Flora Report post Posted August 8, 2008 (edited) As I posted in the screaming thread about this thought I'd ask if any of our 'experts' out there know anything about this virus: Antivirus XP. It's a really nasty virus which appears to be part of an aggresive marketing thing. This software, Antivirus XP, downloads itself onto your pc (via website and email etc) and you just can't get rid of it. It puts up a box telling you you have 800 viruses and the only way to get rid of it is to 'click here' and 'buy and download the software'... thing is when this box pops up you can't do anything else, you can't click it off and your curser is locked other than clicking on this virus things. Trying to remove it using your antivirus appears to make it stronger. I've got someone who has removed all important files from Bill's affected pc and is going to restore his hard drive to factory settings to see if that helps. Not sure if this is going to work though. Any tips or information on how to get rid of this virus? Flo' Edited August 8, 2008 by Flora Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheNeil Report post Posted August 9, 2008 Restoring the hard drive back to its factory settnigs should solve the problem but if it's a genuine virus then all decent AV software (AVG, McAfee etc.) should pick it up and handle it. To be honest though it sounds as though it's not a virus and is more likely spyware - viruses don't generally pop up messages asking you to buy software. What you could try is downloading something like Ad-Aware (there's a free version but I won't put a link up - Google 'Ad-Aware' and it'll come up) and let do what it does. I'd suggest that you give that a try before going and blasting the hard drive. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Flora Report post Posted August 9, 2008 Thanks TN It's not officially a virus, but it such a nasty bit of spyware that it effectively is a virus IYKWIM. Apparently, when you remove it using Adware or anything else it appears to be gone, but it 'sits in the ram' and rewrites itself to the hard drive when you switch the pc back on. Whatever it is categorised as it's a nasty thing! Flora Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baddad Report post Posted August 9, 2008 Hi Flozza - try downloading avast antivirus (freeware), and running a boot-check... that should pick up any 'stay resident' malaware before actually starting windows etc... worth a shot Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Flora Report post Posted August 10, 2008 Thanks baddad Would avast antivi actually remove it if it found it? Reason I ask is that we've removed it from everywhere (registery etc) and it still reappears... hence why I've got someone reinstalling the hard drive. Anyway, his pc is now in bits all over the floor and a neighbour is going to 'get it sorted' before we get home on Thursday. Thank goodness Bill is with his dad this week because the past few days have been pure torture! Flo' Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baddad Report post Posted August 10, 2008 Thanks baddad Would avast antivi actually remove it if it found it? Reason I ask is that we've removed it from everywhere (registery etc) and it still reappears... hence why I've got someone reinstalling the hard drive. Anyway, his pc is now in bits all over the floor and a neighbour is going to 'get it sorted' before we get home on Thursday. Thank goodness Bill is with his dad this week because the past few days have been pure torture! Flo' There's a good chance it would, but if you've already re-formatted the HD then that should have seen it off too... The boot scan actually scans at start-up (including memory), before 'loading' windows, so it would delete the reinstall executable before the Operating System was there to allow the reinstall... Some really nasty malaware etc writes itself to a 'hidden' sector on the hard disc that's quite independent of the O/S, but a boot time scan should cope with anything less than that... Once you've got that reinstall done, it's worth switching to avast if you're using another freeware antivirus - from reviews I've read it's about the best free package out there now the main alternative has time-limited some of the scanning features... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Flora Report post Posted August 10, 2008 All working perfectly after being re-installed to factory settings. Just need to transfer his files back and scan them ALL to make sure it isn't lurking in one of them too. Then I just have to explain to Bill that following a link to 'free games for the wii' is not such a good idea... basically he needs to understand that if it's too good to be true, it probably is!!! Flo' (breathing a huge sigh of relief) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JsMum Report post Posted August 10, 2008 I had this today too, mcfee has sorted it, but I must admit the whole internet seems slower and not running like it usually does, mine was a spyware, be very careful. JsMum Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites