Techie Question-anti spyware pop-ups taking over

[CottontailCurl]

My husband read an article in our local paper about some program that would clean up our computer, clear out clutter, and help the computer run faster. He installed it and our peaceful computer existence is over! We constantly have a window on the bottom saying that it is finding BAD STUFF and we need to buy more stuff to get rid of everything. It seems like it's overriding our pop-up blocker because it makes a popping sound constantly (as though it's blocking pop-ups) but we've had more pop-ups in the past few days than we've ever had and many of them are the very unwanted kind. We've never had those in the past. One other thing, we keep getting a window showing we need to buy something from Microsoft to protect our computer better, I'm guessing that's the whole purpose of what's happening on our computer.

Does anyone have any idea what we can do to stop this? My husband has tried to uninstall it and it came back. He tried to set the computer's date back to the day before he installed it and it made no difference.

Thanks everyone!!

 

[java]

Did he do a system restore? When we had pop up hell I just went back to system restore- picked a day a month ago- and then restored. Popups GONE! Good luck.

 

[CottontailCurl]

Did he do a system restore? When we had pop up hell I just went back to system restore- picked a day a month ago- and then restored. Popups GONE! Good luck.

I think that might be what he did when he set the computer back to the date before he installed the junk. Not sure if that's called 'system restore'. Thanks for the advice, hopefully it's something we can clear out.

 

[CottontailCurl]

This is driving me nuts!!

 

[mandy200587]

what program is it and do you still have it on your computer?

 

[CottontailCurl]

what program is it and do you still have it on your computer?

It's still on the computer, when my husband uninstalled it, he said it wasn't where it was supposed to be and he had to hunt it down. After he uninstalled it, he said it was still there. I don't know what program it is, but when I clicked on the balloon that keeps opening on the toolbar it took me to this page:
http://antispyzone.com/?aff=41. thanks for your help.

 

[mandy200587]

see if it's under your control panel in the add/remove programs if so remove it that way.

 

[CottontailCurl]

see if it's under your control panel in the add/remove programs if so remove it that way.

OK, it finally finished and I've arranged them by date and found Windows Safety Alert and Internet Explorer Security Plugin 2006. Could either of those be the culprit and should I delete them both just in case?

 

[java]

I would and I agree with making sure you are removing the entire program! Look for anything you don't recognize- sometimes strangly named.

 

[mandy200587]

OK, it finally finished and I've arranged them by date and found Windows Safety Alert and Internet Explorer Security Plugin 2006. Could either of those be the culprit and should I delete them both just in case?

do a google of those two before you delete them.

 

[Tigger By The Tail]

Download and run these free very reputable and effection spyware, malware removers. They may take care of your problem

Lavasoft Ad Aware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

Spybot S & D http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/

AVG Anti spyware http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

Make sure you download the free versions and use them often. Also turn off your windows system restore, run the programs, delete what they find, reboot your system then turn system restore back on.

 

[UrsulasShadow]

I like the AVG anti-spyware, too.

 

[CottontailCurl]

do a google of those two before you delete them.

Thanks very much for your help, it looks like they both are bad news with the internet explorer security plugin being the worst. Most of the results of the search are detailed tech help for specific computers and their problems (asking for Hijackthis logs, etc), I don't want to make things worse by adding more junk. Why didn't I pay more attention in computer class? I'd be ruling the world now (eh, I'd just settle for being able to take care of this simple simon task!) Thanks again!!

 

[CottontailCurl]

Download and run these free very reputable and effection spyware, malware removers. They may take care of your problem

Lavasoft Ad Aware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

Spybot S & D http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/

AVG Anti spyware http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

Make sure you download the free versions and use them often. Also turn off your windows system restore, run the programs, delete what they find, reboot your system then turn system restore back on.

Thank you for those links! AVG is recommended several times in my search so far.

 

[hydster]

Apparently whatever your DH downloaded onto your system was infected with the Zlob trojan. You need to find a program that will delete the ZLob trojan before it will go away. Zlob's are famous for popping up all sorts of balloons that tell you to buy such and such to get the rest of the infected files off your computer.

Usually you get a ZLOB trojan from downloading from certain freeware/shareware sites.

I'd suggest you go to microsoft and download their free defender and run it.

http://www.download.com/Microsoft-Windows-Defender/3640-12771_4-10598014.html?sb=2&v=0
Then I'd suggest you download and run these freebies as well.

http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Definition-File/3000-8022_4-10655061.html?tag=lst-0-9
http://www.download.com/WinPatrol-2007/3640-8022_4-10639400.html?tag=tab_ur


Then I'd also suggest that you make sure your microsoft security updates are current.

You can also go here
http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2005-120811-1051-99&tabid=3
to learn how to get rid of it as well.

Oh yeah and tell DH not to download stuff like that again!

 

[Chuck S]

I googled antispyzone.com It seems that antispyzone a fake spyware program installed by a trojan virus.

 

[Tigger By The Tail]

My husband read an article in our local paper about some program that would clean up our computer, clear out clutter, and help the computer run faster.

It seems very irresponsible for your local paper to promote a program that puts malware on your PC. I'd definately have to complain about that to them.

 

[hydster]

It seems very irresponsible for your local paper to promote a program that puts malware on your PC. I'd definately have to complain about that to them.

I agree and to OP and your DH...next time please do some research on WHAT you are downloading onto your system. This one is "relatively" harmless but next time you never know. Don't take it from a newspaper article only...do some of your own research through google or CNET additionally! Just a PSA! Not blaming just "informing"

 

[mandy200587]

PLease contact your paper, they can run a retraction about this. This is false advertisement.

 

[CottontailCurl]

It seems very irresponsible for your local paper to promote a program that puts malware on your PC. I'd definately have to complain about that to them.

Hey there, I just wanted to let you know that when my husband got home last night I asked him what the article said he should install and he said AVG!! Well, I was stumped because I was going follow your suggestion and use the 3 links you gave me but that included AVG. I questioned him some more and he said that right after he installed AVG another window opened and he thought that was part of the AVG installation so he did that one, too. We went ahead and followed your links, the clean-up of our system was lengthy and messy but all is peaceful again. We're back to normal, thank you for your help.

Thanks everyone!