My dogbob laptop keeps flasing this up at me and then opening dozens of bloody windows that I then have to keep closing down. It's been doing it all day and it's really fecking me off. It keeps telling me to download some anti-sptware softwarem but I ain't falling for that.
I've signed up to McAfee but that doesn't seem to be helping much. I've been running a scan since 10am this morning on it and it still hasn't finished - so that can't be right either!
Anyone got any ideas, before I throw the bleedin thing in the river?
Cheers!
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gl.
S.
Cheers Santa. One problem though - I'm an IT f*ckwit and don't know how to do that!
You could also look for suspicious items in the system ini (go start -> run, type msconfig and hit enter, then select the sys.ini tab (I think thats what it's called)). That brings up a list of items that start on startup. Deselect any suspicious items. That method won't remove the problem but it will at least stop the programme starting up. I wouldn't do this though unless you're confident you won't turn off something you shouldn't, but it can also be a way to improve your PC's performance as a lot of programmes such as Real player and Quicktime for example start up programmes to run in the background that aren't at all necessary and just rob memory.
Good luck
F**king drove me mad, could work round it for a fw days, but had to give up in end
if you don't follow this process and try to select 'No' or the 'X' in the top right hand corner of the pop-up, you will download all sorts of shite that turns your PC into part of a 'botnet' (a 'zombie' PC used by people to send spam or participate in DOS attacks on websites like Internet Gaming and Gambling sites) and attempts to hijack your browser to porn sites as part of click fraud. You'll also download trojans that attempt to steal your internet banking passwords, and, as you've noticed most obviously, a piece of malware that throws up repeated pop-ups trying to extort money from you. The cleverest of these will actually attempt to encrypt data found in common locations (My Documents, My Music etc) then ping you messages telling you that, unless you cough up some wedge to a shady fooker in the Ukraine, you will never be able to access the data again. Devious bastards!
Of course, this is all pointless advice once you've been infected already, but it might stand you in good stead in the future.
If, as you've indicated, you've already been infected, there are ways to get rid of the scumware, but unless you know what you're doing, its often quicker and easier just to back up all your data (documents, spreadsheets, pictures, music etc) to another source (removable USB key or drive is best for this depending on how much you have) then format and reinstall Windows. Chances are if you've bought a modern PC from Dell, or HP or someone like that, you will have either a recovery partition (an area of the hard disk specifically set aside for reinstalling to factory defaults) or a recovery CD - which will do the same thing but slower and may require faffing about with drivers and junk afterwards).
For comparison's sake, if you decide you don't want to bother with all this yourself, I usually charge £50 an hour for private work - there are people out there who will charge less, but you will invariably end up being ripped off by someone who doesn't have a Danny what they're doing if you go for the cheap end of the market. Not that I'm offering my services BTW, I don't do private work at all if I can help it - but that's the sort of rate you would be looking at to get a competent bod to reinstall for you.
For further information, go to this wiki page - it may help to give you a fuller understanding of exactly what I'm trying to get across here.
HTH
PS: System Restore won't help in this situation I'm afraid - this type of scumware invariably infects every restore point
I've tried "System Restore" and it seems to have done the trick for now - touch wood! - but there has been something wrong with this laptop for a while now, in fact since about two days after I got it. It was running fast as lightning when I got it, but now the bloody thing is slower than when I had dial-up!
Thanks again for all the help. Beers on me tomorrow - if you can find me!
;o)
Bleeping Computer