My computer is about 5-6 years old. Proteva clone, running Windows 98 (not SE), 500MHz Pentium II or III (not sure). Even though Proteva folded a long time ago, this PC still works well enough for me. Have never had any problems with it, and have upgraded it as needed (HD, video board, RAM, etc).
I have McAfee Internet Security 6.0 (1 year old), but it wasn't installed at the time I acquired this trojan virus. I had removed it because it was causing conflicts with other programs and I wasn't using the Internet (back then). Not smart, I know. I reinstalled it this weekend, but it says my system is "clean" right now. I checked the website for updates and it said there weren't any (hard to believe), although the Firewall sub-program DID update.
Anyway, I see here that several people have been fighting with this virus, but I didn't want to do anything on my machine until I listed my symptoms here (since they are different, the solution may be different, or simpler).
I'm getting the blue screen with the aforementioned "fatal error in IE", same address, same "Trojan-Spy" etc. BUT, my system is not incapacitated - it still boots completely to the desktop - and everything seems to still be working: Internet, local programs, etc. The desktop background WAS white (instead of green) with "Active Desktop" displayed amidst the icons. I say "WAS" because my kids changed the wallpaper, but now I can't go back to the familiar "green" because right-clicking on the desktop doesn't appear to work anymore (I think it DID initially), and the dialog only allows me to change the screensaver (there is no way to change the wallpaper). How can I get back to the green wallpaper? Where is that graphic file located? Maybe I can right-click on it and "set as wallpaper"? Anyway, if the blue screen hadn't ever appeared, the only symptom of something being amiss would be the more frequent lockups occurring (the system rarely "froze" before). Also, while I was in Excel this weekend, a "balloon" icon with an "X" through it appeared in the lower right-hand corner "tray" saying that my system "might be at risk" (for loss of personal information) and that I should click on this icon to fix the problem. I didn't do this for fear of having my hard drive destroyed. The balloon hasn't appeared again. Is this a Mcafee thing, or is it part of the trojan virus?
OK - given that my machine is still running pretty well and not completely dead as others' machines apparently are, where do I start? Do I start downloading all those spyware programs first?
Colt Hero
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