[Boerseun]

Do yourself a favour and check your c:program files directory for a dir called ipwins. If you do find it, don't just delete it - it creates a footprint to reassemble itself when next you reboot. It's spyware used to attract advertising crap to your machine. Use ad/remove programs in Control Panel, the idiots who wrote this wasn't very clever. It's listed there, and is easily removed, also removing any debris and shrapnel left in the registry. But if you simply delete the ipwins folder, it will reassemble itself.

My machine started throwing all kinds of errors and crap, and I was hesitant to tamper with Ipwins.exe, I thought it might have something to do with my IP settings or WINS or DNS or some funny internet routing crap, until I did a search on the net for it. Go and look for it, and if you find it, kill its ass!

These guys weren't alltogether stupid, however - it's pretty clever to give malware a name that sounds like a system file. It'll make people think that there's actually something wrong with the system and not necessarily a virus/malware/spyware/adware. Rookie hackers would've written something like YoUrA$$i$mInE.exe, which would, of course, send all kinds of alarm bells off.

[Jay-qu]

nope, Im clean I have AdAware running most of the time

[Chacmool]

Boerseun said:

My machine started throwing all kinds of errors and crap, and I was hesitant to tamper with Ipwins.exe, I thought it might have something to do with my IP settings or WINS or DNS or some funny internet routing crap, until I did a search on the net for it. Go and look for it, and if you find it, kill its ass!

Boerseun, hopefully that will teach you to stay away from those nasty porn sites. You find all kinds of virusses and things lurking there...

[Boerseun]

Chacmool said:

Boerseun, hopefully that will teach you to stay away from those nasty porn sites. You find all kinds of virusses and things lurking there...

I will bow to your superior experience regarding porn sites...

[Boerseun]

Jay-qu said:

nope, Im clean I have AdAware running most of the time

I have it running too - didn't help! It simply slipped by!

[Jay-qu]

How odd.. then I guess I am not safe, unless your definitions file was outdated.

I had a friend complain to me once about viruses and the like, I asked if he used scanners he replied 'yeah of course', so I added 'are they updated?' he then said 'yeah' but when i checked they where 65 days out of date..

[GAHD]

Also watch out for SOUNDMAN.EXE (It does *not* have anything to do with your sound card), ESPLORER.EXE, and Explorer.com

[alexander]

Hey GAHD, havent seen you in a long while how was your summer?

for the rest of you, just install this program and no virus will penetrate your system!

[GAHD]

It was allright; lots of work with the new job, new girl, and I got my six-pack back.

[alexander]

Are you still boxing? How's Jay doing? Where do you work now? Congrats on the Girl too, hope you are having fun

[GAHD]

Not actively, allright as far as I can tell, M&R Tradesmen. Thanks & yup.

We might be having another drunken boxing fight-night this halloween, so that'll be fun.

[GAHD]

To bring it back on topic: You can remove Explorer.exe too! just replace with another shell like Geoshell

[Jay-qu]

GAHD said:

To bring it back on topic: You can remove Explorer.exe too! just replace with another shell like Geoshell

wow, I didnt think it was possible because it seems so core to the windows enviroment..

[Boerseun]

Well, my machine went for a complete ball of crap now.

Spyware and adware and crap popping up all over the place. I've run ten different anti-malware tools, and they all report hundreds of worms and trojans and such. Problem is, of course, you go to any adware removal tool's website, and they tell you its the latest and greatest and they can run a free check. So you download the bloody thing, and sure as hell, it's a free check. The moment you hit the "remove" button, it tells you that you have to purchase the damn thing before it'll do anything further.

This is annoying like hell. I'm not gonna blow bucks on new anti-viral software. My PC is in need of a complete rebuild in any case, but on the short term, do you guys know of any decent antimalware freeware? That doesn't only scan, but can clean, as well?

[Jay-qu]

get adaware from lavasoft, its free for personal use best one I could find. There is also spybot..