I think I've got a 'virus'.

Infidel

.......or rather my laptop has.

Something turned off Malware protection (Windows defender) and I got a message that said Ad-Aware was shut down unexpectedly (even though I didn't open it). Arggghhhh.

Has anyone got any advice on what I should do?

Currently I just have Windows defender, scan with Ad-Aware occasionally and McAfee security suite (the one that was bundeled free with o2 broadband) - this regularly says 'my computer is not fully protected' and I have to click 'fix' almost every day. Is there a better (free) set-up I should be using?

Many thanks tech people!

penrhyn

Download and run Malwarebytes Antimalware, post the log then download and run hijack-this and post the log on this site.


When problems have been resolved I'd suggest removing Macafee and Defender and replacing them with Microsoft Security Essentials.

Infidel

Should I d/l those from www.download.com? I'm always wary of the actual thing you d/l being full of malware and viruses etc.

penrhyn

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/?svypg=dns&svyt=59226

Should be OK, CNET has never caused me any problems.

Infidel

Hi. Okay I downloaded and installed both of those.

When I was running Hijack this, I got an alert message that started with the following;

"For some reason your system denied write access to the Hosts file. If any hijacked domains are in this file, HijackThis may NOT be able to fix this.

..............................."

Should I be concerned? If so do I need to do anything?

debitcardmayhem

Infidel wrote: »

Hi. Okay I downloaded and installed both of those.

When I was running Hijack this, I got an alert message that started with the following;

"For some reason your system denied write access to the Hosts file. If any hijacked domains are in this file, HijackThis may NOT be able to fix this.

..............................."

Should I be concerned? If so do I need to do anything?

Right click on HJT and select run as administrator

Infidel

Ok, should I run another scan (after right-clicking)?

debitcardmayhem

Infidel wrote: »

Ok, should I run another scan (after right-clicking)?

Yes then post the log, one of the experts will advise on that

Infidel

Do I have to locate the actual Hijackthis, as from the desktop short-cut there is no 'run as Admin' option via right click.

aliEnRIK

Whilst pressing the SHIFT key, right click and select RUN AS

If that doesnt work youll need the earlier version ~
Download HIJACK THIS (Make sure you click 'DOWNLOAD LATEST VERSION')
http://www.filehippo.com/download_hijackthis/2894/
Click MAIN MENU then DO A SYSTEM SCAN AND SAVE A LOGFILE(Takes seconds) then post the log so we can see whats running
(do NOT do anything else with Hijack but scan and post the FULL log)

aliEnRIK

Main one you need to run is malwarebytes ~
Download MALWAREBYTES (Make sure you click 'DOWNLOAD LATEST VERSION')
http://www.filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/
Open malwarebytes and goto UPDATE and click 'check for updates'. After its updated goto SCANNER and click PERFORM FULL SCAN then click SCAN
Post the COMPLETE log here AFTER youve deleted everything it finds