Computer help needed please!

[Kizaragu]

Browsing the web randomly yesterday night my computer suddenly slowed down to a halt and I had to restart it.
Upon logging back in, I now have this:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-1/941055/Image1.jpg
There was also a shortcut but I've deleted that.

It's only on my user login.
My wallpaper is still there, just hidden behind the black screen and won't change.
I keep getting asked now (didn't happen before) to go online via Yahoo.com/Google.com etc...

I've ran both Norton Anti-Virus 2005 and Spybot search and destroy. Neither program helped.

Upon clicking the link it went to some 'official looking' site telling me the dangers about 'Big brother' and tried persuading me to download and the cheek of it BUY a program that would remove all traces of any spyware/Virus from my computer.
How stupid do they think I am? They installed this shit into my computer and expect me to just handover my credit card details!? http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_lol.gif

So anyone encountered this before?
Please, any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

[SpikeOtacon]

At the moment the only thing I can think of is for you to kill your 'active desktop'. If that doesn't get rid of it, it'll at least get it out of the way until we can find something to remove it.

[Kizaragu]

On 2005-01-28 02:52, SpikeOtacon wrote:
At the moment the only thing I can think of is for you to kill your 'active desktop'. If that doesn't get rid of it, it'll at least get it out of the way until we can find something to remove it.
I was thinking the same thing.
It's just so much hassle but if there's no other solution I guess I'll have too.
I'm not going down without a fight! http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

Edit: Just a random thing to add, not sure if it'll help, the program it wants me to buy and install is SmartSecurity.
I've also stumbled across SSICO which seems to have something to do with what's wrong.
After looking it up via a google search, I've managed to get rid of most of it (Mainly the Black background) so I'm on the right track. http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Kizaragu on 2005-01-28 04:17 ]</font>

[Blue-Hawk]

Sounds like some really nasty spyware. I have Spybot and recently added AdAware. AdAware found and removed 5X more spyware than Spybot. Try that.

Also, you might want to consider a firewall, because it might also be that someone has hacked into you're pc. Happened to my father's pc when he had no firewall. We had to reformat XP *Not fun >_< * and since I installed Sygate firewall, no problems at all.

[Kizaragu]

I'm Downloading AdAware as we speak. http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wink.gif

I do have a firewall (Zonealarm) and it seems to be working ok.
No harm in checking for an update I guess?
Are there any better firewalls available anyone? Not that I'm sure it'll make much of a difference.

[Hrith]

On 2005-01-28 04:38, Blue-Hawk wrote:
Sounds like some really nasty spyware. I have Spybot and recently added AdAware. AdAware found and removed 5X more spyware than Spybot. Try that.
SpyBot > AdAware.

What happened to you is that AdAware removed SpyBot files, as it considers them as spyware (SpyBot does not -remove- spyware).
That's why AdAware is meh.

You can also check up your PC there:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Remember to create a restore points before deleting infected files.

[Kizaragu]

I've gone through my PC with Norton Antivirus and both Spybot and Ad-Aware as well as advice found on Google making my PC a clean, free, elegant running machine.
Thanks for the help everyone. http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

[BrokenHope]

On 2005-01-28 05:47, Kef wrote:


On 2005-01-28 04:38, Blue-Hawk wrote:
Sounds like some really nasty spyware. I have Spybot and recently added AdAware. AdAware found and removed 5X more spyware than Spybot. Try that.
SpyBot > AdAware.

What happened to you is that AdAware removed SpyBot files, as it considers them as spyware (SpyBot does not -remove- spyware).
That's why AdAware is meh.

You can also check up your PC there:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Remember to create a restore points before deleting infected files.



Spybot picks up stuff adaware misses, adaware picks up stuff spybot misses, since they are both free, it's a good idea to run both.

[KveerRaven]

Try putting your computer into safemode. After that, try changing the desktop settings to see if it'll handle it. If that doesn't handle, you can always try doing a Disk Clean-Up, Scandisk, then a Defrag which will repair, speed-up, and allocate missing file, and free up space. Sometimes, that'll work.