Viruses broke my Windows!
Pony
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, my computer is fucked. I will explain the cause, the problem, and the solutions I have attempted.
Cause:
My fuckhead room-mate. He was looking at porn on my computer. Now, I look at porn on my computer too, but the difference is I know which sites to go to, what to download and what to not, etc.
He, being a shitbox who doesn't own a fucking computer and just used Google to find porn and downloaded stuff directly to my Desktop and then deleted it after and didn't even clear the Recycle Bin, does not know how to look at "safe" porn.
Result:
My computer has a virus, or perhaps series of viruses. They all seem to be in the "svc.exe" family (svzip.exe, svloader.exe, etc.)
Attempted solutions:
Ran Avast. Avast found some viruses. Moved em to chest, confirmed they weren't system files, deleted them.
Ran Spybot SD. Spybot found some malware, after Avast said I was clean. Deleted the files Spybot recommended.
Ran Ad-Aware. Ad-Aware found even more malware. This is after I ran Avast and Spybot (and rebooted after each). Did what Ad-Aware recommended, and deleted the files.
VIRUSES WERE STILL THERE.
Went looking online for manual solutions. Found the filepaths leading to where the malware keeps replicating itself from.
Following directions, went into regedit to remove it manually.
Everything seemed cool, until today.
Current problem: My programs are fucking broken. Viruses don't seem to be running anymore (according to Task Manager), but I can't run most programs.
Clicking on any shortcut or program icon gives me the dialog box that comes up when the system is trying to open an unfamiliar file format.
How do I work around this? For IE, I can open Windows Explorer (which still works), and just type a web URL into the address bar, no problems.
For other programs, it seems to be that if I can find a file format that a certain program is used to open, clicking on that opens that file normally, and from there I can go New file or whatever. For example, double-clicking on a .txt file will open Notepad, but clicking on Notepad manually won't.
I don't know what to do. I can't install new software, because that doesn't work either. So I can't just install some kind of clean-up or fix problem.
Current (and unwelcome) solution: Re-format.
I would very much like to avoid that. I have things backed up, so it's not the end of the world, but if it's the sort of thing I could fix tonight myself, I would prefer that.
Cause:
My fuckhead room-mate. He was looking at porn on my computer. Now, I look at porn on my computer too, but the difference is I know which sites to go to, what to download and what to not, etc.
He, being a shitbox who doesn't own a fucking computer and just used Google to find porn and downloaded stuff directly to my Desktop and then deleted it after and didn't even clear the Recycle Bin, does not know how to look at "safe" porn.
Result:
My computer has a virus, or perhaps series of viruses. They all seem to be in the "svc.exe" family (svzip.exe, svloader.exe, etc.)
Attempted solutions:
Ran Avast. Avast found some viruses. Moved em to chest, confirmed they weren't system files, deleted them.
Ran Spybot SD. Spybot found some malware, after Avast said I was clean. Deleted the files Spybot recommended.
Ran Ad-Aware. Ad-Aware found even more malware. This is after I ran Avast and Spybot (and rebooted after each). Did what Ad-Aware recommended, and deleted the files.
VIRUSES WERE STILL THERE.
Went looking online for manual solutions. Found the filepaths leading to where the malware keeps replicating itself from.
Following directions, went into regedit to remove it manually.
Everything seemed cool, until today.
Current problem: My programs are fucking broken. Viruses don't seem to be running anymore (according to Task Manager), but I can't run most programs.
Clicking on any shortcut or program icon gives me the dialog box that comes up when the system is trying to open an unfamiliar file format.
How do I work around this? For IE, I can open Windows Explorer (which still works), and just type a web URL into the address bar, no problems.
For other programs, it seems to be that if I can find a file format that a certain program is used to open, clicking on that opens that file normally, and from there I can go New file or whatever. For example, double-clicking on a .txt file will open Notepad, but clicking on Notepad manually won't.
I don't know what to do. I can't install new software, because that doesn't work either. So I can't just install some kind of clean-up or fix problem.
Current (and unwelcome) solution: Re-format.
I would very much like to avoid that. I have things backed up, so it's not the end of the world, but if it's the sort of thing I could fix tonight myself, I would prefer that.
Pony on
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I mean jesus fucking christ, we have the god damn Hustler Channel on digital cable. Why do they need to jerk it at my comp?!
Ugh.
Upside: I have yet to find any semen stains or anything. That's good.
I also don't really know how to repair my windows install. Am I gonna need the disc for that?
And for programs like notepad, is it just the icons on your desktop that are suddenly messed up? If so, you might try re-creating them (though if you're getting to them through the start menu and they're screwed, that's a definite reformat...).
it somewhat rolls back your computer to an earlier state
that's saved my ass more times than i care to remember
If system restore is turned on, that is where the viruses are backing themselves up. System restore is a piece of crap. >_>
You might spend another couple days trying to track everything down when you can just pop in the Windows CD and do a complete re-install in a few hours.
Also, if you backed anything up after your computer was infected, run a scan on that media before using them on any other system. I realize this may not be practical at all, but try scanning them on a non-Windows machine. What you could also do is a get a Knoppix CD (they're free, just download one) and then copy files off your machine to known clean media (or use that to virus scan, even). Like I said, this may not be practical for you, but it's a thought.
System Restore saved me after Norton botched it's own uninstall. Removed it, and the machine wouldn't boot. It would've been so hard to tell my girlfriend's parents that I borked their day old computer.
Back on topic, I agree with a reformat. It's a hassle, but it will nearly guarantee you a clean system, plus it'll get rid of all the crap in the registry that was put there and never removed by all of those little apps you thought you'd try, and ended up not liking, needing, and getting rid of after half an hour.
100% truth. If System Restore is enabled, disable it and do another virus scan.
Better yet, remove your drive and put it in another computer (as a slave) and scan it there. That way, the viruses can't run on boot or behind the scenes and fuck up your scan.