Expert: Brian Benosky - 10/31/2008

Question
Hi Brian,
On Tuesday morning of this week my computer started having problems.  Usually I hit Internet Explorer and it goes to Msn as my home page.  Instead it went to something called Security Toolbar 7.1 with two green boxes next to it..one saying Block adware/popups..the other saying remove Spyware.  Then everything starts poping up regarding my computer being infected with a virus re: Trojan something or another. All these security systems start requesting me to download (buy there product in order to save my computer. We've never had problems before and this is driving me crazy.  Is there any chance you could tell me how to get rid of Security Toolbar  7.1 and also return tmy original homepage without losing any of our favorites. These system alert popups are really getting to us. They're also telling us that all my personal info is in jeopardy if I don't buy one of these programs.  I can reach my home page if I type in msn.com but then it takes me fifteen minutes to keep xing out all those popups.  Is there any chance you can show me a way to fix this without buying something.  Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.....Greg

Answer
Hi Greg

You have a rogue spyware application installed.  Please download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to your desktop from here:

http://www.besttechie.net/tools/mbam-setup.exe

Double-click mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program.
 * At the end, be sure a checkmark is placed next to
       o Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
       o and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
 * then click Finish.
 * If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version.
 * Once the program has loaded, select Perform full scan, then click Scan.
 * When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results.
 * Be sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
 * When completed, a log will open in Notepad.  Save the log file to your desktop.

Next, please download TrendMicro HijackThis! from the following link:

http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/_download/HJTInstall.exe

* Save HJTInstall.exe to your desktop.
* Doubleclick on the HJTInstall.exe icon on your desktop.
* By default it will install to C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis.
* Click on Install.
* It will create a HijackThis icon on the desktop.
* Once installed, it will launch Hijackthis.
* Click on the Do a system scan and save a logfile button. It will scan and the log should open in notepad.
* Click on "Edit > Select All" then click on "Edit > Copy" and Paste the entire contents of the log here in a follow-up, along with the Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware log.

Brian