QUOTE (Harry Hooper @ Sep 16 2009, 05:40 PM)
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Good stuff, just a few thoughts:
1) CCleaner has been a very useful tool for me in several instances. However, it's probably near the HijackThis zone of being too dangerous for most folks here to try to use.
Does it have other functionality besides its much-vaunted rape-your-registry feature? If so, it might be something to consider.
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2) A 3-user license for Kaspersky Internet Security (anti-virus & anti-malware) can be had for under $30. I think that's cheap.
Really? It was $80 for one when I posted the thread originally. Definitely a lot better...
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3) Agree with the advice to not reboot a suspect PC until getting some help. However, I would recommend disconnecting the PC from the internet ASAP.
I wrestled with this one a bit, but a lot of folks don't have a second PC to get help from, so I omitted it.
QUOTE (Alcohol&Overcalls @ Sep 16 2009, 05:51 PM)
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-HijackThis! is incredible (as is ComboFix), but yeah, definitely not something to run on your own. A link to bleepingcomputer's forums might be useful - they're great when you have a little bit of time and patience to deal with the problem, and/or you're not willing to reformat (and you're willing to put up with the awkwardly douchey 'help desk' format).
Eh, we can keep them here, it's not like we're getting bombarded with requests or anything.
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-Kaspersky's online scanner is insanely useful, barring malware redirects (there are some ugly impostor sites, too) -
here's a link to it.
Nifty. I'll check it out.
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-One of the surest early signs of infection (often Vundo, in my experience) is that Malwarebytes/SpyBot won't update - we had a woman go about 3 months just thinking the MBAM site was 'down' before realizing she had a pretty gross infection.
Good call.
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-If you're a moderate-end user who doesn't mind a little extra work while browsing, NoScript's FF plugin has been great for me. Pretty intuitive interface, and combined with AdBlock, it's made my life way easier (and likely markedly safer).
Aaaaagh. I hate NoScript, but that's probably because I'm a web developer. (I used to be one of those people who used it, until I started getting into more significant javascript on my own sites and just said to-hell-with-it.) I can toss it up there, though.