OT, computer guys, I need some help please

[JustWannaBeHuge]

Whenever I reboot my pc, I get pop ups from a BS ass site called winfixer.com (do not go to their site, I wish they go out of business and burn in hell) I've deleted whatever I could find about the site, and my virus software isn't finding anything. BUT, whenever I reboot, here comes all the pop ups for it, telling me how I need to upgrade to a better package of pc protection.

Any tips on how I can find the exe or other programs thats causing these pop ups so I can get rid of this shit, its driving me crazy. When I click one X, I get another 5 pages opening up on me.
I went to their website to file a complaint against them, but there's no way to contact them, the "support", you had to of purchased the software to even mail them, and since I'll never be "forced" to buy their piece of shit scamming product, I'm not able to email them.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Rob

 

[OuchThatHurts]

Whenever I reboot my pc, I get pop ups from a BS ass site called winfixer.com (do not go to their site, I wish they go out of business and burn in hell) I've deleted whatever I could find about the site, and my virus software isn't finding anything. BUT, whenever I reboot, here comes all the pop ups for it, telling me how I need to upgrade to a better package of pc protection.

Any tips on how I can find the exe or other programs thats causing these pop ups so I can get rid of this shit, its driving me crazy. When I click one X, I get another 5 pages opening up on me.
I went to their website to file a complaint against them, but there's no way to contact them, the "support", you had to of purchased the software to even mail them, and since I'll never be "forced" to buy their piece of shit scamming product, I'm not able to email them.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Rob

this will solve your problem as it did mine

**broken link removed**

[if you already have an old version (1.2), be sure to download the newer version (1.5) ]

* Save it to your Desktop
* Close all running programs (including your Internet Browser)
* Double-click VirtumundoBeGone.exe on the desktop
* Follow the directions as indicated

please be advised that this program will generate a "BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH"... this is an expected/necessary part of the process, so don't be surprised when it happens.

just reboot

 

[Kaiser]

OK, you got a good one, here we go...

Not sure of OTH's link because it seems to be invalid for now.

Ok, here's one of your problems. Winfixer happens tp be one of the biggest pain in tha asses to remove because the newer versions of it install what is called a rootKit. A rootkit is basically a low level windows driver that makes it so a user cannot "see" where the problem is coming from. OTH listed a fix and said that the fix could cause a BSOD "Blue Screen Of Death". This is natural in a repair tool for root kits that do not know how to unload a kernel level driver correctly. If you wanted to read more about rootkits you can look at some of Mark Russinovich's (this guy is basically on of the smartest guys on the planet when it comes to Windows, no doubt about it, sort of the Coleman of the Windows kernel) writings referenced here:

**broken link removed**

For a manual fix of SOME (not all) versions of Winfixer you can look here:

**broken link removed**

My suggestion due to the amount of manual steps that would be involved in removing a rootkit safely is to download what is the best anti-virus / anti-spyware software you can basically buy. it has a free trial for 30 days from here:

http://www.f-secure.com/

This is the first anti-virus to be able to find & remove rootkits successfully. Once installed, you will probably need to disable you current anti-virus or uninstall it temporarily because Windows kernel will hang when 2 anti-virus software products are on the box most of the time, because they are not aware of each other and one tries to take precedence over the other. Anyway, do a full scan of your PC and just let it run through completely. If you have the rootkit version of winfixer, F-Secure will ask you to reboot when finished.

Also, one of my favorite anti-spyware programs out there is Ad-Aware from http://www.lavasoft.com/. You can also download a free version of this tool.

Just be sure on both of these software, that the databases are updated correctly (they will prompt you usually about updating once you install them) BEFORE you run a full scan.

You can feel free to PM me or email me if you want for further assistance. Good luck brother.

 

[Future]

Ad-Aware and Spybot are great.

Go to Download.com for appz and help.

 

[hughesy]

I have Ad-Ware and Spybot on my pc along with Microsofts Anti-Spyware program.. They are all free to download.

 

[OuchThatHurts]

Not sure of OTH's link because it seems to be invalid for now.

Ok, here's one of your problems. Winfixer happens tp be one of the biggest pain in tha asses to remove because the newer versions of it install what is called a rootKit. A rootkit is basically a low level windows driver that makes it so a user cannot "see" where the problem is coming from. OTH listed a fix and said that the fix could cause a BSOD "Blue Screen Of Death". This is natural in a repair tool for root kits that do not know how to unload a kernel level driver correctly. If you wanted to read more about rootkits you can look at some of Mark Russinovich's (this guy is basically on of the smartest guys on the planet when it comes to Windows, no doubt about it, sort of the Coleman of the Windows kernel) writings referenced here:

**broken link removed**

For a manual fix of SOME (not all) versions of Winfixer you can look here:

**broken link removed**

My suggestion due to the amount of manual steps that would be involved in removing a rootkit safely is to download what is the best anti-virus / anti-spyware software you can basically buy. it has a free trial for 30 days from here:

http://www.f-secure.com/

This is the first anti-virus to be able to find & remove rootkits successfully. Once installed, you will probably need to disable you current anti-virus or uninstall it temporarily because Windows kernel will hang when 2 anti-virus software products are on the box most of the time, because they are not aware of each other and one tries to take precedence over the other. Anyway, do a full scan of your PC and just let it run through completely. If you have the rootkit version of winfixer, F-Secure will ask you to reboot when finished.

Also, one of my favorite anti-spyware programs out there is Ad-Aware from http://www.lavasoft.com/. You can also download a free version of this tool.

Just be sure on both of these software, that the databases are updated correctly (they will prompt you usually about updating once you install them) BEFORE you run a full scan.

You can feel free to PM me or email me if you want for further assistance. Good luck brother.

Yeah. What he said

 

[G.E.R.M]

..

dl the free personal avast antivirus..

avast.com i think...

best thing out...

 

[Kaiser]

dl the free personal avast antivirus..

avast.com i think...

best thing out...

Sorry brother, this won't help him. As I stated before he has rootkit derived malware (malicious software) with winfixer. Avast does not support detection or removal of rootkits, along with 90% of the anti virus solutions out there.

 

[JustWannaBeHuge]

hey MODS, can we move this over to the pc/software section, I'm sure some others guys may of had a problem with winfixer and their scamming piece of shit product at one time too.

I'm outta here, taking my daughter to fright fest, have a good night guys and ghouls! (a little crypt keeper humor)

 

[alan1973]

Sorry brother, this won't help him. As I stated before he has rootkit derived malware (malicious software) with winfixer. Avast does not support detection or removal of rootkits, along with 90% of the anti virus solutions out there.

I like AVG-free by Grisoft.
so far the best free one I have ever had.

 

[Kaiser]

I like AVG-free by Grisoft.
so far the best free one I have ever had.

Still would not help in this situation. Winfixer is a rootkit. AVG doesn't have a rootkit detection yet.

 

[Dave_19]

if you run a combination of free scans, along with hi-jack this it will take care of the majority of infected computers. I will run in safe mode on all accounts, spysweeper, x-cleaner, cwshredder, ad-aware, hi-jack this, free avg, and also some some free online scanners from www.ewido.com, http://housecall.trendmicro.com, www.bitdefender.com, there are some others I cannot think of right now. it also helps to disable system restore and 1st clean out all your temp files with some thing like ccleaner. You don't want to try to fix computers one virus or spyware infection at a time, if you run out of available scans and there is some thing stubborn thats still hanging around, then at this point its a good idea to try a manual removal, or look for removal tools/instructions.

 

[OuchThatHurts]

As I learned from Kaiser, rootkits are the BIG pain in the ass these days because they become registered and part of the OS. Here's a list of products that will remove them:

BitDefender RootkitUncover beta (free)
F-Secure Blacklight (free)
F-Secure Internet Security Suite (probably the best, not free)
RootkitRevealer, from Sysinternals (free)
Sophos Anti-rootkit (free)
Sophos Antivirus for Windows (not free)
UnHackMe (not free)

Kaiser maybe can direct you to which one is best. I suppose you could use F-secure along with avast for a totally free solution but I just had a virus come through as an email attachment that avast didn't even see. See below:

http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=description&virus_k=140736

 

[Kaiser]

As I learned from Kaiser, rootkits are the BIG pain in the ass these days because they become registered and part of the OS. Here's a list of products that will remove them:

BitDefender RootkitUncover beta (free)
F-Secure Blacklight (free)
F-Secure Internet Security Suite (probably the best, not free)
RootkitRevealer, from Sysinternals (free)
Sophos Anti-rootkit (free)
Sophos Antivirus for Windows (not free)
UnHackMe (not free)

Kaiser maybe can direct you to which one is best. I suppose you could use F-secure along with avast for a totally free solution but I just had a virus come through as an email attachment that avast didn't even see. See below:

http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=description&virus_k=140736

Yes rootkits are a pain in the ass. They are actually a kernel level driver that starts up way before the shell, and hides specific files, reg entries, services etc. Vista as of yesterday was proven to not allow rootkits because rootkits need a raw write on the drive which is blocked in Vista.

Sophos is awesome protection also. AVP from Kasperski's Labs in Russia also does rootkits, but that is one of the 4 engines incorporated in F-Secure anyway, so you might as well just buy F-Secure. All in all, those three are my favorite.

McAfee and Symantec are horrible products in my opinion. Here's something as of recent that McAfee and Symantec both f-ed up on, and were actually wrong in thier accusations on Microsoft. F-Secure, Sophos, and AVP are all ready for Vista.

http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2006/10/vista-admins.html?_log_from=rss

This is not to say that you actually have to have Vista for these products to be better, but who would you put your trust in? That and the fact that F-Secure and my man Mark Russinovich were the first ones to actually recognize, and remove the rootkit that Symantec install their Internet Security Suite last year. Yup, you heard me right, they actually installed a rootkit as part of their protection suite. Read more here:

**broken link removed**

As far as Avast, I have no trust in them either.

 

[BOOMSHAKER]

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