Please Help! Computer Crisis.

[Sparkle]

I don't know who done it or how they did it but someone hacked into my computer and now these key words are highlighted abling me to click on it to search for that specific thing. I see it every where. Even in Cantr.

If anybody types in car, job, or some other stupid words it will be highlighted and underlined. These is driving me crazy. I think it's some kind of spyware. I don't know, I just need it gone. Everytime I print something instead of showing the word it shows this long URL linking it to some search page.

Somebody please help! Tell me how I can fix this. I wouldn't be so upset if it wouldn't show up on my resume but it is. I wish I can slap whoever done this to my computer.

[nitefyre]

We'll get these evil doers.

Alright, never accept files, downloads etc, off the internet unless its from Microsoft or Macromedia or one of those important companies. =)) Though I do sometimes.


http://www.download.com And you should search for one of those software downloads that are rated well and work. One of those virus shield- search & destroy things. Thats what I did when *coughs* Dark Angel passed me a trojan and it all worked out fine.



I bet others will have better advice, but I don't know better.

[Revanael]

I hope you've got a good virusscanner or your computer, Sparkle? If not, you really should get one!

McAffee is one of the best, agreed on by most people I know. NOt hugely expensive to buy, either.

Don;t download anything, ever, unless you trust the person/people who supply it. And I do mean trust fully.

That also applies to E-mail attachments.

If a good virusscanner and a full system scan doesn't fix it, come back and ask again.

[Sparkle]

I already have McAfee. They keep asking me to download a free trial to prevent hackers and I might do that. It didn't find a virus but it did find unwanted files and when I try to delete or clean them it says this file is permently written, it can't be cleaned or deleted. It's also un editable.

The problems started when I downloaded this toolbar sort of like the one from MSN. I removed it from my add and remove programs, restarted my computer and I still have the same problem. Before I removed it there was an option to go to to help explain the toolbar but it was to late for me to click on it, my computer had restarted.

[T.L.H.E.]

Leave it up to a mac user to point you to http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/... Ad-aware. w00t! Best of luck removing your spyware.

[Sparkle]

I have found a flaw!!

For some reason when I refresh the page it goes away. But it does come back once I go to a different page or come back to the same page.

[rklenseth]

Umm, that isn't someone hacking or a virus. The yellow highlighting is Adware and can only be taken out with Adware Removal. I don't think virus scanners will get rid of Adware.

[Sparkle]

Some of it is highlighted green. So can you tell me exactly how I can remove it?

[rklenseth]

Like I said you have to find or buy Adware Removal Program. That sometimes doesn't even work against some of the more worse Adware or Spyware.

But Adware are programs that are downloaded by your computer for advertisement purposes. Many free programs you might download usually come (unknowningly) with Adware. For example Real Player does this for their free download but the Adware is nothing to be a problem. There is soem Adware that will just keep making pop ups come up every now and then. Quite simply it is just programs that force advertisements on you.

Now Spyware on the other hand are programs that gather information off your computer. It was originally conceived by the Federal Government back in the early 90's to 'spy' on internet users for illegal activity like child pornography ect... It has since been adopted by businesses to figure out what kind of advertisements to send to you via e-mail (ie. spam) or Adware to be downloaded. It has also been adopted by modern scam artists who use it to gather personal information to steal your identity, credit card numbers, ect...

An easy way of getting rid of these is to go to 'Control Panel' and go to the program that allows you to remove programs from your computer. And pretty much remove any and all programs that you don't know what they are used for. Some of the more reputable businesses will label the programs as Adware in the description so they should be easy to find but just delete whatever you don't know what it is.

But some Adware and Spyware can't be found here and can only be taken out with Adware Removal Program or it simply can't be gotten rid of.

Also try deleting cookies or temporary internet files. Adware and Spyware sometimes like to attach themselves to these as well.

[Sparkle]

Leave it up to a mac user to point you to http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/... Ad-aware. w00t! Best of luck removing your spyware.

Downloading that has solved my problem!!

Thank you so much. When it did a scan it found adware. The description said Words will be highlighted for search options (very annoying) and I deleted them.

Thanks everybody for all your help. My computer can be very irratating sometimes. People and there damned advertising (excuse my french) but these people need to be sued or something.

If it's wrong to spam through email, I think it should be wrong to give people popups and adware they don't want. It should be illegal instead of charging people to get rid of them.

[The Hunter]

Gratz. I'm stuck with popups all the time. Only way to disable those it to have security options on max in internet exploder.

Adaware certainly is (one of) the best, but always double check with spybot search and destroy and i personally always check with spyhunter, although latter one only detects them and does not remove them. (Trial version). After this, cleaning the register is advisable aswell.
Alas, my trojan is of the kind that hides in the restore files which can not be accesed.

[rklenseth]

And the only way that one can get Trojan Virus is if they......

[Junesun]

If you have some understanding of German, I really recommend that you download XPclean (from http://www.xpclean.de). That's a freeware program that really has everything you might ever want to do to your machine:
- clean out internet traces, windows traces, unused files, spyware (including the one included in Windows), dialers, malicious scripts, keyloggers, trojans, worms and exploits
- remove programs that are automatically started (also those hidden in the registry) and files without ending / with double ending
- filter out pop-ups and ads by blocking the relevant servers
- check for faults in the HD structure, in system files and in the registry
- adapt all parts of Windows (graphics and settings that are otherwise hidden)
- optimise the system and the internet connection

In addition, there are a quite a lot of handy tools, e. g. for LANs, for checking the safety of passwords, for renaming lots of files at once, for splitting files, for creating own entries to context menus, for saving the registry,... etc.

No I'm not associated with XPclean or its author, I just love the program.

Judith