Hello,

I am running Vista (32bit) and had no problems with it until recently. Now, Im on the verge of throwing my laptop out of my third story window.

What started everything is I suspected I had either a virus or spyware on my computer. When I tried to run my SpyBot or my virus scanner my computer would hang for hours. I thought that maybe my McAfee might need an update, so I tried to access the McAfee website. (I get my anti virus program free through the military..no updates available from that website that I could find) When I would open the internet I would get a popup that said my computer was at risk and asked if I wanted to perform a scan, to which I said NO...but it would still take me to another webpage which appeared to be running a system scan. I could not access any webpages after this point. This all appeared to be generated from the Vista security center, however, it just didn't look right...spelling errors on the popup window etc. After trying to complete the OneCare scan through Vista (and having that stop working) I resorted to trying to access a restore point. Which resolved my issue with whatever it is that was causing those problems. After this, I thought I needed to update my antivirus and spyware programs. Since I was having such difficulty using them, I uninstalled them, and then also tried some other programs I don't use anymore (MS Office 07 trial, some random programs I used for school). All of which will not remove. Also, I my iTunes did an update before my restore and now it doesn't work either. I have tried using the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility..which didn't work either. Now my laptop is dreadfully slow, I cant get my antivirus protection, and almost the most frustrating...I cant use iTunes. Does anyone have any special jedi mind tricks to share with me? I really appreciate any help offered. Thanks!

Kristy

Yeah, I uninstalled iTunes and tried to reinstall, but I get a iTunes installer error. Can I burn a repair DVD? I wasn't given any disks when I purchased my computer, except for my Office 2003 program. Im going to run those programs you suggested as SOON as I get home. Hopefully everything will begin working the way it used to. Question, I heard that I should disable updates from Microsoft, dont I need them for everything to work well?

OK, I will try that. Thank you!

I have a *cough* Gateway *cough* Im not positive I had a DVD burner on my computer, I may just need to see if I can get one from Gateway.

From what you said about that bogus Security Center window and the pop ups asking you if you wanted to do a scan, sounds like you have a variant of a Zlob infection. Take a look at Figure 11 on page 5 of this link and see if the screenshot is familiar: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2.....of_a_hack/ .

If whs's SAS recommendation doesn't at least identify an infection and then hopefully remove it, then you may want to run a HiJackThis scan and post the results on some of the security forums I've listed.

To Download HijackThis go to the following link below:

http://www.trendsecure.com/por.....s/download

1. Click on the "Download" button at the top of the page, then click on the "Download HijackThis Installer" link that will appear . . . it's the very first one.

2. Save HJTInstall.exe to your desktop.

3. Doubleclick on the HJTInstall.exe icon on your desktop. You may get the "open file - security warning" window asking you if you want to run the file. If so, just click "Run".

4. Click "Install". By default it will install HJT to C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis and create a HJT icon on your desktop and launch HJT.

5. Click on the "Do a system scan and save a log file" button. It will scan and then save the log to Notepad.

6. Close HJT by clicking on the "X".

7. At the top of the Notepad HJT log screen, hit Edit then Select All then click Edit and then click Copy (doing that copies the text to the clipboard, you won't see it yet....)

8. Go to any of the the Malware Removal forums listed below and Paste the log in a new thread. (To paste - if you use IE as your browser - just click on the "Edit" menu selection, and then "Paste" in the drop down menu)

DO NOT have HijackThis fix anything yet. Most of what it finds will be harmless or even required. WAIT until a security expert AT ONE OF THE SITES LISTED BELOW looks at your log and interprets it and posts a reply.

Aumha forum: http://forum.aumha.org/viewfor.....8c4c5ebcec

Bleeping Computer: http://www.bleepingcomputer.co.....rum22.html

Geeks to Go: http://www.geekstogo.com/forum.....e-f37.html

Major Geeks: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=35

Malware removal: http://malwareremoval.com/foru.....b09dfbfc16

Spyware Info: http://www.spywareinfoforum.co.....owforum=18

Tech Support Guy: http://forums.techguy.org/54-m.....this-logs/

What the Tech (formerly Tom Coyote forum): http://forums.whatthetech.com/.....l_f27.html

Be sure to read all the sticky announcements/instructions at the top of each malware forum!

You will probably have to register to post.

Will be interested to see what happens, so post back and let us know. Hopefully, SAS will do the job and you won't have to go through all this other bothersome stuff.

And, BTW, would be interested to hear if that article I linked to has some familiar screen shots.

So, I actually ended up needing to do a system retore, it ended up working out. I just backed up my music and pictures and said good bye to everything else. Running smooth now. Except iTunes is still giving me the middle finger. It still wouldn't install after I did the system restore, but after a few attempts it finally worked. Now, its just not opening up at all. Im positive this is an Apple problem, but well see what they do to fix it...if they fix it. Thanks everyone for your help!