I am documenting my
experience with a <nasty>
Hijacked Browser attack. If
you have such a problem this
worth a quick read because
this saved my bacon.
The programs recommended
below are the 'free'
versions.
---begin--
This was a nasty virus/worm
that would not allow
scanning of my pc with
Window XP - SP2. It
prohibited visiting to most
virus repair sites, blocked
me from Microsoft Security
Essentials (FREE) http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/, blocked
defrag and many other
helpful tools were disabled
or redirected.. it was
miserable... I had been
working on this for several
day's, nothing would help
because of the way it took
over the PC. I finally
found how to repair it.
Here's how it did it.
---
With a healthy PC
with a CD burner,
I went this Avira site and
downloaded their program to
make a current 'rescue
cd'
http://www.avira.com/en/support-download-avira-antivir-rescue-system
Burn
a rescue cd on your
"healthy"
desktop - Put the CD in you
infected PC and boot from
the CD. This is very easy
and all automatic ... follow
the instructions. The
program is made on a Linux kernal (not MS). Since
you have a MS virus, it
skirts many viral issues.
If for some reason, it
cannot make the CD, it
offers you the .iso to
download where you can make
the CD from your own CD
maker program (that's what I
did)
Every download of rescue cd is with
that day's
latest Anti-Virus <daily>
updates. This is
important because you will
have burned 'current
updates'.
I booted my infected pc
with that CD, then it
scanned (took 3 hrs.) and
cleared out the corruption
that was stealing the
browser. The infected PC
then ran properly (finally).
I then ran Malwarebytes
mbam-setup.exe and
cleaned more crap out.
http://www.download.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-...&tag=button
Malwarebytes was not well
known at this time, but I
found it surprisingly
helpful. If you have
other AV programs, prolly a
good idea to run scans with
them also, because no single
program gets them all.
... Life is good now.
I recommend both these
programs. I used the FREE
versions of both.
Try it, you'll like it.
I hope this helps you
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
IMHO, you can
probably use MS Security
Essentials as your only AV
program, and scan with MBAM
sometimes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
One last tidbit... never...
Never...
EVER
download, open or run a
program you are not 100%
sure of the credibility of
the source.