Expert: Brian Benosky - 11/1/2010

Question
QUESTION: Hello!  For years I have known that there is some spyware on my computer. It is a small home computer running Windows ME. It's 12+ years old. I went to AdAware for their freebie but it wasn't for such an old OS. It would be nice if things ran faster. Can you advise me?

ANSWER: Hi Jim

You can use Spybot Search & Destroy on Windows ME.  Download from one of the mirror sites listed here:

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html

Once you download, install and run a scan with Spybot, it will detect any malware on your computer and prompt you to remove it.  

Let me know the results of the scan.  After you remove the malware, we can work on making things run a bit quicker.

Brian

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

QUESTION: This is worse than I thought. Spybot stopped two clicks from complete loading. I tried three times. There was an error message that I have gotten often before: dinst. exe. Spybot install was not responding.
History: I got DSL yesterday and thought it time to get rid of this stuff. Things run much faster but I discovered I can't send email from my Hotmail account. I can receive it, but not fill in the letter window after filling in the TO and SUBJECT lines. Scary. Previously I had to delete my CONTACTS list to keep spam from going out to people I know. I just write their info in by hand.  Thanks, -Jim S.

ANSWER: Hi Jim

Please try to keep this topic to one thread.  AllExperts (and my brain) have a problem with multiple threads.  You can try to boot into Safe Mode by tapping the F8 key when you start the computer until a black screen with a menu appears.  Choose to start Windows in Safe Mode.  From there, you should be able to start (or install) Spybot and HJT.  I will be out this evening, but I will check back tomorrow to see how you made out.

Brian

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

QUESTION: Hi. After creeping along like molasses to this window I hope I can finish this message. I finally loaded Spybot. I scanned and deleted all bad stuff and kept useful cookies. Program said 2 or 3 deleted had remnants in memory. Restart to remove. Took a day and a half. Did not help at all. Worse if anything. Scanned again. Found trojan Intexp.D and removed. Ultra-cold re-boot. No better. Still that DINST error. Can not write in email window, or send. Though I now have DSL it runs like half of 56K. Bad. What now?

Answer
Hi Jim

Let's try a clean up of the cache and temporary files to try and speed things up a bit.  Download CCleaner from here:

http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download/slim

It is compatible with ME.  Install and click to run the program.  Click the Analyze button first, then the Run Cleaner button.  After finishing the Cleaner, click on the Registry tab and then Scan and Fix the registry items it finds.  Screenshots and more detail can be found here:

http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/screenshots

Let me know how it runs afterwords.

Brian