[AT] Off topic, computer related.

[charliehill]

This is not a question.  I just want to share my experience of the last 24 
hours in case it helps someone or in case someone knows what might be going 
on.

Yesterday morning while doing an Internet search I hit one of those sites 
that re-directs you somewhere else.  Then I got that pop up that says I have 
a virus and must down load this program RIGHT NOW to stop it.
Well, this ain't my first computer rodeo and I knew immediately that the 
antivirus site it's self was a piece of malware.  I've dealt with it before 
so I immediately,  I mean within 2 seconds, started trying to shut it down 
and stop if from infecting my computer.  I thought I got it stopped until a 
few minutes later when the spam "anti-virus program" started trying to load 
and run.  Then I started running my anti-virus and anti-spyware programs to 
try and stop it.  Interestingly enough I had Zone Alarm Pro with all the 
bells and whistles up and running when I hit the thing to begin with and it 
went right past it without an alert.

Ok I'll spare you the details but about 6 or 8 hours later I pretty well had 
it licked after finally getting it beat down enough (continually cutting off 
it's attempts to finish loading) that I could get to Trend Micro's House 
Call online.  I wish I could remember the exact details but I didn't have 
time to write them down but at some point something happened that made me 
think something or someone else was acting as my system administrator.

Let me interject here that I had this same virus/malware some months ago and 
thought I was rid of it but after that my computer just didn't run right and 
I always had the feeling that something was running hidden in the background 
but I could never find it.

Ok back to yesterday's activities.  I decided to see if I could change users 
and sure enough I found another use that presented it's self by an Icon for 
some web site called by three letters which I can't remember (for example 
ABC.com).  I quickly did a web search on that site and everything that 
popped up said it was some sort of Microsoft program that had something to 
do with building web sites (something I've never done).  It looked to be a 
legitimate program but I deleted it anyway and got rid of the other user. 
Also, during that process things were getting hung up on my computer and 
when I would hit Ctrl, Alt, Del to bring up the task manager it would tell 
me the system administrator had shut down task manager.

Jumping forward, eventually I got everything cleaned up.  As a last step I 
decided to go to my web browser and delete all the temp internet files, 
cookies, etc.  Now this is something I do almost everyday just to keep the 
clutter off my system.  Depending on how much time I have spent online it 
usually takes anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes to complete that 
process.  Well, when I started the process last night about 6 pm it 
continued to run and run and run for an hour or better.  I finally decided 
something had gone haywire so I told it to cancel.  At which point it 
continued to say it was cancelling for an hour or so.  I decided I'd shut 
the computer down.  When I tried it told me that windows was in the middle 
of a long process (almost those exact words) and to either wait or cancel. 
Well I had already tried to cancel and couldn't so I let it run.  In fact I 
went back and told it to delete again.  Then  I had two windows open, one 
supposedly deleting and one cancelling the previous delete if that makes 
sense.  About 10 pm I gave up and went to bed.  When I got up this morning 
it was still "deleteing" temp files and folders.
I've checked and it's not deleting anything I use or have stored so far as I 
can tell.  It appeared just to be hung up.  However I have a feeling that's 
not the case.  I think that it really is trying to delete all the junk 
that's been running in the background for months.  If finally did a cold 
boot restart.  It's a notebook computer so I had to do that by removing the 
battery momentarily.

When it started back up it seems to be running fine.  I still don't know 
exactly what is going on but the computer seems to be running fine now. 
Later on I'll try running the delete files and folders, cookies, etc. 
routine again and see what happens.

The bug that started this whole thing this time was "Security Essentials 
2010".  The similar bug that got me last year was something like 
"anti-malware 2009"

I wish I was still running a program like Windows Washer.  I'd let it do a 
complete disc clean up and wash the open areas of the drive and everything 
but I don't want to pay $40 for it right now.  I might look for a freeware 
washer.

Hopefully my experience will help someone else.  If anyone thinks they know 
what was going on with the other user and system administrator deal I'd like 
to hear your comments.  PLEASE RESIST THE URGE TO TELL ME TO SWITCH TO SOME 
OTHER BROWSER.  There are reasons why I don't want or need to do that.  I'm 
not going to go into the details right now about that.  By the way this 
machine is runing windows XP home premium with all of the updates.