Re: Installation Problem

Alan Smith wrote:
My niece rang me up saying she couldn't get onto the internet on her
PC but the laptop was fine. She also mentioned that Antivirus 2008 was
saying there was 47 pieces of spyware on the PC but it needed
activating as the trial period was over. She brought it round, every
time you tried to go to a website it sent you off on a redirect. I
download spybot & pctools but neither would install. I installed
Avast which ran on boot & tried to disinfect the corrupted files but
couldn't so one of the other options was to delete the files, which I
did, result Windoze wouldn't boot. So tried to reinstall Windoze,
system hangs, fdisk'd the drive, reformatted & tried again, setup
starts to load & then hangs again at prompt "Setup is starting
Windows" Anyone got any clues, been a while since I've had to install
Windoze & starting to struggle.
Cheers

Alan..

Here's at least one of your problems:

http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/adware-and-puas/antivirus2008.html

....And a solution to that particular problem:

http://www.wiki-security.com/wiki/Parasite/Antivirus2008

In short you've downloaded crapware/adware which has fsked the PC up :
....And it appears that you're trying to blame the os by calling it
"Windoze".

The problem is that whoever d/led Antivirus 2008 doesn't have a clue: It
reports 47 of the 147 or so pieces of spyware that it introduced onto the
system and then jams it up because you didn't pay for the privellige of
having the system infected. I bet there are at least 2 trojans on the system
too; introduced by Antivirus 2008.

My advice to you or whoever is if you're loading freeware onto your system
then consult someone in the know and/or Google before you do so. These days
"free" *probably* means malicious. : There is no such thing as a free
lunch - Unless you know what you're doing; and even then very rarely so.
TIP#1: If it's free then suspect it of being malicious. TIP#2: Avast! and
AVG are a couple of the few free non-malicious AVs.

Do yourself a favour and stop trying to use a computer without any cost
whatsoever: It'll end up costing you more than if you'd paid in the first
place: Spyware and adware strains hardware, it's badly written, and it
costs you time and money getting rid of it when it nauses up your system as
in this case.

I'll pre-empt the Linuxites and say that Linux can be a cheaper option
initially; but the time spent on the various hassles still costs £s at the
end of the day.

The only free lunch is in a mousetrap - And you've been caught!

--
http://www.kustomkomputa.co.uk
Personalised Desktop Computers


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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Installation Problem
    ... So tried to reinstall Windoze, ... The problem is that whoever d/led Antivirus 2008 doesn't have a clue: It reports 47 of the 147 or so pieces of spyware that it introduced onto the system and then jams it up because you didn't pay for the privellige of having the system infected. ... Do yourself a favour and stop trying to use a computer without any cost whatsoever: It'll end up costing you more than if you'd paid in the first place: Spyware and adware strains hardware, it's badly written, and it costs you time and money getting rid of it when it nauses up your system as in this case. ...
    (uk.comp.homebuilt)
  • Re: Mystery process
    ... > I also tried a system restore, but can't do a restore either. ... > online virus scan at one of the following sites: ... Some other applications to try for ANTIVIRUS and SPYWARE elimination can be ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain)
  • Re: Trojan-Win.32 problems
    ... spyware is preventing me from doing so or what. ... In addition to the flashing yellow triangle and the pop-up System alert ... Your system is infected with a rogue antivirus program. ... how to do a clean install, you can take your machine to a local computer ...
    (microsoft.public.security.virus)
  • Re: Viruses, spyware etc
    ... > various spyware software will not go away. ... My list for AntiVirus and AntiSpyware follows: ... (Free Online Scanner: http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/) ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.newusers)
  • Re: Installation Problem
    ... She also mentioned that Antivirus 2008 ... was saying there was 47 pieces of spyware on the PC but it needed ... The only free lunch is in a mousetrap - And you've been caught! ... As to trying to use a computer at little or no cost, ...
    (uk.comp.homebuilt)