Noob trying to rid pc of virises

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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 10:39 pm

^^^

Depends on which pron sites are visited!

Wink

Not that I would know anything about that!

Embarassed

Knobwatch is good though. Laughing

Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 10:40 pm

GomerPyle wrote:

It really spooked me when my System Restore wouldn't function - never a good sign.

Had the same experience on Vista too last week. Restore refused to roll back to older backup points. Really worries me too, it saved me a couple of times when running Win XP. Sucks on Vista.

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 1:56 am

I recently had to clean up a couple of our XP machines at work which somehow got smothered by trojans.

System restore would not function and the browsers had been hijacked, preventing access to useful sites and also preventing the usual tools from running.

I managed to eventually fix everything by using HiJackThis! to clean up registry and disable the nasty processes (having a clean PC through which the web could be accessed to check out suspect keys etc was invaluable), and then running Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to remove the infected and dangerous files.

Took a while but having done it the once, I'm confident the next time some pratt goes where they shouldn't and clicks without thinking I'll be able to fix in a jiffy. I now have these two tools on a CD just in case.

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 2:55 am

Who edited the colour of my post?

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

A SKYHOOK wrote:

Usually picks up 5 to ten every 2 or 3 days

That tells me that you are visiting sites on the interweb that are outside of the mainstream. (shame on you).

When visiting "those" sites I suggest a Linux "live" CD.

Try this one and you will avoid those problems... http://www.puppylinux.org/

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 24 Jan 2009 Posts: 19

Malwarebytes is very useful, as stated earlier. (In addition to anti-virus/anti-spyware)

http://malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

The free version is just fine.

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 2:51 pm

I've got some great tips as well as a script for more virtual memory. If anyone is interested, PM me. I'll let you know how you can do some simple things to speed up your computer, you will be amazed. here they are:

1) RUN > type - prefetch > delete everything in that folder.
2) RUN > type - msconfig > remove things from your startup ONLY THINGS YOU KNOW YOU CAN ie. MSN MSGR, YIM, SKYPE...NOTHING SYSTEM RELATED (exit without restart)
3) RUN > type - regedit - now go > HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Desktop > look for "MenuShowDelay" Change the value to "0"

This step is strictly for internet speed improved performance.
4) RUN > system.ini > paste EXACTLY THIS below the things that are in the file. (also remove the quotes)

"page buffer=100000kbps load=100000kbps Download=100000kbps save=100000kbps back=100000kb"

Restart your PC after all of this, and you'll notice a difference.
Remember, to Defragment your PC often, and do a disk clean before you do. If anyone wants, I have registry mechanic if they have a VERY slow computer and these steps did not help.

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 6:47 pm

Hi Canadian, any chance you could explain what steps 3 and 4 do?

also, there seems to be a bit of debate on the net about whether deleting all prefetch data is a good or bad thing. Personally I opt for letting Ccleaner delete only the old stuff, I guess that's a safe bet.

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 7:13 pm

I can totally explain what it does. Firstly deleting the prefetch data is perfectly fine, if you look at it what is deleting it going to do? If you notice a small lag period at first, it's because your PC is building it back up again. after 5 minutes of use your PC will be fine. I personally do it once a week. Debate, hah, people just don't understand, it's like your browser data, it builds and builds until you have so much crap in there it can no longer sort through it. Step 3 will remove that pesky delay from 400 Ms to 0. because of this delay your start menu opens much slower. step 4 is only really if you have a slower connection and want that little extra out of it. It CAN make your internet connection faster. It opens more room for data to flow in and out of your computer per second. these are just some simple tips to help you get your computer running a little smoother again, I run Vista registry Mechanic, a GREAT program for fixing registry errors, on my brand new Sony VAIO I just purchased about 3 months ago...I already had 400 registry errors, my older HP pavillion at home had over 2000. Surprised

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 7:23 pm

Who knew there was a delay built in? That's nearly half a second of my life they've been wasting every time I reboot Sad

was there any reason for it being there in the first place?

On the prefetch issue, that's pretty much the conclusion I came to, by opting to delete only the old stuff, I save myself that 5 mins of sluggishness. My internet link is pretty fast anyway, so shan't bother with the last one, but I'm sure it will be helpful to some.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Canadian419 wrote:

3) RUN > type - regedit - now go > HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Desktop > look for "MenuShowDelay" Change the value to "0"

Slick. Why would MS put a 400ms delay for that value to begin with?

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 7:33 pm

no idea, I just know they do, and it just so happens I know how to get rid of it. Just a tip, from your brother from the north. Very Happy

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 7:34 pm

Yep, nice one, thanks for that Canadian.

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 10:02 pm

Roger The Cabin Boy wrote:

Who knew there was a delay built in?

Vista and XP have it, and even Win98 had it iirc, it's the first tweak I did after a fresh install for years. It speeds up opening your folders after hitting the start/ windows button considerably. Cleaning out your startup items with msconfig (or using a proggie called autoruns, that shows even more) is to be advised too.

The system.ini tweak I didn't know about, I just tried that, and indeed seems to speed up the loading of web pages. Good advise, Canadian Very Happy

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Dutch wrote:

The system.ini tweak

I tried it and did not notice any difference, I also found some mixed reviews about this tweak via Google. I ended up reversing the change.

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 10:34 pm

I've been keeping an eye on what starts up at boot for a while. My favourite gadget for this is Mike Lin's StartUp Control panel.

http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

I've knocked out a few unnecessary services too, but that kind of thing would differ from system to system, user to user so I won't recommend any to turn off. If anyone's feeling brave they can google "unnecessary services." It gets pretty technical, so give it a miss unless you're willing to invest a bit of time learning.

Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 11:13 pm

As I said, their just little tricks. There are always going to be people out there doing something wrong, thats where the mixed reviews come from. It really makes a difference on older computers. I redid an old HP pavilion from 1998 about 2 weeks ago for a woman, made the thing run pretty good for an old bomb. Yeah, I've been keeping an eye on mine too, if you click on all processes or something it gives you EVERYTHING going on, I Google'd every single process and everything was completely legit, I even found out that if your running a lot of things like "svchost.exe" (on mine I have 9 running right now...) it's some kind of Win32 service used for "administering 16-bit-based DLL files". At one time I had 15 of them running it freaked me out untill i read what what it was. Then again I had photoshop CS4 and Premier CS3 running, plus internet and office 2007....but now, my computer is basically just Chrome running still 9 of them.

Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 1:36 am

Pastor Frank wrote:

Dutch wrote:

The system.ini tweak

I tried it and did not notice any difference, I also found some mixed reviews about this tweak via Google. I ended up reversing the change.

Works for me, web pages are loading quicker. Maybe different on various PC's but there's no harm in giving it a shot. On Vista the described procedure doesn't work, you have to go to your \windows\ folder and change the system.ini file security properties for all users to edit and save it (and change it back afterwards of course)

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

Quote:

Noob trying to rid pc of virises

I think you'll find it's your computer and the virus trying to get rid of you Laughing

Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 1:44 am

OH good point! Thanks Dutch. ALSO If anyone needs help disabling User Account Control just PM me, I'll show you not only how to disable it but also to disable the constant prompts to re-enable it.

Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 1:45 am

from what I understand (not a great deal.) svchost.exe is short for service host. It allows services (windows and third party) to run without each having to be a stand alone .exe , apparently it saves space by not having to duplicate the same bit of code for each service. I presume dllhost does a similar thing for .dll files

The downside of course is that you cant see what is causing each one to run in task manager. Which would be nice if you're trying to track down a rogue process.

Even Process explorer (an advanced version of task manager.)

http://filehippo.com/download_process_explorer/

Will only point you to the location of svchost.exe in the System 32 folder. I'd love to know how you track down what's actually running each one. Confused

Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 1:52 am

You've misunderstood me, or I typed it wrong. I don't think there is a way to pinpoint the exact program of each different .dll (I think if you right click and click open file location it will bring you to the system32 folder) but I was intending to mean that I went through each process .exe and Google'd it to make sure it was supposed to be there and running with my known programs currently on my computer, I was confused when I noticed so many of "svchost.exe" at first I was FREAKED out because i Googled it and spelt it wrong "scvhost.exe" which is a virus, aparantly a bad one. Laughing

Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 1:54 am

Scam Patroller wrote:

Quote:

Noob trying to rid pc of virises

I think you'll find it's your computer and the virus trying to get rid of you Laughing

right back at you

And yes i should have just put ^^^^ but i could not have fixed your grammer if i had , ow yes i could have sorry. Ha im learning ok back off Wink

I think you'll find it's your computer and the virus is trying to get rid of you Laughing

[/quote]

right back at you

Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 2:02 am

Yep, I agree, it is very confusing. Viruses will often take advantage of the situation by calling themselves scvhost or something similar. The real problems start when they actually attempt to use the legitimate file to do their dirty work. In these situations, I've found that often it means they've installed as a service, and can be stopped from running in the same way as you would a real service. Then you can track the file from the service name. (usually some random number.)

The only clue I can find is the Process ID number (PID.) maybe there's a way to cross check.... but I've never found the solution.

but yeah, less services running means less svchosts in task manager, less RAM being used..etc.

Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 2:13 am

Hum, you might be on to something there, I think I'll do some research and come back after the weekend with my results. I never thought of the PID...anyway, my time is up for tonight all, goodnight everyone! Gotta go spend the night with my better half. Very Happy

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