right? But how do I get rid of it when nothing shows up on the Adaware or Hijackthis scans?

And, if it is a scam, then why do my cookies keep getting deleted everytime I leave a site like this one or Hotmail?

Do a search for files and look for something called WinAntivirus - DON'T run it if you find it; it's a really insidious piece of adware that will give you more and more popups. We have it on one of the computers, it was downloaded, we think, when one of our employees printed out a coupon while mattress-shopping online. Now we can't run Google or IE, it just gets overrun by popups, and they also come up with no browser open (our shipping software works off of various IE components.)

Find a fix-it forum; the gurus there will tell you to copy and paste your Hijack This log and then give you instructions on what exactly you have and how exactly to get rid of it. It will involve deleting a ton of Hkey files. This will be true even if you don't have that WinAntivirus nasty.

The popup is the WinAntivirus.

I will fight this thing to the death.

If it is a scam popup it's possible that it's not on your sytem but a site is sending it to you through Windows Messenger(it's not the same as MSN Messsenger though they look identical).

Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete, click the Processes tab, look for Messenger or somthing similar and end it. Then Click Run, type in services.msc. When that opens look for Messenger and set it to Disabled.

If there IS spyware on the system it would probably show up there too (Ctrl-Alt-Delete)but you'd have to know what you're looking for(something unfamiliar/or using a lot of resources).

http://www.spywareguide.com/product_show.php?id=2731
those cost $$.

This looks FREE: http://www.xp-vista.com/spyware-removal/winantivirus-pro-2007-removal-instructions

At least I'm not alone.

This thing is a fucking menace.

I think it's fixed - Spyhunter found a Trojan that was called something, but if you clicked on it more inforamtion came up and said it could also be called symmons.exe, or something like that. They wanted $29.95 to delete it, but I ran Hijackthis again and eventually found it under the alternate name. Pop ups and icon are both gone. Adaware, Spybot, and Windows Defender never found it - kept saying my system was fine.

Funny - my wife's father recently convinced me or rather forced me to switch over from Norton Anti Virus to McAfee. I really didn't care either way but he was with us for a few days and it gave him something to do. He thinks he's computer guy.

Anyway, we updated our windows as well and McAfee popped up a warning about this adware thing so we declined it. It's warned us several times now about adware.

I realize this is of now help right now, but you might want to try McAfee. If you're using it already there may be an option to stop adware that you need to choose.

McAfee KILLED my system - I'd rather run nothing that that thing again. I've been using AVG for about a year and it's been great. AdAware has been great, too. All I know is that I got a blue screen this afternoon and a Windows message telling me it was doing automatic updates. Next thing I know I have that WinAntiVirus thing.

Wow ok... well I got no problems. Actually I never have. I'm just lucky that way I guess.

use AVGFree. all of you.

Everything is back to normal except the cookie thing - I can't stay logged in on any site.

Could it be the sites have some kind of ignore list?

Check your browser/firewall settings re:cookies. That thing may have changed them. IE7 or Firefox?

Weren't you warned about using automatic update the last time you had a computer problem... which also resulted from an automatic Windows update ?

Uh . . . I don't think so.

How would one disable automatic updates?

Control Panel > Security Center > Automatic Updates ==> then select one of the last two radio buttons according to your preference.

A good computer rule to follow is NEVER, EVER, let anything automatically update anything. Tell it to tell you what it wants to do, and then YOU decide whether to do it or not. Take back the byte, brothers and sisters!

Another good rule is: Never trust Microsoft.

Ah...another reason why I'm happy with my MacBook.

All the settings are the same as they've always been. It's not that big of a deal, unless it's a sign that something else it fucked up.

Amen, sister!

Read this for a succinct description, and recommendation, from one of the foremost Windows experts, Woody Leonhard.

Deleted IE, switched everything to Firefox, currently no problems.

You can't delete IE, you can only turn off your access to it.

I hit delete and it got deleted.

Where did you hit delete? The big E icon?

In the program menu.

All you deleted was a shortcut to it. It stil resides in your system, and it's part of Windows so it can't go bye-bye. You can stop all access to it through the Control Panel. Add/Remove Programs, click on the left where it says Add/Remove Windows Componenets, and uncheck IE. That'll remove access and all the shortcuts.

You're just jealous because I deleted IE and you can't and I don't even know what I'm doing.

You'll be back looking for me when something else goes kaput!

haha