My attempt at being a good samaritan

[onederer]

My wife kept on complaining that she could not login her email account, on my computer, since my email always automatically went directly into my own email account. It would not allow her to access her email account.

 

I was not able to remedy this, so I decided to download a cherry browser that may make that possible. Since my Linux is currently broken, I tried to do this with Windows 7. I downloaded Opera.

 

Now, I have a ZoneAlarm firewall/virus protection. In spite of that, and other protection that I use, viruses bombed in at the speed or race horses. I was unable to slow down their advances! With post haste, I got rid of Opera, and somewhat got control of the OS. But without some bad side effects. I'm trying to avoid having to reinstall the OS, if I can help it. It took me a long time to get rid of all that pulchriturde. And a lot of them were supposed to be an OS cleaner (pay for play), with bad manners to bully themselves into my system, without my consent.

 

It looks like most of that trash now is designed to not be removed. They leave all kinds of stubs in the register, that keep on coming back to life after being deleted. My ears are heating up as I'm writing this!

Since most of those "cleaner" applications do not have any manners, and behave as bad as viruses, I don't feel that they can be trusted to do their jobs. Also, most likely they also call "home" to report my activities. Any opinion on this? Should I re-install Win 7, and lose all my settings a and applications?

 

The other undesirable side effects is that "calculator" spawns reams of itself, without my even activating it. How do I control that? I need to know what triggers it, and since I just out of the hospital, from open chest operation, I don't have the stamina or health to spend a lot of time on this.

 

The other question: since MS is offering a free automatic upgrade to Win10, and with the current bad state of Win7, would Win10 pick up the bad stuff from Win7, if 7 is left this way? Or would Win10 overwrite the bad things that Win7 has, and run mormally?

 

Cheers!

[Corrine]

I don't have any suggestions at the moment for the calculator but you wouldn't want to update to Windows 10 until you clean the computer. If you'd like help, I need to see a couple logs. The tool will do the heavy lifting so you don't have to and can spend your time recovering.

 

Please download Farbar Recovery Scan Tool and save it to your Desktop.

 

Note: You need to run the version compatible with your system. If you are not sure which version applies to your system download both of them and try to run them. Only one of them will run on your system, that will be the right version.

• Right click to run as administrator. When the tool opens click Yes to disclaimer.
  
• Press Scan button.
  
• The first time it is run, it will produce two logs in the same directory the tool is run from -- FRST.txt and (Addition.txt.
  
• Please copy/paste both logs in your reply.
  

[abarbarian]

Best of luck with the recovery from the operation.

[onederer]

After 4 tries at running Farbar, I had to concede that it will not happen. It starts up with saving registry, will take a few seconds. Then an error comes that the program is not responding. It's so bad that the application is super glued to the screen. It can't be deleted, removed, or shut down. Even Task Manager cannot kill it.

 

I downloaded the 64-bit version. It looks like I'll have to find the Win7Pro installation disk. There are a lot of things to lose in this setup, all because I downloaded Opera for my wife. ZoneAlarm firewall/virus protector, is still finding viruses, and malware. While trying to run Farbar, ZoneAlarm butted in to report more viruses. I let it do it's thing, hoping that it would clear the impediment. No such luck!

 

Unless you have something else in your magic bag, I suppose that my fate is now sealed.

 

Cheers!

[Corrine]

There are other options. I don't like to make too many recommendations without viewing logs since I don't know what is going on. However, to get you started see if you can run an ESET scan and/or Malwarebytes. Best thing to do would be to start one of the scans, fix a cup of tea and relax, letting the scan run. I've provided my "canned instructions" for both below.

 

You may want to disable ZoneAlarm A/V while running the scans so it doesn't interfer.

 

Please follow the instructions below to run an on-line scan from ESET.

• Note: It is easiest if you use Internet explorer for this scan. (If you use an alternate browser, it will be necessary to download the ESET Smart Installer)
  
  • Hold down Control and click on this link to open ESET OnlineScan in a new window so you can refer to these instructions.
    
  • Click the green ESET Online Scanner box.
    
  • For alternate browsers only: (Microsoft Internet Explorer users can skip these steps)
    
    • Click on esetsmartinstaller_enu.exe to download the ESET Smart Installer. Save it to your desktop.
      
    • Double click on the Eset Smart Installer icon on your desktop.
      

    [*]Check "YES, I accept the Terms of Use."

    [*]Click the Start button.

    [*]Accept any security warnings from your browser.

    [*]Make sure that the option Remove found threats is NOT checked, and the option Scan archives is checked.

    [*]Click Advanced settings and select the following:

    • Scan potentially unwanted applications
      
    • Scan for potentially unsafe applications
      
    • Enable Anti-Stealth technology
      

    [*]ESET will then download updates for itself, install itself, and begin scanning your computer. Please be patient as this can take some time.

    [*]When the scan completes, click List Threats

    [*]Click Export, and save the file to your desktop using a unique name, such as ESETScan. Include the contents of this report in your next reply.

    [*]Click the Back button.

    [*]Click the Finish button.

 

Another option is Malwarebytes:

 

Please download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware from Here.

 

Double-click on the setup file (mbam-setup.exe), then click on Run to install.

• Select the language and click OK.
  
• Accept the agreement
  
• Make sure a check mark is placed next to Enable the Free Trial and Launch Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, then click on finish.
  
• If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version.
  
• Once the program has loaded, select "Scan Now". (The scan may take some time to finish,so please be patient.)
  
• When the scan is complete, click on Quarantine All.
  
• When disinfection is completed, a log will open in Notepad. If the log doesn't open, select View detailed log in the Scan tab.
  
• If prompted to restart (see Note below), launch Malwarebytes Antimalware and select History.
  
• Double click on the last scan done, then on Copy to Clipboard.
  
• Post the contents of the log in your next reply.
  

Note: If MBAM encounters a file that is difficult to remove, you will be presented with 1 of 2 prompts. Click OK to either and let MBAM proceed with the disinfection process. If asked to restart the computer, please do so immediately.

[b2cm]

If I were you, I would

(1) uninstall ZoneAlarm

(2) download and run a Combofix (http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/combofix/)

(3) download, install 360 Total Security (http://www.360totalsecurity.com/en/), and run a full scan

(4) install Tinywall firewall (http://tinywall.pados.hu/download.php)

[Corrine]

It is not advisable to run Combofix unless you know what you are doing.