Alright..so, i clicked one of those AIM virus things that makes stuff come up..Anyone know how to get rid of it? The linked I clicked is *edited out by Tilly as it doesn't need to be here now, does it?* DONT click it..Yeah, its obviously a .pif file, whatever that is..so can anyone help? Ill make you a banner or something if it goes away :-D

check here

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data...x.fix.tool.html

Never dl or run something you don't know It's origin, especially if it has the extension of .pif, .scr, .exe, .com, .reg, .zip, .iso, .rar, .cmd, .bat .msi, .dll or .vxd. These are executable programs (or atleast contain executable code) which may contain a virus.

Some of em are probably less likely to be dangerous, like the windows installer files (msi) or .reg's but ehh, its just a word to the wise eh?

YAY! GO Symantec! (obviously I use their AV)

Well you know the saying, learn from your mistakes. Your AV should've detected it, or well when you ran your scan...(you do have a AV right? And ran a scan right after you were infected fight? *gives evil eye*)

Yeah thanks..Only problem is now, I cant get into safe mode, due to the fact that MSconfig closes upon start up..

What do you mean? On most systems it's uh...I kinda forgot I recall in computer class hitting both the esc key and del key to enter safe mode (I worked, I selected it), but it shouldn't be both keys it should be one of them, I know del lets you enter the BIOS.....

It's F8 on boot up I think if I am remembering correctly. That will bring you to a dos based screen, which you can choose what to boot the PC up in. Select Windows Safe Mode (with or without networking, it's your choice).

BIOS's are often different when it comes to the keys you have to push to access it at startup. With compaq's I think its Control or F1, many computers use F4, delete is a new one for me...


But.... If you can't get to msconfig, theres always registry editing.

Note when working with the registry always export a backup copy of the entire thing incase you screw it up..
Open start>Run Type in Regedit. Hit enter. Find the key on the left, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
In the right, delete the items which correspond to those you want to remove from startup.

Also, just check the 'Startup' folder in the startmenu and delete anything in there you want.

Bleah, I hate the startup folder, I never look at it *looks at it*(bah it's so incorrect, I have only 4 items in it, I have at least 10 more startup items, *counts taskbar* hmm...17 items, but some are windows services/system stuff) well I think the registry is a much better thing, is it true Windows 2k is missing the msconfig? I've never tried on 2000, I wonder why.....what a pointless thing, and it's supposed to be a corperate OS.

Your startup folder isn't all that designates what starts up, the startup tab in MSConfig (Need to have selective startup chosen) also controls what is run when you turn on the computer, usually things like system tray icons and other important stuff.

Indeed.

I use BitDefender, myself, seems to work rather well.

Damn trojans trying to get in...but me stuff works fo' long time!

Bleah Norton Anti-Virus is the best AV! Norton sold the most products, I 've heard of bit defender but never used it. GO NORTON!

Wasn't it you that said the general commercial concensus was usually wrong?

So..you are a norton fanboy--and a hater of Microsoft....

*sighs*

I've got problems with Microsoft haters...I really do.

So do I, especially the ones that trash XP without even using it *glares at friend*

BTW, I HATE Norton, it eats up WAY to much memory, is WAY to slow, and WAY to much slips past it. Just yesterday when we only had 256MB of memory (I just installed a second 256 stick, so know we have 512MB) the computer took a hell of a long time to start up, it started up much faster now though. When our current subscription expires I'm going to try out AntiVir, as it's supposedly the best free Antivirus you can get (AVG and Avast are also supposed to be good) and way better then Norton.

*wiggles finger in ear steve toros style*

eh? Did you say anything?

general commercial concensus? WTF does that mean?

I never implied I was a hater of Microsoft, I simply disagree with them and disapprove of how their company is responding to security threats and software problems (diplomatic!). I understand there're a big company, it's hard to handle such huge threats, espicaly when you are the most used OS but there are some things they CAN do that they don't.

Well Zelos.....(are you refering to me? trash xp? everytime my xp boots up I still look at it sideways and get a laught out of it)

Norton besides being the most sold AV, has some of the best protection avaliable, I've been using Norton for years (about 5...) and I like it. I use are their products and am pretty much satisfied (except NORTON GHOST! and systemworks is...well...not too good) it's not slow, I use it on allmy comps, and it loads fast on mine, (well it has a 1GB of RAM so that might account to it, and I've only used norton antivirus)

Besides I'm used to their interface so switching will cause problems. (Everyone's a fanboy of something, zoids more than norton though)

Yes. General commercial concensus. It basically means that whatever everyone is flocking to and buying (in the specific case I remember was that you said Macs were superior, but everyone bought windows).

I remember NUMEROUS occasions, when you've said, "I HATE MICROSOFT!"
And damn straight they're big.

Wanna know what? Sometimes I wonder if antivirus companies release viruses...

Without viruses...there'd be no business...no business...no money...no money...they're out of business.

Nope, they earn money though subscriptions, that's where they make money, and actualy has microsoft has learned; viruese created by companies can be easily traced. (I read that somewhere)

NOTE: Um, seeing as how long I took to type this, two more posts have already been made. This goes to ZeRoRaVeN's "*wiggles finger in ear steve toros style*" post.

I thought my "*glares at friend*" was clear enough that I meant my Linux loving, Microsoft hating "friend" by that comment...

General commercial concensus is having an opinon the same as eveyrone else just because everyone has that same opinoin. One of the many ways of conforming to everyday society.

Being most sold doesn't mean anything (besides good marketing), Enter the Matrix sold alot, does that make it one of the best games ever?

I've also been using Norton for years, but I hate it. For a person who's used low-end computers for years (that will all change within a year or so!) Norton has been painfully slow, extending start-up time quite a bit, incredibly LONG scans (not as long as scan disk takes, however. Hence why I only do that about once every other year <_<), and low accuracy (it misses viruses which I KNOW the computer must have on it)

And adjusting to a new interface for me only takes about ten seconds, I have used lots of different products over my life and have a talent for adjusting to new programs (When I first learned how to use a computer back in second or third grade, I was the first to learn how to do anything, and have been figuring out new things faster then anyone at my school my my whoel life. I am also proud to say I'm the single best PowerPoint maker in my school, probably even district. Of course, that's not hard when people can't seem to realize that dark yellow text on a light yellow background can blind you... Geeze that was a long parenthesis...)

I don't use it because everyone else does, I don't care, if mcafee turns out to be better than Norton (which it isn't) then I will consider the possibilty of switching. But to me I perfer most of Norton's products (I disapprove some...and am disappointed by others, their anti-spam is ok, it needs alot more work though).

If a free anti-virus has proven, and shown that it is better than a commercial product then I'll also consider using it, so far I have not seen any evidence (well go ahead change my views, I know you'll be like "what!? no evidence!?"), and well I don't really bother because I'm satisfied. But I also use it for intergration, I use their internet security suite, and I also think Zonealarm was quite good (I used it briefly on another computer).

Opionions are opionions, not facts.

I never said I could prove Norton was worse or that you shouldn't use it. I said that I hate it, and as soon as my subscription expires I'm switching to AntiVir, AVG, or Avast.

Actually, I just found that this article I was looking at earlier is back online. That actually shows that Norton has the third highest detection rate of all Anti-Virus programs tested, but is one of the biggest memory hogs and slowest to start up. That actually shows it has a fairly quick scan time compared to others, but meh, whatever. I still hate Norton, and aren't going to force my parents to renew our subscription and instead get a freeware scanner.

The page looks interesting, but for me NAV is pretty fast so I'm sticking with it. BTW do you actualy renew your Norton? There're a simple trick, reinstall the app, with all versions even the newest one with internet activation if you reinstall the application you get a single year of free defentitions, then reinstall all over again once it expires. There are benifits to be a longtime user of a product sometimes.

I'm looking for is a deticated spyware scanner (all the ones with AV intergrated do HORRIBLE jobs) I used to use spysweeper trials, then somehow they used some anti-reinstall trial stuff.

Does anyone have a suggestion (besides Spybot Search and Destory and AD-Adware)?

I used to think and trust spybot, but when I was downloading some files off the internet, I scanned a zip file, and norton told me there was a adware file inside, I though norton had deleted it but I missed it saying delete failed, so I opened it and was blasted by some adware. Now I set Norton to tell me whenever a module accesses the internet and I actualy read them, and when I noticed some werid module (searchbarcrash.exe) I denied access and ran spy bot, it found spyware but not the one I wanted to find and the requsts keep coming. So via norton, I tracked down the file and tried to delete it, it self-protected itself because I couldn't delete it, so I simply renamed it. It's still there but I have to get a good solid anti-spyware, so that's my story, any suggestions? (amazing how the topic changes)

You could always try Microsoft's Beta Anti-Spyware Program. PCStats showed that it detects some things Ad-Aware doesn't (Doesn't detect Tracking Cookies, however). It's supposed to be free only until June or something, when it will supposedly go commercial.