Go to cnet.com and get 2 things: avg virus guard, and malwarebytes malware removal software. They are both free, and they are as good as anything out there. McAfee and Norton are SH*T, IMHO.

 

i have avast, too, it's saved my poor old 'puter from viruses more times than i can count. otherwise, i probibly woulda buried an axe in it years ago, haha

 

Avast is my AV of choice because it's very effective stopping infections before they begin, actualizes self automatically and, most of all, it's free.

 

Thanks for the replies.

Just wish I would have seen them sooner cause when I left the house my brother in law was there. He planned on wiping the hard drive clean then re-installing the programs I had to see if this helped remove the virus?

Just wish I could have gotten a chance to copy the irreplaceable files that are now lost.

 

Vote #2.

 

If you're going to go through a clean install I'd suggest getting, besides the obligatory AV ware, MEMEO auto back up! It's a great little ware that backs up your entire C drive to a previously assigned external drive automatically and continuously! As long as you have an external drive up an running, which most of us do already, your C drive data will be safe. Also, repartition the C drive before installation and the OS should format the drive to eliminate all vestiges of the infection.

 

I use malware bytes, avg 9 premium (see me if you want it), and my router is my firewall. And google popup blocker. Malware bytes removes what seem to be rootkits, which is what this program sounds like. It's like the time my ex visited a bunch of **** sites and gotten my desktop locked down to the point where my clock said virus alert all over it, it took away my display property settings you name it. Malware bytes got rid of it as avg was useless. Avg will still throw a lot of false positives but it's less intrusive than avast and uses less resources.

 

Oh, and if anyone here uses firefox, there's little add-on program that you can install into firefox itself that will only let you load the main page of the website you're looking for, instead of the dozen applets that can load up into your browser that carry everything from unauthorized cookies to malware and addware. It's called NoScript and will only allow the main, basic portion of the web page your looking for. The rest of the page needs permissions that you can give once comfortable that the page safe. It requires a little bit of reading to know how to use it but it's worth the time. This program, together with a good AV like Avast or AVG, and your window's firewall should be enough to stop every malicious applet/cookies out there.

 

Monty I heard of that... wonder if they have anything like that for an ie7 addon, as you can do addons with that browser too. I never did like firefox, I'm an IE girl for some reason...

 

I haven't used IE for browsing in years so I'm kind of out of the loop when it comes to the MS browser. I only use FF because it's a more customizable browser, it's faster than IE(my opinion anyway) and doesn't have as many malware applets made for it as does IE. All I can tell you is to give it a try, since it's been updated often within the last 5-7 months, and see if you like it.