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Help!!! rlu.exe comp virus
sumwar
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My computer has a computer virus called rlu.exe which shuts down the internet. I clicked on iexplorer and firefox and google chrome and they don't work. I'm using my moms laptop. I don't know how to remove it without going online and finding some sort of downloadable anti virus program. Can anyone help me?
sumwar on
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Download an anti-virus program from your mom's computer and using a USB drive put it on yours?
No idea. I have a Mac and we don't get viruses.
I know some of the nastier viruses will actually reroute your current anti-virus to their "anti-virus". I'm sure someone in here might have an idea of what to do, but if it were me, I'd just nuke it from orbit and start fresh.
How do you know it's rlu.exe? That could just be a symptom, a different virus. When you say the browsers "don't work," do you mean nothing opens up at all? Or do they open but redirect all traffic to a certain site? Or does something entirely different open up?
Have you checked the shortcuts to the browsers to make sure they aren't compromised in some way? It could be that all you need to do is navigate directly to the browser's .exe to get past it.
In Windows XP you can also go to the Control Panel -> Internet Options -> Advanced tab -> Reset to clear all of IE's settings, add-ons and toolbars that might be causing redirection as soon as you open it.
Also there's the standard Start -> Run -> type msconfig and press Enter -> Startup tab and look for anything suspicious and uncheck it. That could stop the virus from starting up long enough to get antivirus programs installed.
I can't access msconfig. When I try it just directs me to the "antivirus".
Just as an FYI, I don't know what Spydoctor is... Googling seems to indicate that if it's legit, it may be Spyware Doctor, which requires you to pay for it to actually remove threats? And most of the results discussing it seem to be as old as, or older than, 2006? No one here would recommend using that. Right now the consensus seems to be Malwarebytes for anti-malware, Microsoft Security Essentials for anti-virus (which would protect your computer from future infections), and Spybot: Search & Destroy for anti-spyware (which is probably what this "Spydoctor" is supposed to combat). Glad you seem to have gotten the malware off your machine though.
You are absolutely correct I didn't use spyware doctor its just something I downloaded in a hurry and I was so excited to have the virus removed I mentioned it. It scans for free and only removes if you pay, I wouldn't reccommend it. Malware bytes is the way to go.
After it's clean, install AdBlock and NoScript for Firefox. Sure NoScript can be annoying, but it's either getting used to a few extra clicks or getting infected with a malicious embed.
This, for sure. NoScript is AMAZING and makes it extremely difficult to get anything malicious on your computer ever again, because it blocks pretty much any method, aside from a direct download, that web-based attackers could use. As a bonus, it also blocks all of the most annoying ads you've ever seen, plus most of the ads you've ever seen in general. Adblock is mainly for blocking even more ads, which also blocks some bad ads (not any dangerous ads that NoScript doesn't block already, as far as I've seen, though)... I've had some recent trouble with AdBlock blocking regular content and being unable to solve that besides disabling it for that individual site in one case (I don't actually use AdBlock on my own computer, but my fiancé uses it on his), but it's still pretty good.
As for MSE, I admit that I don't have much personal experience with the quality of its protection since it's fairly new and I've had NoScript running since way before I switched to it myself. I just know it's also a good scanner, and from what I've heard has good protection. Wouldn't surprise me if viruses were on top of circumventing its protection already though. The other problem I've noticed is that it seems like it likes to not automatically update except through Windows Update eventually telling you there's an update, for whatever reason, which could be an issue for the protection.