[-=jonnyrotten=-]

Your log looks clean, is everything running good?

Remove this one with Hijack This:

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,(Default) = ,

Definitely empty recycle bin and clean out temp folders.

Please delete your temporary files. Double Click My Computer (WinXP: Navigate to Start --->My Computer)
You will see an icon representing your harddrive (most likely C: Drive) Right Click on the hard drive icon and click Properties at the
bottom of the fly out window. One the very first tab (General) you will see a button labeled "Disk Cleanup"...click that button.
Make sure the following are checked:
Downloaded Program Files
Temporary Internet Files and
Recycle Bin
Click OK and Disk Cleanup will delete those files for you.

Next run spybot.
Spybot Search & Destroy Download and install. Start Spybot S&D, Click the Search for updates button, if any are found then click the Download Updates button. After all updates are downloaded, click the Check for problems button. When the scan is complete, place a check next to anything marked in red, then click the Fix selected problems button. You may need to run Spybot S&D multiple times to remove all infections.

Let me know how things are running.

-=jonnyrotten=-

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"Coach" Rotten,

We are making additional progress. I cleaned files as per your request and that is faster than me going to tools – Internet Options – etc. I also updated and ran Spybot and was surprised to find the following:
Media Plex
Advertising.Com
Avenue A, Inc.
DyFuCa
EAcceleration
Windows Ad Tools

I have not a clue where these were imbedded. Any ideas on where these came from?

I then re-ran Spybot 2 more times and was clean both times. You helped my old antiquated Windows 98 (SBC DSL) the first go around and each time we have surpassed what it has ever been, even when it was probably not infected. Part of the increased speed is that I thinned out some of the running processes and other material that I thought was not needed, old files, etc.

I think that most of these bugs hit me on 1/17/05 for some reason, as it was pretty fast up until that time for an old rig (I hate to give her up). Again, I thank you so much. I have been a teacher (15 yrs. - High School) in an earlier part of my life and I am enjoying learning from you and am trying to be a good student, but I again thank you for your clarity of thought transfer.

My wife has a new computer with XP I think @ her real estate office and I need to go over and load a few of your suggested programs in it and scan it also. She is running Norton and adequate firewall I believe because she hasn’t had many problems, but it won’t hurt.

Over & Out
Dan

[goodday]

"Coach" Rotten,

We are making additional progress. I cleaned files as per your request and that is faster than me going to tools – Internet Options – etc. I also updated and ran Spybot and was surprised to find the following:
Media Plex
Advertising.Com
Avenue A, Inc.
DyFuCa
EAcceleration
Windows Ad Tools

I have not a clue where these were imbedded. Any ideas on where these came from?

I then re-ran Spybot 2 more times and was clean both times. You helped my old antiquated Windows 98 (SBC DSL) the first go around and each time we have surpassed what it has ever been, even when it was probably not infected. Part of the increased speed is that I thinned out some of the running processes and other material that I thought was not needed, old files, etc.

I think that most of these bugs hit me on 1/17/05 for some reason, as it was pretty fast up until that time for an old rig (I hate to give her up). Again, I thank you so much. I have been a teacher (15 yrs. - High School) in an earlier part of my life and I am enjoying learning from you and am trying to be a good student, but I again thank you for your clarity of thought transfer.

My wife has a new computer with XP I think @ her real estate office and I need to go over and load a few of your suggested programs in it and scan it also. She is running Norton and adequate firewall I believe because she hasn’t had many problems, but it won’t hurt.

Over & Out
Dan

[-=jonnyrotten=-]

Well I appreciate your kind words. It brings a smile to my face when someone takes time out of their day to relay kind thoughts and words for something I have helped with. As for where you got those spyware/adware infections, there could have been many different places. Some spyware is installed with a program you have installed by choice. You just weren't informed about the fact that by installing this certain software (usually something free) you would also be installing certain forms of adware/spyware (nice of them huh). A lot of times if you read the "fine print" in the EULA when installing something it will tell you about what else you are installing. Not always though. If you ever have any questions about a certain program or file you can always ask us here or doing a google search is always informative. Also if your wife needs help with her work pc, you know which direction to point her in. Check out my website, you can find the link in my signature, there's lots of information about spyware and links to other useful sites.

Congratulations! Your system is CLEAN

How do you prevent spyware from being installed again? We strongly recommend installing SpywareBlaster (it's free for personal use) Click Here.

Prevent the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers, and other potentially unwanted pests.
Block spyware/tracking cookies in Internet Explorer and Mozilla/Firefox.
Restrict the actions of potentially dangerous sites in Internet Explorer.
Consumes no system resources.

Download, run, check for updates, download updates, select all, protect against checked. All done. Check for updates every couple of weeks. If you have any errors running the program like a missing file see the link at the bottom of the javacool page.

It's also very important to keep your system up to date to avoid unnecessary security risks. Click Here to make sure that you have the latest patches for Windows.

These next two steps are optional, but will provide the greatest protection.
1. Use ANY browser besides Internet Explorer, almost every exploit is crafted to take advantage of an IE weakness. We usually recommend FireFox .
2. Install Sun's Java. It's much more secure than Microsoft's Java Virtual Machine .

It's okay to delete the Hijack This folder if everything is working okay.

After doing all these, your system will be thoroughly protected from future threats.

Browse safely

-=jonnyrotten=-