Watch Out For This Computer Virus!

[theone1982]

I just wanted to drop this info in here about a virus that I have just dealt with, called Windows Recovery. It shows up like it's a legit warning and says that there are major problems with your hard drive, and then hides all of your programs and files. It then proceeds to tell you that you have to purchase an "Advanced Module" to fix the problem. DON'T DO IT! This is not legit at all! It took me awhile to fix the problem and it's a real pain in the ass. Here's a link to take you step-by-step through how to get rid of it, and a screenshot of what it look like so you'll know what your dealing with.http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-windows-recovery

[ILuvFetish]

Happened to me also a few months ago.
Takes awhile to get rid of it.
No need to buy what they're trying to sell you to fix it

[kittyKaiti]

I got hit by that thing on my old laptop. It's a web browser hijacker that hides in websites pages. I was on my Myspace account when it hijacked my page and downloaded itself onto my laptop. It proceeded to shut off and disable my virus protection and locked me off from accessing many websites claiming they are infested with viruses. Then it turned off my sound card and disabled a bunch of things saying they are malware. I managed to download PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus and it fixed everything. That laptop ended up dying anyway because of the damage done to the hard drive from the virus. Since then I run into it several times with my new laptop on sites like xTube and Myspace. I still have the PC Tools program and also Webroot SpySweeper and they both stop it everytime from downloading. I used to have Avast and that can't stop the virus.

[omni69]

Oh yeah, that got a lot of people I know including me (but I infected myself on purpose to see how to fix it) since I do computer support,

and yes it took a while for me to fix mine too.. it even changes its name too , most recent one going around is system failure or just hard drive error click here for scan, it even disabled the task manager so you can't end it. I tell everyone if any of these pop - up, just hold down the power button on their computer and force a shut down and most of the time that works,
because once you click anywhere on the page / window pop-up or try to X it out... you're giving it permission to get into your computer and therefor bypassing your antivirus software..
so becareful people

the instructions you linked here is good..

[omni69]

Oh by the way KittyKaiti, you're hot :)

[sunairco]

These spyware/malware/pseudo windows message pop-ups have been around for quite a while. Best thing to do is ctrl+alt+delete and close out the browser the minute you see it.

BTW, I've yet to hear any virus actually doing any form of physical damage to hardware Kitty. It's near impossible short of overwriting or corrupting a flash rom which can always be restored. While possible, I've never heard of any malware doing that except in proof-of-concept demonstrations. If somebody told you that, you've been had to sell you a new pc or drive.

It's been a while since any virus actually did any deletion or corruption to the files. The whole point now is to either turn your pc into a bot, steal info from your pc like passwords,address book files, and credit info, or hold your pc for ransom like the above.

[killkenny]

i got rid of itby using a back up but still my comp is slow and has files that try n start on load up, sometimes i cant use media player in firefox n my antivirus itself has to crash (symantec) before i can play also sometimes websites i load turn into different one that try to sell stuff

[Faldur]

Whats a virus?

http://www.applegazette.com/wp-content/uploads/apple-logo.jpeg

[south ov da border]

and then they change your registry and leave a backdoor to come back in. I've had that registry issue and it sux...

[Dino Velvet]

I was the one that had that "Vista Security 2011" crap that installed itself on my computer. I downloaded Emsisoft Anti-Malware (http://download.cnet.com/Emsisoft-Anti-Malware/3000-2239_4-10292236.html) and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware (http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html). They got rid of it plus some other nuisances.

[onmyknees]

I got hit by that thing on my old laptop. It's a web browser hijacker that hides in websites pages. I was on my Myspace account when it hijacked my page and downloaded itself onto my laptop. It proceeded to shut off and disable my virus protection and locked me off from accessing many websites claiming they are infested with viruses. Then it turned off my sound card and disabled a bunch of things saying they are malware. I managed to download PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus and it fixed everything. That laptop ended up dying anyway because of the damage done to the hard drive from the virus. Since then I run into it several times with my new laptop on sites like xTube and Myspace. I still have the PC Tools program and also Webroot SpySweeper and they both stop it everytime from downloading. I used to have Avast and that can't stop the virus.

wow...sounds serious...you ok baby?>> LOL

[tsdvdman]

I'm going through this exact problem now

[kittyKaiti]

These spyware/malware/pseudo windows message pop-ups have been around for quite a while. Best thing to do is ctrl+alt+delete and close out the browser the minute you see it.

BTW, I've yet to hear any virus actually doing any form of physical damage to hardware Kitty. It's near impossible short of overwriting or corrupting a flash rom which can always be restored. While possible, I've never heard of any malware doing that except in proof-of-concept demonstrations. If somebody told you that, you've been had to sell you a new pc or drive.

It's been a while since any virus actually did any deletion or corruption to the files. The whole point now is to either turn your pc into a bot, steal info from your pc like passwords,address book files, and credit info, or hold your pc for ransom like the above.

Well if it wasn't the virus then it was a very strange coincidence that at the same time my harddrive stopped functioning even after doing a system restore to factory conditions twice before it finally gave out.

[Paulistano]

I'm going through this exact problem now

Exact problem to me last night.

I lost the HD of my laptop.

[sunairco]

Did you loose the drive or has the boot sector been corrupted? You may up losing everything on the drive, but I seriously doubt the drive has been physically damaged by malware. You may need to do a low level format or use a drive utility from the manufactuer to get the OS back on the drive in the worst possible case. Recent drives generally give some advance knowledge of impending failure of the media surface and other potential failures by built in predictive failure analysis. They certainly do fail mechanically and electronically, but not by malware.

[nonnonnon]

I'd take a computer virus over a sex virus any day

[tsdvdman]

Exact problem to me last night.

I lost the HD of my laptop.
I can't run my computer in Normal mode. I have to run it in Safe Mode with Networking. No audio,,slow as molasses. It's not even worth going into the porn sites. It won't even let me download/install this software.

[theone1982]

I've noticed that a lot of people on the forum have received this virus recently. I'm no computer expert, but could it be that it was spread over this website? Maybe we need virtual condoms to post?:)

[robertlouis]

Whats a virus?

http://www.applegazette.com/wp-content/uploads/apple-logo.jpeg

Yeah Faldur - Macs rule!

[Paulistano]

Did you loose the drive or has the boot sector been corrupted? You may up losing everything on the drive, but I seriously doubt the drive has been physically damaged by malware. You may need to do a low level format or use a drive utility from the manufactuer to get the OS back on the drive in the worst possible case. Recent drives generally give some advance knowledge of impending failure of the media surface and other potential failures by built in predictive failure analysis. They certainly do fail mechanically and electronically, but not by malware.


I can't run my computer in Normal mode. I have to run it in Safe Mode with Networking. No audio,,slow as molasses. It's not even worth going into the porn sites. It won't even let me download/install this software.

My laptop is just dead!!!... I don't know where to start (I'm not an expert), but I'm sure it's not a simple thing. In 15 years using computers, it never happened to me like this. It was a sad Saturday evening for me... now I'm using my mom's notebook...lol... so frustrating...

When I go back to São Paulo tomorrow, I'll leave it in a workshop to be fixed. I'm not that stressed coz I make backup in 2 other medias every half an hour. I'm a BACKUPMANIAC!!!

[Mayrah]

Yeah Faldur - Macs rule!

I bought a new laptop not so long ago, but i wish i had bought a mac instead :p

[kaiser1one]

Never got me. I havent been infected with anything for the past year. I have enough security in place where nothing minor is going to touch me.

[Richctdude]

boot into safe mode run malwarebytes and superantispyware (both free editions) follow up with tdss kill.... should be fine

[sunairco]

I spent most of the morning and afternoon dealing with one of our clients terminal operator pc's. These are dedicated workstations that are running a communications terminal client through a VPN and the only web access they have outside of the tunnel is some weather websites. Both were infected with a variant of this software called XP Antispyware 2011. Only wx website that wasn't a gov't or industry is a popular wx website that offers a selectable area radar product that's paid subscription. Even though it's paid for extended features, it does have banners. Both were hit about 4:00 am with the antispyware and shut down immediately. Pretty much an easy clean knocking out the running process and cleaned using several malware programs. No rootkits detected. Only pain that I encountered was that the software deregistered the windows auto auto update. If any of you have this problem, re-register wuaueng.dll using regsvr32 using the run/open command line and all is back to normal.

These infections just happend. There was no user intervention or clicking anything in a dialog box. Both machines are behind a whitelisted firewall and running commercial Sunbelt A/V with Spypot also running in the background primarly to intercept registry changes. I'm limited on disabling scrips and active content b/c of the wx apps. Time to re-think IE and look into a browser with sandbox containment.

[SammiValentine]

I got hit by that thing on my old laptop. It's a web browser hijacker that hides in websites pages. I was on my Myspace account when it hijacked my page and downloaded itself onto my laptop. It proceeded to shut off and disable my virus protection and locked me off from accessing many websites claiming they are infested with viruses. Then it turned off my sound card and disabled a bunch of things saying they are malware. I managed to download PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus and it fixed everything. That laptop ended up dying anyway because of the damage done to the hard drive from the virus. Since then I run into it several times with my new laptop on sites like xTube and Myspace. I still have the PC Tools program and also Webroot SpySweeper and they both stop it everytime from downloading. I used to have Avast and that can't stop the virus.

yea "PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus " is shit hot, so is "immunet Protect". Both recommended by google, the free versions rock and can multiple licences for both for not a lot of £$ :)

I binned kaspersky. piece of crap.

Be safe its an e-jungle out there.

[robertlouis]

yea "PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus " is shit hot, so is "immunet Protect". Both recommended by google, the free versions rock and can multiple licences for both for not a lot of £$ :)

I binned kaspersky. piece of crap.

Be safe its an e-jungle out there.

iMac, he said smugly. :dancing::dancing::dancing:

[SammiValentine]

theyre boss except errm I like PC's so i can shoot zombies in the head n stuff. :-)

[robertlouis]

theyre boss except errm I like PC's so i can shoot zombies in the head n stuff. :-)

You can do that on a mac too, Sammi, but the machines and most of the users tend to think they're above all that LOL.

[SammiValentine]

usually have to buy a diff version of the game, wtfs the point one asks herself :)

if i had spare wonga i guess i'd mac up to be l33t but then again i dont edit my vids my camera guy does that, i do a lot of chopping into clips, compiling and uploading but got multiple PC's sooo - just not worth it for me i think. will stick with using mac makeup for now =)

[robertlouis]

usually have to buy a diff version of the game, wtfs the point one asks herself :)

if i had spare wonga i guess i'd mac up to be l33t but then again i dont edit my vids my camera guy does that, i do a lot of chopping into clips, compiling and uploading but got multiple PC's sooo - just not worth it for me i think. will stick with using mac makeup for now =)

The mac is without doubt the best of all for music. I've got all the Boss kit for recording at home but these days I use protools on the mac more than anything else, and will be taking the macbook loaded with protools when I go to Austria next weekend, not for the finished article but so that I've got the final versions of the songs down when I go into the studio up in Sheffield in September. It's brilliant. Mac is definitely more expensive, but it's well worth it for my purposes.

And maybe I'll start using Mac makeup too if I get into the Adam Ant revival.... :)

[CaptainPlanet]

Sucks owning a PC huh

[SammiValentine]

lol ah yea forgot you musical person ;-) its great for adobe suites obviously to but i just dont make enough use of them to warrant a mac..

mmmmm nice makeup (had to google to see what they looked like lol - had heard the name before !:)

[HbgDon]

I'll take a PC over an overpriced, over hyped Mac. And Macs do have viruses out there so don't get cocky. Also it benefits a hacker to attack millions of machines than just a few thousand. Also, with ipads and iphones being as popular it's only a matter of time before viruses get on them. It will happen.

Download rkill, malwarebytes, superantispyware and ccleaner. Boot the PC in safemode with networking. run rkill. Install malwarebytes and update. run a full scan and delete anything that pops up from the scam. Run superantispyware and delete everything it wants to. finally run ccleaner and clean the registry. Just be careful and when it asks to back up the registry, do it. This should clean it out no problem.

[Faldur]

I'll take a PC over an overpriced, over hyped Mac. And Macs do have viruses out there so don't get cocky.

Using the same mac pro for the last 7 years, never a virus or a glitch. Why people still use pc's is beyond me. Your constantly downloading patches or virus fixes.. that is so yesterday.

[kaientai]

I tend to agree with Hbgdon on this ... It's the same with people using IE instead of day Firefox or Chrome, People who spread/make virusses want to target as many as they can reach most people use PC's and IE so these are the most targeted systems and or browsers MAC and Firefox aren't safer they are just not worth their time yet

[Jericho]

I tend to agree with Hbgdon on this ... It's the same with people using IE instead of day Firefox or Chrome, People who spread/make virusses want to target as many as they can reach most people use PC's and IE so these are the most targeted systems and or browsers MAC and Firefox aren't safer they are just not worth their time yet

Eggsackerly!
When it is worth the effort, it'll smack the smug outta these Mac woofters! :whistle:

[Pirate]

Just got hit by the phony virus scan last week. I had the Geek Squad fix it but my own fault. Clicked on a link that Trend Micro said looked suspecious. Lesson learned plus always backed up on 2 external stand alone HD's. Hackers should be publicly hanged!

[robertlouis]

Eggsackerly!
When it is worth the effort, it'll smack the smug outta these Mac woofters! :whistle:

Ah, a new answer to the eternal "Am I gay?" question.

If you use a Mac, you're a woofter.

Thanks Jericho, you old sweetie. xxx:kiss:

[Jericho]

Thanks Jericho, you old sweetie. xxx:kiss:

ROBERTLOUIS...PUT THAT THING AWAY...THINK OF THE CHILDREN! :tongue:

[robertlouis]

ROBERTLOUIS...PUT THAT THING AWAY...THINK OF THE CHILDREN! :tongue:

That's what got me into all this trouble in the first place, your honour. :geek:

[rwerfet]

Got the virus last week. Now the registry on my laptop is shot and it won't boot up right. Timing sucks.

[xuto]

what is the cure when your windows explorer crashes, can it be fixed and if so any tips. thank you

[Jericho]

what is the cure when your windows explorer crashes, can it be fixed and if so any tips. thank you


This might be worth a read:
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1061425126

[Ben]

i just wanted to drop this info in here about a virus that i have just dealt with, called windows recovery. It shows up like it's a legit warning and says that there are major problems with your hard drive, and then hides all of your programs and files. It then proceeds to tell you that you have to purchase an "advanced module" to fix the problem. Don't do it! This is not legit at all! It took me awhile to fix the problem and it's a real pain in the ass. Here's a link to take you step-by-step through how to get rid of it, and a screenshot of what it look like so you'll know what your dealing with.http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/virus-removal/remove-windows-recovery

thanks!!!