Malware on my Computer

There is malware on my computer. Sometimes when I go to a page, my browser (IE or Chrome) will redirect to some other page. Also, I couldn't even get Chrome to work since I got infected. But suddenly it started working a few days ago. I've been infected for over a week now.

I ran Avira scan, and it found no virus. There were like 230 warnings in the report, but I didn't see anything in the software to fix them.

Then I ran Hijackthis which was made for XP. It didn't work. My browser is still not working right. I don't know what to do to get rid of this. Is there a HijackThis for W7?

Should I find a better malware scanner?

not good

I don't know if there's a hijackthis, but I found a few standalone tools specifically for eradicating the redirect virus. Thanks for telling me what it is. I think I got rid of it. I'll surf around a little just to make sure.

crimson said:

I don't know if there's a hijackthis,

HijackThis - Trend Micro USA

Operating System

• Microsoft™ Windows™ XP
• Microsoft™ Windows™ 2000
• Microsoft™ Windows™ Me
• Microsoft™ Windows™ 98
• Microsoft™ Windows™ Vista
• Microsoft™ Windows™ 7

Software

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or newer
• Mozilla™ Firefox™ 1.5 or newer

Oh kewl they updated HijackThis for W7. Last time I checked it was only for XP. Thanks!

You're very welcome.Yep it seems, Merijn had sold the whole thing to TrendMicro and they updated it 3x now IIRC.
I use HijackThis ever since I came across in W98SE times

Hope you get your stuff sorted out

*DG

Hi there
Unlike a lot of people here I've made my position on the whole question of Computer Security well known ever since I signed up to the Forum.

I'm fairly suspicious of most types of AV software -- my philopsophy is usually that a USER can protect a computer far better than ANY AV software if you use your machine sensibly.

However people DO get infected -- and for me the only 100% safe resolution is to RESTORE from a CLEAN IMAGE if you have one (and you should ALWAYS HAVE ONE) or else a complete W7 re-install.

I would NEVER EVER trust a computer again that had been infected and "cleansed" by AV software.

We all know that there is no such thing as 100% safe computer AV software --so why should we also assume that a computer can be 100% cleansed with AV software too.

Once you've got a CLEAN image back it up and if you get infected again use it for recovery.

MSE for protection these days is just as good as anything else out there for HOME computers --and its FREE as well.

Cheers
jimbo

I see where you 're coming from, Jimbo an you sure have a point there.
Only difference here: HijackThis is not so much an AV software but more a report tool, that gives you a report about what goes on on several (usually suspicious) positions. So it relies on the user to decide if the computer is infected and what measures have to be to remedy the situation.
You could as well go through the registry "by foot", inspecting each and every key.
I usually check the outcome and decide what to do next, from there

-DG

Thanks. I agree with most of what you said except for the MSE part. I would never use MS product as a firewall. It makes no sense to trust a firewall from a company that makes software I would use especially if the software is an operating system itself. I'm not going to trust a MS product to block Windows from accessing the internet.

I keep Windows Firewall disabled, and use a third party firewall because Windows firewall doesn't block shite. It allows all my applications (especially Windows components) to use my internet connection to access the internet without my permission.

I can't format my computer right now, and reinstall everything clean because I don't know anybody that will lend me their hard drive to store about 1TB worth of docs/pics/vids/music/media etc. while I format my hard drive. There is no way I can format my hard drive because I have all this media on it that I cannot lose.

The only way I wouldn't format is if I get a virus that I know has been eradicated. But typically, I would wipe the harddrive and reinstall everything clean if I knew that there is garbage in it that I can't figure out how to fix. I know exactly what processes need to be running at all times, I know what needs to be enabled, and I know what should be running at startup. By sometimes there is alot of crap that gets installed with software or malware that has absolutely no purpose.