When malware bites…

By | August 10, 2012

Nancy has pesky malware
I have a problem. I was trying to open a document and a window opened up with suggestions of finding a program to open the file and stupid me I trusted their suggestion and downloaded something and with it came some things I can’t seem to get rid of. One is Shop to win and one is freeze.com. I was able to uninstall the program and some of the bundles but can not get rid of these two. I ran Malware and SUPERAntiSpyware and Malware got rid of 2 things but these two I mentioned keep popping up while I am trying to work. Please help if you can. Thanks. Nancy

Our answer
Hi Nancy. The very first thing you should do is try System Restore. If you have a System Restore Point that was created prior the installation of the malware, then use that restore point and you’ll be clean and ready to roll.

If you don’t have a restore point available from before this incident, here are two more suggestions. Make sure you have the latest version of Malwarebytes. Find the Malwarebytes installation folder and find the folder called Chameleon. Open the folder and click on any one of the exe files in there (they have names like rundll32.exe, chrome.exe, firefox.exe…etc.). These names are to trick the malware programs. Once you’ve clicked on one of the exe a DOS window will open. Follow the instructions in the DOS windows (they’re easy). After a time you’ll see “Trying to kill all known malware processes” and then you’ll see “Attempting to start Malwarebytes”. Then Malwarebytes will open. Choose Full Scan. This will remove any malware that couldn’t be removed during your other attempts because their processes were still running. Using this method is less time consuming and easier than booting into Safe Mode.

The second suggestion is for Internet Explorer (after you’ve run Malwarebytes in Chameleon mode). Open Control Panel and find Internet Options. Open it. Click on the Advanced Tab and click the “Reset” button — this disables all toolbars and add-ins (even the good ones). You can re-enable the good ones and necessary ones later by opening Internet Explorer and clicking Tools / Internet Options – then click the Programs tab and then Manage Add-ons button.

This should clean up any remaining infections and cure your browser popups and redirects. If your homepage has been hijacked, you’ll need to reset it by going to Tools / Internet Options. In the General dialog, remove the start page URL that is there and type in the URL of the page with which you want Internet Explorer to start.

One thought on “When malware bites…

  1. Matthew

    My gosh, you guys are awesome! I’ve been online for nearly 14 years and I’ve never heard of what you explained above before now. Thanks!

    Reply

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