2011-03-11 11:56:04 Crap in my comp, save me! :(

I go about my every day business when panda cloud anti virus notices two funky things and tries to remove them. One of them is removed and the other is running so that sticks. I enter task manager and try to shut it down manually, comp bluescreens.

Upon boot, comp bluescreens again, right after the "welcome" screen.

I restart comp and it works for a while but seems to bluescreen when I try to install stuff or perform virus scans. I give up and go into safe mode where I can access the net and install some things. I manage to run Malware Bytes and find four suspicious files (eventually turn out to be parts of another spyware battling bit of software called pc..health..something or other.

Reboot, still does the same thing as before. Either bsods at welcome or later on.

I pop back and forth into safe and normal modes and run a bunch of different anti virus thingies with no luck at all really. Eventually I figure it's to do with registry or auto start stuff so I run msconfig and disable all but ms' own startup stuff. Like this I'm able to run a normal start and keep it stable, but new strange things are happening instead.

I can't start some shortcuts anymore. Seemingly random programs won't start with the actual executable either.

(Cont. Gotta charge my phone)

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http://www.twitter.com/simonlundmark - Follow me on twitter

2011-03-11 17:14:45

The results sound typical of rogue-antivirus, which is just a nice way of saying "stupid scam bullshit that ruins computers."

It's hard to tell exactly how to remove it without knowing specifically which brand of awful you've contracted though. Running no-script and adblock in Firefox is easy to recommend to avoid this sorta thing in the future. The unfortunate truth is that a lot of malware is getting injected through banner ads these days, and it's hard to know exactly what sites are safe, since sites don't directly manage their advertising themselves. You can of course add exceptions to support sites that you care about (like this one!), but it's not a bad idea.

Malware Byte's is usually pretty good at cleaning up after this stuff.. so I'm a little concerned. It may be worth grabbing "Hijack This" and posting the results log. Maybe that way we can figure out exactly what's left over on your PC and how to get rid of it.

2011-03-11 20:12:11

Thanks for the reply!

Since I could barely get anything to start - and when I did it'd sorta "timeout" my connected devices - I opted for a windows reinstall. Win7 apparently shoves the entirety of the previous install into a folder called windows.old - as I'm sure you're aware - and that at least makes it a wee bit less painful to check folders and remember what to reinstall. Also, a lot of config files and stuff I'm prone to forget in a pre-format backup craze will sit there waiting for me.

Correct me if I'm wrong but there shouldn't technically be a risk of just having that folder around as long as I don't run any suspicious stuff from within it?

What does Steam reckon about all of this? I obviously have a new user now, with my previous user relegated to the windows.old folder, so I might need to fetch save files out of that, but will I need to reinstall *every installed game* the way software is generally cranky about fresh windows?

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http://www.twitter.com/simonlundmark - Follow me on twitter

2011-03-11 21:03:03

I am quite sure you can just move the steamapps folder and start Steam. You do need to copy saves too. Saves are usually in my documents folder, users\[user name]\appdata\roaming, users\[user name]\Saved Games\ or in games directory.

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Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2
Rocktober!

2011-03-11 21:54:39

I already have Steam installed on d: so do I perform a new install in that same directory?

Edit: oh wait, running the exe gave me the option to "install the service".

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http://www.twitter.com/simonlundmark - Follow me on twitter

2011-03-11 22:32:55

I think you should install the Steam first then copy steamapps folder. Steam should then update the games to work.

Oh and one advice never uninstall Steam! It will delete all the games too.

edit: ah nevermind. You had Steam on another drive.

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Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2
Rocktober!

2011-03-11 22:47:17

I installed over the previous folder to get my shortcuts back, everything's working fine now. Thanks. :)

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http://www.twitter.com/simonlundmark - Follow me on twitter

2011-03-11 23:02:10

Nice :)

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Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2
Rocktober!