ECN Forum Forums Technical Discussion Re: Computers and the Internet Infected?

Hello Everyone,
It's been awhile since my last visit. I hope someone can help me?

My wife's Dell laptop running win7, 62 bit looks infected with "Fun Web Search". I have removed it twice and found it in "programs" twice where I also removed it. Avast free version found another web site that is part of the "My Web Search" cluster of applications/programs today. I have tried several antivirus programs, spyware and cleaners to no avail. My next step is to get professional help.

The computer display looks different than it did. Firefox "add-ons" cannot be edited or removed. Background colors look real white. The PC is functional but on a network. Does anyone have an idea? Something more I can try myself before I take it to someone? Can a wireless router host a virus or other unwanted programs?

Thanks in Advance.........John

You probably still have some piece of malware on your machine. If you don't have a lot on it, the easiest fix is to back up the files you need, very selectively, format and reload the machine

I would recommend Malwarebytes, downloadable for free at:

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

I have yet to find any malware that this package can't remove, it's not perfect, but it hasn't failed yet.

Spybot Search and Destroy is also very good:

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

For registry issues you can try CCleaner, but make sure you make backups before you delete anything you're unsure of:

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

Have you tried doing a system restore from a time before you got the virus.

Try this.
http://www.pchell.com/support/mywebsearch.shtml

If your attempt to remove states that it is being used, try finding the app or process in Task Manager and stopping it.
Joe

Thanks everyone. I tried everything suggested above and have also tried to format and reinstall the OS.
I cannot get the system to recognize the installation CD in black screen mode.
I have not tried Joes idea and will try it right now.

I am very familiar with formatting and reinstalling as I have performed the process several times on other machines. It is win7 thats giving me the trouble. It just is out of warranty also.

If the computer is not set to check the CD drive for a startup device, you might have to push a key that is identified as "Boot Menu" or something similar when you first power on. IIRC, major manufacturers like Dell use F12. You should then get a list of available drives to boot from; they will usually display device names/model numbers and not volume names or drive letters.

Highly unlikely that System Restore will do anything, especially if you don't know what the source is. Affected system files would be the only thing restored, and if you don't know where the malware/viri came from you'll just get reinfected. The people who write these things are rather persistant; they make sure that once you're infected,

Thanks. I got it formatted and reinstalled. The instructions on MS and Dell support were both wrong. It was F12 like noderaser said. "boot with cd/dvd/rw".
And for anyone else it's "install win 7" and not "fix my computer". Then select "format" and follow the rest of the on screen instrctions.
Not one set of instructions were correct. Thanks to all.....John