Absolute Nightmare - Virus

We somehow managed to pick up a Virus on the desktop PC,it kept telling me that a virus was trying to get in and did I want to block it.
Everytime I clicked yes it took me to a windows live screen and to buy anti virus software for x amount of US Dollars

Anyway I couldn't do anything with the damn thing,couldn't get any internet access or access any files whatsoever,including the AVG anti virus,it had somehow managed to turn it off

I popped into our local PC Shop this morning and asked for advice and have taken the PC in for a service,(it needed one anyway) because it kept restarting itself several times a day,very annoying! They will be removing the virus etc.


So my question is,how do you remove these things when you can't get any access to files on your PC or internet access ?

The woman who I spoke to said it was pointless installing Anti Virus after one had got through because the virus would prevent it installing and running properly.

Not sure Sal but Gorden was saying a virus got into their work computers Wednesday or Thursday and has shut the Lewisham education dept down. It was till down yesterday so the IT people are going to have a busy christmas.

Hope yours is sorted soon.

Thanks Lynn,
Well I have worked out one of the boys clicked a link to update details and it was a rogue security virus,hence why I kept getting a message saying the PC was infected and it wouldn't have made any difference apparently if I had pressed no or even Cancel because it had found it's way into the system.

Apparently they can be a nightmare to get rid of and I'm just hoping I don't loose all my pics I do have loads saved on cd up until 12 months ago so at least I haven't lost the kids and dogs puppy pics.

I have firefox on my lappy and that's the only browser I will use,so they have all been asked in future to only use that browser, and not IE or bt.

I had this happen to me. It kept warning me my pooter was infected with a load of Trojan viruses and kept taking me to the handy cure site where I could buy some software. My hubby downloaded a (completely different ) free cure called Malwarebytes which he installed, ran and it has cured it.

You will probably find that the virus warner was the virus itself.
You get these, they trick you into beleiving you have a virus, so you click the prompt to 'fix it', which is what actually donwloads the spyware or hijackers or suchlike, affecting your systems.

Often the way to tell if these warnings are gneuine or not is thus:
1) are they from your existing anti virus programme, ie AVG?
2 ) when you pass the cursor over anywhere in the box, does it look like the usual arrow or look like a hand? if a jand, it's not genuine.
Dont click on anything to do with this box, incl the X button.
Minimise the screen and right click it and select 'close'.
Or press CTRL, ALT and DELETE and click End Task.

He's right. Rob got one of these on his laptop, and silly boy, he clicked on it.
The only wat to get rid is to clear and restart the whole thing (took it into PCworld who said that) and they could've done it but it was Windows XP Pro, and Rob didn't have the disc as neither did they, so he just left it.

Yep - they're called 'Trojans' as in Trojan horse as the virus is hidden inside.

They hope you click the damn thing as that then releases it.


In addition to whatever spyware / virus programs you have....Malwarebytes is handy to have - as is CC Cleaner, Advanced Windows care and also Spybot. I just run them now and again over and above the ongoing protection and they seem to tidy things up and generally help speed things up.

Thanks Guys,
Really useful info.

I tried to run CCleaner and it wouldn't let me open the file nor would it let me into AVG to run it,it just shut the whole system down but if it does happen again I know how to deal with it.

What would you guys recommend as a good anti virus,Spyware ?
Both myself and Liz have AVG on our lappy's along with firefox as our browser's.

Phil do you have a link to malwarebytes ?

Try here

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

I've got Norton on this PC and AVG on the one upstairs which is now Hannah's. My Laptop (which is a work one) has McAfee. They all just have what came with and to be fair we've never had any major issues.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal is one which I know a lot of people go on about.

Some more here

http://antivirus.about.com/od/antivi.../aatpavwin.htm

Regardless of what browser you use the problem is with your protection software you have installed you need a better one that scans all HTTP code traffic that comes in to your pc (it doesn’t take long as all web pages are text behind what you see)
(Example web page code)
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico">
<style type="text/css">
div#container
{
width: 950px;
position: relative;
margin-top: 0px;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
text-align: left;
}
body
{
text-align: center;
margin: 0;
}
</style>
<script type="text/javascript" src="./jscookmenu.js"></script>
<style type="text/css">
.ThemeMenuBar2Menu,
.ThemeMenuBar2SubMenuTable

It is not the users fault that this happened if the correct protection was installed it wouldn’t of happened as it would of scanned the incoming code and the page wouldn’t even been displayed on your pc as the antivirus software blocks access to it so the b browser couldn’t decode the incoming code and display it on your VDU so it doesn’t get to your temp internet files and to cause havoc on your system.
It also has properly implanted its self into your system restore files as well so if you done a restore it will still be there afterward as not all antivirus/ spyware can scan system restore files this location is. C:\System Volume but you won’t be able to see it as it his hidden and you need to change your folder view to be able to see this file and change system security to access it (not recommended).
Unfortunately this sort of thing has to happen to allow you to see the floors in your own security arrangements on your system only to improve them to reduce the risk of it happening again.
You mentioned AVG I don’t now if this is the free one or not but the free one does claim to have a HTTP code scanner with it as does the paid version it whichever one it is obviously didn’t do its job as you wouldn’t be going through what you are now.

I use kaspersky anti virus