Adaware help
 

I just ran it and got the below info. I did reboot twice but it still sees these things. I selected "remove all" but it does not seem to want to do that. Any suggestions?

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/8953/adaware.jpg

Re: Adaware help
 

Go to CNet or ZDNet's DL section. Search for "Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware" free antimalware app. Download and install. Run the app. Malware will be gone. ....(hopefully,,it worked great for me, YMMV)

Re: Adaware help
 

Why can't Adaware fix it?

Re: Adaware help
 

Probably because it is the "free" version. It will show you the problems, but won't fix them unless you pay for the full version.

Re: Adaware help
 

I figured out how to do it. You have to go to the "Quarantine" tab.

Re: Adaware help
 

Unless they've changed their policies Adaware will remove problems it detects whether you have the free version or the paid.

Re: Adaware help
 

D'oh, thats right. It was another program I was thinking of. FAIL lol

Re: Adaware help
 

V you keep geting these bugs your gonna need to format that box of yours! be careful dude.

Re: Adaware help
 

You are dirty! FREEZE, *you* with the dirty PC, move away from the crowd!

Please go here: https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 Click the proceed, and check yourself out. The little text within the neat looking tabs are the actual links to the different tests. I would suggest you test *all* available, and read what you can do to protect yourself.

Re: Adaware help
 

AdAware is one of the "good guys" in the anti-malware market. They'd prefer you to buy their stuff, but their free stuff still works.

You can also go to Trend Micro (www.trendmicro.com) for an on-line scan.

Re: Adaware help
 

I have so much crap running on here now, I thought I was protecting myself!

Thanks Felix, I'm just reading the intro info on that page now. ..very internesting! ;)

Re: Adaware help
 

Here's what the first test showed.

Attempting connection to your computer. . .
Shields UP! is now attempting to contact the Hidden Internet Server within your PC. It is likely that no one has told you that your own personal computer may now be functioning as an Internet Server with neither your knowledge nor your permission. And that it may be serving up all or many of your personal files for reading, writing, modification and even deletion by anyone, anywhere, on the Internet!
Your Internet port 139 does not appear to exist!
One or more ports on this system are operating in FULL STEALTH MODE! Standard Internet behavior requires port connection attempts to be answered with a success or refusal response. Therefore, only an attempt to connect to a nonexistent computer results in no response of either kind. But YOUR computer has DELIBERATELY CHOSEN NOT TO RESPOND (that's very cool!) which represents advanced computer and port stealthing capabilities. A machine configured in this fashion is well hardened to Internet NetBIOS attack and intrusion.
Unable to connect with NetBIOS to your computer.
All attempts to get any information from your computer have FAILED. (This is very uncommon for a Windows networking-based PC.) Relative to vulnerabilities from Windows networking, this computer appears to be VERY SECURE since it is NOT exposing ANY of its internal NetBIOS networking protocol over the Internet.

I do feel reassured.

I just checked all the ports are they are fine as well.

Re: Adaware help
 

This is good. You want all of those test' *not* to be able to gain access. The question noe becomes, where is all of this coming from?

Re: Adaware help
 

yeah, unless it has been there for a while and my new version of Adaware just discovered it..

Re: Adaware help
 

While AdAware is a good progam, it's focus is not on rootkits, Trojans, and other, more malicious, software. Their focus is on the relatively benign realm of,,,,,drum roll please,,,, Advertising Ware. Adware and spyware are not normally out to subvert your PC. AdAware may 'detect' other forms of rogue programs, but not be able to reliably remove them.

The screenshot you provided shows a rootkit and at least one Trojan. I would be concerned about these, and start running my checks. Research the web about the reported bugs you get. I would DEFINITELY get a couple of rootkit detectors and run them on my machine. Rootkits are notoriously hard to detect and remove.

But this may all just be smoke and mirrors, the newer "free" versions of Ad-Aware and Spybot have been prone to false positives in the past. Hope this helps.

Re: Adaware help
 

What ElfBane says and Malwarebytes is excellent. Another good one is SuperAntiSpyware. For online scanners stay away from Trend Micro. Go with ESET's NOD32 free online scanner or BitDefender's free online scanner. Kaspersky's online scanner is a good one but it doesn't clean anymore.

If you feel you have to do more check out these stickies:

http://www.techspot.com/vb/menu28.html

Re: Adaware help
 

I'm curious why you suggest staying away from TrendMicro, Albromor. I've used it for a while and not had ill effects. What do you see that makes the others different and/or better?

Note that I'm not trying to nitpick, defend, or anything like that. I'm trying to make sure I'm educated ;)

Re: Adaware help
 

Albromor,
If you could post a link, just so I am at the right place.


Thanks

Re: Adaware help
 

This link sends our *novice PC* friend to the forum. Would be excellent if he knew what all of those gobbly tech ramblings meant. If you have a specific tool, scanner, or utility in mind, please be a bit more straight with your link. If not, I feel it will not be read, and understood by 'Variol'.

My question is:
The spousal unit's Dell uses the 'canned' MS version of 'Defender', how does it rate to you folks? Her PC is always green @ shields up, and passes the weekly scans conducted by 'Norton'.

Re: Adaware help
 

Defender on Vista is a decent tool, not great, not terrible. Defender on XP is, IMO, unreliable. My experience with Defender on XP machines that I have repaired is that, after a while, it just won't update anymore....if it bothers to even work at all.

Re: Adaware help
 

I apologize for not being more clear. TechSpot is an excellent place for getting help of all kinds from reading your minidumps in order to help one figure the cause of BSODs, hardware issues, etc. Many, many novices/first time posters go there and a significant number of contributors have as much as 30 years or more tech experience who help them. (And, no, I don't get paid by TechSpot! :D But I do read minidumps over there)

Sometimes infectious problems go well beyond a mere scan and extra help is needed. The link I provided was the Virus and Malware forum in case Variol needed further help. The stickies at the top help guide in the process and if he doesn't understand how to go about doing certain steps the contributers are more than willing to help. One example is mflynn has 30 years in the business and he has helped a lot of people.

As for scans a mere googling will easily find ESET's NOD32 scanner as well as BitDefender's scanner. I've used both to help clean out heavily infected machines; a lot of tech people use them. NOD32 is one of the top antiviruses in the world along with Kaspersky (best detection rate in the business), Avast, and Avira Antivir.

Another excellent software that deals with rootkits, Trojans, and other, more malicious, software is SuperAntiSpyware (SAS) and its free version is really good though if you use the free you have to manually update their definitions.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Re: Adaware help
 

I went to the Computech site, registered and was sent my confirmation email. I then went to log in and it kept telling me, my log in was invalid.

I finally noticed that it made the first letter of my username lower case.

Re: Adaware help
 

I went to the Computech site, registered and was sent my confirmation email. I then went to log in and it kept telling me, my log in was invalid.

I finally noticed that it made the first letter of my username lower case.

..I'm just downloading the 2 items now: ESET NOD32 3.0 Antivirus for Win XP/2000/Vista & ESET Smart Security for Win XP/2000/Vista

..downloads are super slow on their site: 150-160-kbs..

Edit: Ok, those 2 files won't even launch! I'm just downloading another, but obviously, this is "not" user friendly.

Edit 2: uhh, the 3rd file: ESET NOD32 2.7 for Win NT/2000/XP/Vista
(32-bit/64-bit) won't even launch. No error message; nothing

..are you screwing with me??

Re: Adaware help
 

Which person on here works for Norton again? I'm sure it's one of the mods.. TDC?

I uninstalled Avast to put this in as per the instructions, so right now, I have not for anti-virus. I do have Spybot running and I can't tell if Adaware is on or not, since it has a "!" over the icon.

Edit: ..after a reboot, I did get it to install. I'll run a check now..

Edit 2: After 1 hour of searching, it found nothing. ..it did however prevent all my other applications from launching without a reboot!

Re: Adaware help
 

TDC is the one who works for Norton, out in Oz.

FYI, whenever I need to uninstall an AV to install a new one, I download the file and disconnect from the web. Adds a *touch* more safety.

Re: Adaware help
 

I think I'm FUBAR.
I can't remove the anti virus program by uninstall, or even by control panel. I get an error message either way. :(

Re: Adaware help
 

Okay, do you have CCleaner installed? If not, do a search and you will find it easily. It is totally free and quite safe. They have a utility Tool in their menu and it actually works better than the Windows Add/Remove. Look for all things ESET/NOD32 and uninstall.

Then do a Search found in your Start Menu and let it seacch under Files and Folders for Eset and then NOD32. If anything comes up then right click and delete.

Lastly, go to MajorGeeks.com and look for RegCleaner. This is also free. Now the thing about working in the registry one must be very careful. Go to the Uninstall tab and look for ESET and or NOD32 and ONLY check those and remove.

Do these steps work?

I did not realize you were looking for a new antivirus. I only thought you wanted to do a free scan. http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/ so my apologies again.

if you still have issues go to http://www.wilderssecurity.com/index.php which is ESET's official forums and you'll get help fast. really NOD32 is very good.

One other thing of note, the rule is One antivirus, one firewall, and one antispyware at any given time. Otherwise they will conflict with each other. This is not including Ad-aware because it is not doing resident protection. In other words, it only works when you need it to unlike resident protection software like an antivirus that is always running in the background.

Re: Adaware help
 

Inquiring minds want to know... what error message? Have you tried uninstalling in safe mode? As Administrator (not just an account with administrator privileges)?

Re: Adaware help
 

Very good questions.

Re: Adaware help
 

I couldn't post the error message because I couldn't launch anything. CCleaner does not see the program and now, when i try the uninstall tool, it says "This action is only valid for items that are installed. It is still in my start up and and program file list.

Re: Adaware help
 

For clarification, are you saying you are unable to boot into Windows even in Safe Mode?

Re: Adaware help
 

If you try to run the tool, is it there? Uninstall routines have been known to leave droppings behind... like Start Menu entries.

Re: Adaware help
 

Exactly, which is why I suggested doing a Search. They can also leave driver remnants as well.

Re: Adaware help
 

I deleted it from my start menu, but can not delete the file ESET, under my program files. I get the following message.

I don't know why CCLeaner does not see it:

http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/5650/errory.jpg

Re: Adaware help
 

Find out where it is located, and then boot into Safe Mode. You may be able to clear it out there.

Re: Adaware help
 

What does safe mode do?

searching...

Re: Adaware help
 

Safe mode boots windows but disables just about everything. You access it by hitting either F5 or F8 during the boot process... I can never remember which one, so I alternate between them, about half a second between each. If you see the Windows splash screen without a message about it, you missed it :(

This critter probably won't be loaded when you run in safe mode, so you can get rid of it.

Alternately, you could wander around in Task Manager to see if you could find it and kill it from there. Then you should be able to delete it.

Re: Adaware help
 

It's F8. What Safe Mode does is it loads Windows but only with essential processes. Do the Search function as I noted earlier.

Also, the wilders security forums should be able to help you out as well.

Re: Adaware help
 

If your AV is an older version of Norton,,those versions are known for being hard/impossible to uninstall. You will have to go to the Norton/Symantec site and use the Norton Removal Tool. Google it.

Re: Adaware help
 

I got rid of it, but I'm still having a lot of problems. I get this message for most everything I try to open.

The Application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000005). Click on Ok to terminate the application.