5 replies to this topic

[stevesa]

I just went through hell with a friends laptop. It was so full of spyware/malware/you-name-it-ware that it would not operate if it was not connected to the internet. When it was connected, there were so many pop-up's that the machine could not be operated. I ran AdAware and it found and repaired, after several re-boots, 210 instances of suspicious files/entries. I thought we were on the road to recovery but the pop-up's continued. I downloaded Spybot and it found and repaired an additional 50 entires. We must be fixed now! No! I manually went through all of the programs installed on the computer and found 5 more that needed to be deleted. In the meantime, I installed Norton AV 2004 and ran all of the WindowUpdates that were necessary. Surely, this must be fixed now. Everything is running OK but, there is still a toolbar at the top of IE that I can't get rid of. I clicked on one of the buttons and determined that it is a remnant of Lop.com. I downloaded their removal tool and figured all would be well. Reboot and guess what, it's still there!!! I researched for hours and most of the sites said use the Add/Remove programs or use AdAware or SpyBot. I had been on this for 3 hours by now using the recommended techniques. I finally found Hijack this and ran it on his machine. I carefully went through the log and found the offending registry entries. The machine runs great now! Thank you so much for this wonderful tool! Merry Christmas! Steve

Edited by stevesa, 03 December 2003 - 10:12 PM.

[brandon]

It's a very useful tool, expecially in the hands of someone experienced with spyware.

[TW37]

Hi Steve Congrats with your success. I'm new to this ... where does one find / download HiJack this? Thx.

[brandon]

Here's a direct download link to it:

http://www.spywarein.../hijackthis.zip?

BTW, if you don't have Windows XP and above, you will need an unzipping utility such as Winzip

[TW37]

Brandon- Thanks very much. As it turns out, I am running XP. Thanks again - I really appreciate your help / input.

[brandon]

You're welcome.