A problem with Malware (For all of you technical wizards)

[Dannathrik]

Hey Everyone. I've been plagued by the dreaded message:

"Attention [name]! Some dangerous viruses detected in your system. Microsoft Windows XP files corrupted. This may lead to the destruction of important files in C:\WINDOWS. Download protection software now!

Click OK to download the antispyware. (Recommended)"

I have McAfee SecurityCenter and have run a full system scan, which has turned up clean, but the message continues to come up every single time I browse my computer.

Does anyone have a definite fix for this annoyance? I would be very greatful.

And, I apologize but I'm not too familiar with alot of the technical jargon, so someone who could give me an in depth guide on fixing this problem would be ideal smile.gif

Thanks for any help

[clay]

Sounds like this is the same problem:
http://untamedmind.wordpress.com/2008/07/09/how-to-fix-the-%e2%80%9cattention-some-dangerous-trojan-horses-detected%e2%80%9d-virus/

[Dannathrik]

Oh my goodness clay thank you SO MUCH! It worked like a charm

EDIT: I was looking at a guide which directed me to download three different types of anti-spyware protection and to edit the registry, but this cleared it up in a jiffy! This has saved ALOT of time.

[clay]

Great! Glad it helped.

BTW, a quick and easy trick is to copy a sentence or so from the virus message and Google it. That is all I did. I usually get enough to make it specific but not all of it because formatting may be slightly different and could cause Google to miss it.

This is also useful for looking up email forwards to see if they are 'true' or 'not so.' (Yes, I have a few family members who love to forward)

[Dannathrik]

BTW, a quick and easy trick is to copy a sentence or so from the virus message and Google it.

I usually do, but the first page was littered with forums about using complex methods and...Blegh, lol

This is also useful for looking up email forwards to see if they are 'true' or 'not so.' (Yes, I have a few family members who love to forward)

I totally know what you mean. I generally ignore any messages marked FW, but the odd message has come through and posed a threat. Gladly I've noticed in time and warned a few friends about it too

But omg thanks again clay You're a life saver

[Wakannai]

This isn't a pop-up you get while surfing is it? If it is, just say no and move on. There are all kinds of malware that pops-up while surfing with messages, "Virus detected on your system! Download this software to find out." Of course, anyone that downloads the software installs a big fat trojan on their system that gives the nag window. "You have the virus named #### on your system. Go to this site http://www.giveusyourmoney.com and pay $50 USD for our program guaranteed to work.

Because they were the ones that made the virus in the first place.

Not that buying the software works, it just tells them that you're a sucker, so there will be "complications" with your system that will require "extra service" charges and such.

[maruichan]

Download Spyblaster, get the updates and innoculate your PC. It's one of the best around. It'll patch up the vulnerabilities so you won't have to scan regularly. After using it, the only things I find are cookies and things I've accepted that can be considered malware. It also helps to download Spybot and use the innoculations in it as well, just to be on the safe side. But that you could use to scan your PC for more malware/spyware if you haven't done so already.

Also, If you want to keep your PC really clean, download and run Crap Cleaner (CCleaner) as well. It has a registry cleaner and it'll also remove out of date files that basically load at start up and slow things down. It'll also remove other information to increase privacy, like history, passwords, temp files, links you've visited, so on... you can disable that if you want to keep it though.

These are all free BTW.

[chikara]

.... it'll also remove out of date files that basically load at start up and slow things down. ....

How does that work?

[maruichan]

.... it'll also remove out of date files that basically load at start up and slow things down. ....

How does that work?

Old extensions, things that are booting up with the PC from previous programs that are either installed or corrupt, incomplete registry items, missing shared DLLs (references), etc are removed. Windows loads a lot of things for you in advance at start up to theoretically to make it easier for you when you decide to use them, but often this just opens up the door for lots of things to be loaded that are not even being used (for example, system files from previous installs, botched installs, so forth). It cleans things up and gets it closer to what it should be.

[chikara]

.... Windows loads a lot of things for you in advance at start up to theoretically to make it easier for you when you decide to use them, but often this just opens up the door for lots of things to be loaded that are not even being used .....

So the only slow down occurs at boot up then?