[Essexboy]

Before you try a destructive re-install how about trying a repair then your files and documents should be safe

We have a cute little tutorial here http://www.geekstogo...ws-XP-t138.html give this a whirl first - you may be surprised

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The computer is now "fixed," and because it was so new, the destruction element was minimal, primarily confined to my little hoard of movies, over half of which have already been re-obtained.

Apparently I had so terrified the young gentleman who first assisted me that he retired to a safer place, no doubt to contemplate and re-think his career choices, and I was passed along, or inflicted upon, more likely, a functionary of greater enlightenment, and though she was certainly no Noble Lord of Essex, she did appear, in my initial interview, to be sufficiently knowledgeable about the subject as to minimize the chances that the computer would end up in any worse shape than it already was, and so I agreed to allow her to proceed.

The question you pose is a very good one, and your asking it confirms that I was right to ask it myself.

Although I had not seen your tutorial on the subject (which is indeed the cutest one I have seen) I had, in my frantic googling, become somewhat familiar with the existence of that option, but it was not pursued because in cases such as mine, where system restore via running chkdsk and every other way has failed, due to my having turned it off myself during the crisis, the "repair install" is not a sure bet, and the situation had run up against a wall of some time-sensitive issues: there might be a chance that a repair install would work, but there was no maybe about the necessity of the computer being operational by a certain day and time, therefore the most sure-fire option was chosen, and that was a "quick and dirty" format and a "clean install," which we both know is not really clean unless you do the un-quick flavor of format, but so far Spyware Terminator seems pleased.

Thanks to my habit of dumping any "non-replaceable" files such as PSDs or newly created html files into the clients' directories every day, nothing was lost that cannot be replaced, and with such ease that at this hour about the only thing that I have been unable to re-locate is a desktop icon of a little golden bunny rabbit.

For security, I have installed Spyware Terminator, my beloved A-Squared Anti-Dialer, and AVG Free anti-virus. And though I owe it much, my longstanding antique Spyblocker has been replaced by something called Hostman, which takes care of updating the hosts file, using that mvps or whatever hosts file it is that all the cool kids are using these days. And you can be sure that I wasted no time in manually adding livesecuritycenter, ezcoolpages, and zango to it - all with and without the www.

I have also abandoned my old MYIE, and made FireFox my default browser and manager of downloads.

When things calm down a bit time-wise, I intend to try out the Avast anti-virus that you suggested, in fact, I plan to go down your list systematically and do them all, but in the meantime, I think I will make good and regular use of the online on-demand scanners, just to reduce the chances of any future conflicts between one protector and another.

According to the nice lady who magically installed all my drivers for me, despite being 12000 miles away, the evil company has been besieged lately with pitiful creatures like myself, suffering from the same awful conglomeration of Bad Things**, which was another reason she advised against the repair install, having attempted it in several such cases, even ones that DID have system restore, and without success. The Things would keep on propagating despite the repair, and the "clean install" might have to be done anyway, and there we were again with the time thing.

What she could not tell me, and I wonder if even you can, is what is the name of the malady? I know they were legion, but all, you will recall, were contracted in one fell swoop. It was a package. A bundle, and one that I doubt was engineered for the amusement of ennui-stricken teens. Someone somewhere seeks to make money from doing that to people.

Do you know if it has a name yet? If not, maybe you could name it. If you do, can I help? I could think of some candidates and you could pick one and edit it down to under 600 words...

Interestingly, she noted that the majority of sufferers had installed some Windows Updates, I wish I could remember which ones, probably those NET things or something, but there were so many questions and talking points, and with the time crunch, I failed to note the exact name, and I am sure she would not tell me such a thing in an email, for her own protection...

Edited by MoonBloo, 16 April 2008 - 11:40 PM.

[MoonBloo]

The computer is now "fixed," and because it was so new, the destruction element was minimal, primarily confined to my little hoard of movies, over half of which have already been re-obtained.

Apparently I had so terrified the young gentleman who first assisted me that he retired to a safer place, no doubt to contemplate and re-think his career choices, and I was passed along, or inflicted upon, more likely, a functionary of greater enlightenment, and though she was certainly no Noble Lord of Essex, she did appear, in my initial interview, to be sufficiently knowledgeable about the subject as to minimize the chances that the computer would end up in any worse shape than it already was, and so I agreed to allow her to proceed.

The question you pose is a very good one, and your asking it confirms that I was right to ask it myself.

Although I had not seen your tutorial on the subject (which is indeed the cutest one I have seen) I had, in my frantic googling, become somewhat familiar with the existence of that option, but it was not pursued because in cases such as mine, where system restore via running chkdsk and every other way has failed, due to my having turned it off myself during the crisis, the "repair install" is not a sure bet, and the situation had run up against a wall of some time-sensitive issues: there might be a chance that a repair install would work, but there was no maybe about the necessity of the computer being operational by a certain day and time, therefore the most sure-fire option was chosen, and that was a "quick and dirty" format and a "clean install," which we both know is not really clean unless you do the un-quick flavor of format, but so far Spyware Terminator seems pleased.

Thanks to my habit of dumping any "non-replaceable" files such as PSDs or newly created html files into the clients' directories every day, nothing was lost that cannot be replaced, and with such ease that at this hour about the only thing that I have been unable to re-locate is a desktop icon of a little golden bunny rabbit.

For security, I have installed Spyware Terminator, my beloved A-Squared Anti-Dialer, and AVG Free anti-virus. And though I owe it much, my longstanding antique Spyblocker has been replaced by something called Hostman, which takes care of updating the hosts file, using that mvps or whatever hosts file it is that all the cool kids are using these days. And you can be sure that I wasted no time in manually adding livesecuritycenter, ezcoolpages, and zango to it - all with and without the www.

I have also abandoned my old MYIE, and made FireFox my default browser and manager of downloads.

When things calm down a bit time-wise, I intend to try out the Avast anti-virus that you suggested, in fact, I plan to go down your list systematically and do them all, but in the meantime, I think I will make good and regular use of the online on-demand scanners, just to reduce the chances of any future conflicts between one protector and another.

According to the nice lady who magically installed all my drivers for me, despite being 12000 miles away, the evil company has been besieged lately with pitiful creatures like myself, suffering from the same awful conglomeration of Bad Things**, which was another reason she advised against the repair install, having attempted it in several such cases, even ones that DID have system restore, and without success. The Things would keep on propagating despite the repair, and the "clean install" might have to be done anyway, and there we were again with the time thing.

What she could not tell me, and I wonder if even you can, is what is the name of the malady? I know they were legion, but all, you will recall, were contracted in one fell swoop. It was a package. A bundle, and one that I doubt was engineered for the amusement of ennui-stricken teens. Someone somewhere seeks to make money from doing that to people.

Do you know if it has a name yet? If not, maybe you could name it. If you do, can I help? I could think of some candidates and you could pick one and edit it down to under 600 words...

Interestingly, she noted that the majority of sufferers had installed some Windows Updates, I wish I could remember which ones, probably those NET things or something, but there were so many questions and talking points, and with the time crunch, I failed to note the exact name, and I am sure she would not tell me such a thing in an email, for her own protection...

Edited by MoonBloo, 16 April 2008 - 11:40 PM.

[Essexboy]

According to the nice lady who magically installed all my drivers for me, despite being 12000 miles away, the evil company has been besieged lately with pitiful creatures like myself, suffering from the same awful conglomeration of Bad Things**, which was another reason she advised against the repair install, having attempted it in several such cases, even ones that DID have system restore, and without success. The Things would keep on propagating despite the repair, and the "clean install" might have to be done anyway, and there we were again with the time thing.

That is correct - yet it is also wrong. Let me explain : If the problem was caused by a Virus (Virut springs to mind here) then that is definitely the way to go as the virus would still be active. However, in your case it was a programme install that borked the system, therefore a repair install would have been sufficient to enable you to recover as you had no infections.

Do you know if it has a name yet? If not, maybe you could name it. If you do, can I help? I could think of some candidates and you could pick one and edit it down to under 600 words...

To name but a few you had in no specific order: IEDefender, Rabio, 180 solutions (plus sundry other adware programmes ), the odd trojan or three (generic win32), hack defender and a rogue spyware programme. I think that covers it .

I will give my clean up spiel now - especially as you are squeaky clean Allways remember even an infected restore point is better than none


Now the best part of the day ----- Your log now appears clean


Now that you are clean, to help protect your computer in the future I recommend that you get the following free program:

• SpywareBlaster to help prevent spyware from installing in the first place.
• SuperAntispyware Run weekly to keep your system clean

It is critical to have both a firewall and anti virus to protect your system and to keep them updated.

To keep your operating system up to date visit

• Microsoft Windows Update

To learn more about how to protect yourself while on the internet read this article by Tony Klien: So how did I get infected in the first place?


Keep safe

[Essexboy]

Since this issue appears to be resolved ... this Topic has been closed. Glad we could help.

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