12-03-2004, 07:21 AM
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#1 |
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Admiral
  
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Square On My Arse
Posts: 7,410
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Damn, I've been infected....
Perhaps someone has seen this before. Last week I somehow managed to get a nasty little piece of spyware on my computer at work. Not sure where it came from but whenever I open a browser window or explore a folde there is now an additional toolbar with shortcuts to things that are not work appropriate. I've run ad aware which found lots of crap but not this. My IT support has looked it and are befuddled. They've offered to re-image my computer. I will probably take them up on that offer but first wanted to see if anyone could help.
Here is a screenshot of the toolbar. It is right below the addressbar.  If I right click in a neutral area by the tool bars I see that this is called "Fast Search" I can turn it off there but it reappears everytime I open either a browser or folder. I've reported it so at least I won't get fired over inappropriate material but I still would like it gone forever. Add/Remove programs has no listing for it. Thanks in advance for any help.
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12-03-2004, 07:50 AM
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#2 |
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What's Da Pho*?
 
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: SoCal (714)
Posts: 13,296
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You shouldn't visit pr0n sites at work. J/K
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Dell Dimension 9200 | Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4GHz) | 4x1GB DDR2 | 256MB nVidia GeForce 8800GT Dell Studio 17 | Intel Core i7-720QM (1.6GHz) | 2x2GB DDR3 1066MHz | 1GHz ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 Intel P4-C 3.0GHz | ECS 865PE-A | 3x512MB PC3200 | 128MB PNY GeForce 6600GT 
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12-03-2004, 08:10 AM
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#3 |
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Commander
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Pekin, IN
Posts: 1,377
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Never mind. I had posted a link to remove it, but don't think it's the write spyway.
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12-03-2004, 08:27 AM
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Admiral
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Square On My Arse
Posts: 7,410
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Quote:
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12-03-2004, 08:28 AM
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#5 | |
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Vice Chairwoman, Joint Chieftess of Staff
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Jeterville, NYY
Posts: 17,786
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Quote:
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*click me* |
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12-03-2004, 08:50 AM
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#6 | |
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Rear Admiral Upper Half
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Where the east meets the west.
Posts: 3,066
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i think adaware should get rid of that for you. Or you can look it up. I think when i had that issue it was a folder and program stored under program files... Hang on one sec...
Check this out. Its a link to a guide on removing fastsearch stuff. And it has links on how to remove all the other random little popup guys... I hope this helps... hehe and i really gotta stop talking as if you guys can see my post as i type.. you might think i'm crazy. Quote:
wouldn't you rather he bite yours? 
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"The girl is crafty like ice is cold." "I left my heart in san francisco... And my liver at Moe's Tavern." A real friend is one who listens to you as much as they talk to you. |
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12-03-2004, 08:59 AM
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#7 |
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Lieutenant Commander
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Middlesex, NJ
Posts: 541
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Yeah that sucks. Thats why I use Firefox at work. Plus they can't go through my cache files as easy.
format c:  |
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12-03-2004, 12:57 PM
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#8 |
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Lieutenant Junior Grade
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Nashville, TN
Posts: 88
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pchell.com says it appears to be a variant of CoolWebSearch, so you may want to grab your nearest CWShredder and knock it out. Merijn is the originator and has the file that removes just about every variant of the file, because AdAware and Spybot can never seem to pick it all up.
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html |
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12-03-2004, 01:13 PM
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#9 |
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Admiral
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Square On My Arse
Posts: 7,410
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Thanks for the help folks. It turned out to be a hidden .dll file that had to go as well as an entry in the registery. I used CWShredder and Spybot Search & Destroy to get at it. Had to go and review the Web Browser Helper Objects and remove it that way.
Ugly little bug that was. |
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12-04-2004, 04:57 PM
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#10 |
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Rear Admiral Upper Half
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Michigan
Posts: 3,672
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i had a client that had something about a week ago that wasnt recognized by adaware and after each reboot, downloaded hundreds of new spyware objects, without even doing anything on the pc. I believe it was somehow part of bargain buddy. Whatever it was, it was a pain. It would reinstall extra toolbars, popup flash animations at random. I cant see how pc users put up with some of this crap.
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http://ribitch.com/ipod.html |
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12-04-2004, 06:29 PM
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Lieutenant Commander
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 947
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That sounds like what my boss has on his comuter now. I have yet to be able to get rid of it. Adware picks some of it up, but freezes when it tries to remove it. |
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12-04-2004, 07:00 PM
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Rear Admiral Upper Half
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Michigan
Posts: 3,672
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i ended up using hijack this and some other tool (i dont remember the name of it). Hijack allowed me to remove most of the crap that was starting up, but there was one dll file that it failed to remove. The other program allowed me to remove the dll file. after that it worked great. |
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12-05-2004, 11:55 AM
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aka the keg killer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Ala-effin'-bama!
Posts: 2,738
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Chad, try one of these: http://nyquil-kid.dyndns.org/ http://www.ubcd4win.com/ I have had good luck removing even the toughest spyware by booting off of one of the two CDs mentioned in the links and using the tools on them. This works much better IMHO than booting into Windows, which runs the rogue processes and makes them more difficult to remove. If the infected machine is running XP, turn off System Restore and also clear out the C:\Windows\Prefetch directory BEFORE attempting to eradicate adware/spyware. After you get the bosses machine clean, install Javacool Spyware Blaster http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html as a preventative to help keep it from happening again. Go be a hero and get a feather in your cap. If I can help let me know.
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"The price of progress is trouble." (C. F. "Boss" Kettering) "50% of the American public has below-average intelligence. 70% of the American public now has regular access to the Internet. Do the math." (unknown) |
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12-05-2004, 09:15 PM
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Grand Moff
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: jabba's palace. (yes, i do... and no, you can't.)
Posts: 9,718
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i have spywareblaster, spyware doctore, and adaware, but i have gotten a couple of very nasty toolbars in spite of them... what works for me is searching for files with the name of the toolbar in them, and deleting what i find. then all teh other leftover bits and pieces seem to lose their camoflauge, and the spyware assassins can now find them and take care of the rest. not very scientific, but it's worked for me so far...
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Find the person who will love you because of your differences and not in spite of them and you have found a lover for life. ~ Leo Buscaglia http://www.welfareloser.com http://gotapexblogs.net/users/welfareloser/ |
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12-06-2004, 12:18 PM
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Lieutenant Commander
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 947
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Quote:
I took your advice (sort of) and used a bootable CD (Bart PE) and ran Adaware. I was finally abe to remove them without Adaware locking up. However once I restarted they came back. I tried a couple manual removal procedures and those didn't work either. I finally tried Adwareaway and that (I think) did the trick. I'll check back in a few hours and see if everything still looks clean after some regular use. Thanks for the help |
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12-06-2004, 05:27 PM
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#16 |
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Grand Moff
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: jabba's palace. (yes, i do... and no, you can't.)
Posts: 9,718
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oh, the one spyware killer that worked WONDERS (and i've tried about a dozen) is webroot's "spy sweeper." it killed everything, always. stopped stuff from ever coming on to my hd, and always popped up an alert when anything bad tried to happen. it's free for 30 days, then you pay. i think it's pretty cheap, like maybe $30 per year. i let it lapse after the trial period... which is why i'm now reinstalling windows
i'm damn well going to pony up the money for it as soon as i put my poor little broken computer back together again... anyway, do a google for it; i think it's at download.com or downloads.com or whatever that site is... |
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