I went out yesterday and came back to my pc to find 'internetsecurity2010' installed on my computer and sitting in the system tray. It was popping up warning messages every couple mins telling me I had a load of viruses (but I had to purchase the full version to fix it) Now I didnt install this, nor did I download anything. I have norton and it didnt pick anything up. Anyway, I couldn't uninstall it because it wasn't listed in add and remove, it was in program files but I couldnt delete it because I couldnt close it because it disabled task manager somehow! I played with it for ages and now I've resorted to formatting and am now in the painful process of re-installing everything. Has anyone come across this or know how to prevent it from happening again? (or at least get rid of it without having to format!) Thanks.

that is a bad one bro I am so sorry you caught it. Formatting does not always kill it. It gets into DOS. Look for malwarebits an anti malware program that generally gets rid of it if you catch it soon enough

I work with computers and that one truly sucks

Ive worked on quite a few computers this year with that issue or a variation of the same.

It can be cleaned without having to dump the drive and start over.

Laterz,
dafanman

thanks guys

you could try restoring your computer to an earlier date, this may get rid of it, or you may do a search and see where the program is on your hard drive.

Using AVG and Spybot Search and Destroy keeps me pretty clean. They both have free downloads and work great.

I use avast!. Its a freebie too.

you can google the program name and find put what you need to do to remove it good luck

Yeah that's a nasty virus that's been around for a few years (under AV2007, AV2008, etc.). My Dad has somehow contracted it several times and my Mom once. Somehow I've never gotten it, but I do use a very good commercial AV/anti-spyware program (Kaspersky). We tried all the complicated "fixes" posted on the internet but the only way I've been able to completely remove it from my folks' comps is to reformat each time.

Also, I don't know if this is a reason I've avoided getting it, but I also use Firefox with the NoScript add-on. It's not really a user-friendly mod as it forces you to set up permissions for every single site that uses any kind of script (which is most of them these days) and you have to kind of have an intuition as to what sites are safe and which ones aren't, but I think if used correctly it can really reduce your chances of contracting viruses and spyware.

iv got norton360 it has a web site scanner and it informs me if the site is safe or not. it saved me a couple days ago when i was trying to redo my myspace page.

you should switched to malware bytes, Spybot cant find alot of infected files stored in your registry. Much less rid you of them.

But yes, i do prefer AVG over Norton or anyother antivirus software!

LEAVE THE PORN SITES ALONE GUYS ! lol ...sorry to hear that ukc

If you have to wipe the drive, now might be a good time to try linux. I am using Fedora 10 right now. After the headache of getting the more advanced video drivers and flash and codecs and such, it works great. It's just a bit of a headache figuring things out at first.

Do a dual boot setup so you can still go back to windows every now and then when you absolutely have to for something.

Vista is always grinding away at the hard drive for me and seems slow compared to linux.

If you are into porn, you should use a linux live cd. That way there is no permanent record on your system for anyone to dig up and you are much safer from malware.