Reply to: Google search re-directing….

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

had the same problem and spent a weekend trying to fix it. Avg, avast and norton are all useless as this is malware. What you want is malware bytes, download the latest updates and it will get rid of it. Guaranteed. My current gig sucks which is why i am posting this from phone.

[NickFitz]

If its infected IE you need to format and start all over again...

On the contrary, I have frequently rescued a computer (and I do mean "a computer", singular) suffering from such problems without reinstalling Windoze. In fact, every time my then-housemate's seventeen-year-old nephew came to stay for a few days and "slept" in the spare room where the housemate's computer lived, I got to do it again. I became quite proficient at it in the end.

It was particularly interesting when he managed to infect it with something which detected when one was trying to visit the site that contained the only tool then capable of removing some of these nasties, and redirected the browser to a site that appeared to be the same but instead hosted an executable that would install even more nasties. Of course, I always look at the location bar, particularly when dealing with this kind of thing, and if necessary use an HTTP debugger to see what's really happening. Occasionally I'd have to go downstairs and download via my Mac, then drop the tool onto the PC over the network.

Still, I think the longest it ever took was about three hours, mainly spent in Regedit and then in Explorer deleting the things pointed to by certain registry keys, then rebooting, then repeating the process until I'd finally got them all... until the next day when a particularly well-hidden piece of crap tried to take over IE again, having apparently waited for a certain period of time after some other part of itself had been eradicated. Once I flushed that little bastard out, the machine was fine

Well, until the nephew came to visit again...

Still, it's pretty straightforward with the right tools and a modicum of dogged perseverance, and takes much less time than reinstalling Windows, then reinstalling all your applications, then recovering all your data from backups.

[thunderlizard]

A System Restore to the day before you caught the computer clap is the one that's worked most often for me.

[simon99ctg]

have you checked your hosts file? Sometimes, viruses write entries to your
hosts file so that queries to legit websites get redirected to bogus ones.

[TheFaQQer]

Or you could just:

http://www.linuxmint.com/

And then carry on not worrying about AV software.

FTFY

[Clippy]

Format this sockie and start all over again. That is the only way.

FTFY.

[Ardesco]

Bollox.

Laptop liberated from a previous job, so will need to get new version of XP etc..... Not a happy person!

Or you could just:

http://www.ubuntu.com/

And then carry on not worrying about AV software.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Bollox.

Laptop liberated from a previous job, so will need to get new version of XP etc..... Not a happy person!

So you keep useful stuff on a "liberated" laptop which is never backed up or virus checked no wonder you are an unhappy sockie

[cojak]

You know you are such a tulip tulip! All those nice things I said about you you tuliping tulip. I hope you tulip in great ball of tulip you tulip...

Dam, need get rid of that blockage... Now... where were we...

[northernladuk]

No, you don't have to be nice to everyone - just those poor souls in the other forums who are new and are genuinely numpty like...

Anyway, I've had quite an enjoyable week watching you bite your tongue, squirm in your seat and be nice to everybody...

You know you are such a tulip tulip! All those nice things I said about you you tuliping tulip. I hope you tulip in great ball of tulip you tulip...

Dam, need get rid of that blockage... Now... where were we...

[Paddy]

If its infected IE you need to format and start all over again...

[TheFaQQer]

<scooterscot>
Get a mac!
</scooterscot>

[NickFitz]

Bollox.

Laptop liberated from a previous job, so will need to get new version of XP etc..... Not a happy person!

Never heard of a restore partition? It isn't guaranteed to be there, but if it is...

(Anyway, everybody should be forced to pay full retail price for Windows or Office at least once in their lives, just so they realise how much MS has been shafting them all these years.)

[cojak]

Bollox.

Laptop liberated from a previous job, so will need to get new version of XP etc..... Not a happy person!

#Where do I begin?#

[Wilmslow]

+1

If the anti virus tool does not know the state of all of your files before the infection it cannot guarantee to clear an infection after the fact.

Bollox.

Laptop liberated from a previous job, so will need to get new version of XP etc..... Not a happy person!