Virus/spyware?

[Wolfie]

Ok, i seemed to have picked up a little 'something' recently (ooh err!)

In the new year, i started to get pop-ups spawning when ever i was using IE (not something i do often!) It became annoying and i used a program called Ad-aware (2007) - this seemed to stop the problem. However next day when i booted up the machine i kept getting the dialog box informing me that "Internet explorer encountered a problem and must be closed, report this problem to Microsoft' etc. I would click 'do not send' and a few seconds later the box would appear again... and again... and again!

... so i downloaded a registry fixer and Spybot search and destroy. Ran these utilities and fixed up what ever problems they found, then ran a full scan using Symantec Anti virus (which found nothing)

Now the problem has lessened a bit, when i first boot the machine all is fine, but then a random amount of time later i start getting the "IE crashed" dialog box again.

I'm a bit lost now as what i can do to fix the problem, anyone have any suggestions, ideas or links that might prove useful?

Thanks in Advance!

Edited January 11, 2008 by Wolfie

[RKASA]

Try downloading a Linux ISO, Just kidding.       In the past I had things like this do the cleaning of temp files and internet temp files in safe mode that aways seemed to help.  Something about restarting from safe mode that keeps it cleaner.

[britmaveric]

Might be a pain in the arse Wolfie, but might be best to reformat/re-image and start fresh copy of windows. You might be scratching your head for a long time when could have just rebuilt it.

[stumonster]

to clean a computer of todays malware I create a UBCD4win image and either burn it onto a CD or copy onto a bootable USB stick - too much stuff disables or replaces antivir and antimalware to try and run any of it in the win OS enviroment. Some also replace Iexplorer.exe

update spybot , adaware and any of the Antivirus software you intend to use before you build the image

boot the machine with the CD or USB stick and then run the cleaners - it creates a ramdrive .

I have also had good success using it to recover files from trashed hard drives - then copying the files to an external USB drive.

[NanLaew]

Ok, i seemed to have picked up a little 'something' recently (ooh err!)

In the new year, i started to get pop-ups spawning when ever i was using IE (not something i do often!) It became annoying and i used a program called Ad-aware (2007) - this seemed to stop the problem. However next day when i booted up the machine i kept getting the dialog box informing me that "Internet explorer encountered a problem and must be closed, report this problem to Microsoft' etc. I would click 'do not send' and a few seconds later the box would appear again... and again... and again!

... so i downloaded a registry fixer and Spybot search and destroy. Ran these utilities and fixed up what ever problems they found, then ran a full scan using Symantec Anti virus (which found nothing)

Now the problem has lessened a bit, when i first boot the machine all is fine, but then a random amount of time later i start getting the "IE crashed" dialog box again.

I'm a bit lost now as what i can do to fix the problem, anyone have any suggestions, ideas or links that might prove useful?

Thanks in Advance!

We assume here that you are running Windows XP and the latest version of IE which is IE7? If you are using Windows 2000, IE6 is as far as it goes.

The suite of software you ran to clear your 'problem' may have done the business but I would suspect that if you are getting repeating IE crash flags, then the IE7 installation may be buggered. Unfortunately, IE code assumes that you really, really do need to report everything to Bill Gates, hence the incessant reminders popping up.

You can download and reinstall IE7 from Microsoft and see if it restores the broken bits. If it doesn't you can actually remove IE from the Windows components list but I wouldn't recommend that as re-installation will not automatically restore links to most of the Accessories and you will probably need the original installation CD, internet access, plenty coffee and the patience of buddha. I did it while offshore and it took me the best part of a day back onshore to undo my earnest mistakes. It did result in a much steadier IE7 installation though.

IMHO, IE7 is flaky as all get go and there's better alternatives out there like Mozilla Firefox (my recco) or Opera.

Edited January 13, 2008 by NanLaew

[thaiclan]

Once you have re-set your PC and re-installed windows, give IE a wide berth. I agree with previous post as I use Mozilla but I hear Opera is very good too.

IE is the most popular browser and thus nearly ALL virus and F#@K u Up's are targeted at it. (thats a technical term btw )