Expert: Brian Benosky - 7/7/2008

Question
I have a Dell Inspiron, something that is a little over 2 years old. I have downloaded MacAfee Firewall a little while ago, but have not updated since downloading over a year ago. Laptop has been performing fine, but one day, while checking e-mail, a box popped up from MacAfee saying PUP something (don't know which) was found and I hit quarantine. Another popped up, and I hit quarantine again.
Since then, I can no longer search on the internet, if I type something in Google, the search results appear, but I get an irrelevant page. Also, TONS of pop ups. I ran virus scan and checked for those things, but nothing. It has not messed up files, just internet accessibility and way too many pop ups. Is there anything I can do to resolve this?

Answer
Hi Becky

Please download TrendMicro HijackThis! from the following link:
http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/threat_analytics/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 (no attachments) into a follow up here for me to analyze.

Brian