Expert: Brian Benosky - 12/8/2008

Question
QUESTION: Made the mistake of taking up offer of scanning my laptop with a evaluating copy of antivirus 2009 software. It found 34 infected files.  Now antivirus software 2009 appears each time I boot my laptop.  When I try to go online, yahoo mail, gmail, you tube, etc, I'm informed that I must first get rid of the infected files by subscribing to antivirus 2009.  Deleted the software but it still shows up.  Tried system restore but unable to get the calendar that appears to revert back to previous months.  Left arrow on calendar tells me it should revert back to previous months but nothing happens.  What else can I do.  Every thing else is okay except when I try to go online.  Laptop with wi-fi is located right next to my main computer and it worked great before I scanned the laptop with antivirus 2009.  What else can I do.  Harry

ANSWER: Hi Harry

Please download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to your desktop from here:

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

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 HijackThis to your desktop from here:
http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/_download/HJTInstall.exe
Make sure you close EVERY open window and ALL browser windows. The only thing that should be open is the HijackThis program.
Double-click on the file you just downloaded.
Click on the "Install" button.
Upon install, HijackThis should open for you.
Should it not open, go to C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis and double click on HijackThis.exe
Choose 'Do a system scan and save a log file'.
Copy the text file which opens in Notepad and paste it in your follow-up along with a copy of the Malwarebytes scan.
   * Do not fix any entries in HijackThis, as they may be harmless.


Brian

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks Brian: I'm  77 and no geek, that's for sure.  The problem is with my laptop.  Since scanning with the antivirus 2009 software, I'm unable to go online.  Didn't have this problem before.  Did the software do something, trying to force me to subscribe to their program?  Everything else works fine on my laptop.  Thanks, Harry

Answer
Hello Harry

I'm very sorry for not responding sooner.  As you can understand, this is a very hectic time of year!  
The problem is that Antivirus 2009 is a rogue malware program, meaning it is a fake and any reports it gives you are also faked in an attempt to get you to purchase the program.  
Since the time you responded, have you been able to get online with the laptop?  You will somehow need to run the Malwarebytes program in order to fix your computer.  Perhaps downloading from another computer to a CD or a USB drive?  Once you run the program, I can help you further with the cleaning.

Brian