Windows 7 This has me stumped, any ideas?

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I have mentioned in another post about my friend Paul who it inundated with malware and junk files.

He didn't have this until he moved to a new home recently, he still has Comcast same as before and the same computer running Windows 7.

To try and solve this I have installed Malwarebytes Pro, (the paid active version) and AVG Antivirus software but he is still getting tons of junk.

He says that if he cleans the computer using Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware in the evening and then leaves his computer turned on overnight he will have 20 or 30 hits when he scans it in the morning when he logs in.

I have the same security software on my computer, I just ran scans for the first time in several days and didn't get one hit.

His firewall is running but I'm not sure about the built in firewall in the router.

Anyone have any idea why he's getting all this stuff, even when he isn't using the computer?

I don't have any other ideas.

Mike

 

[whs]

Depends what it is. E,g. SAS finds a ton of tracking cookies. Those are not really dangerous. I somtimes have a couple of hundred after 3 days. Malwarebytes finds more serious stuff. But even here, if it is PuPs, that is not really tragic. More serious would be trojans or other pests like that.

 

[badrobot]

Try a second opinion scanner Hitman Pro. Designed to remove stubborn rootkits despite all security measures.

Link Removed

I use these 3 all the time.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I'll check it out.

Most of the stuff he gets isn't serious, though he had a couple of things that were really screwing up his computer.

We got rid of those, the rest are more of a nuisance than anything else but I still don't get why this started when he moved, he is running the same security software that I am and I get almost nothing other than a few adware cookies.

I guess the good news is that he no longer gets the blue screens on boot up and the computer is running well.

I wanted to get it as clean as possible, then I'll make a system image so he has a clean place to go back to.

Thanks for the help.

Mike

 

[Joe S]

Mike
It might be his browsing habits, does he download much freeware? That is a big source of junk. You might also try a Hosts file I've used this one for years http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm plus my additions to it.
Joe

 

[badrobot]

Ask him also to use a different web browser (Opera, etc.) just to see if there's something in the browser that causes all the issues.

 

[Fixer1234]

Hi

He says that if he cleans the computer using Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware in the evening and then leaves his computer turned on overnight he will have 20 or 30 hits when he scans it in the morning when he logs in.

When he leaves his computer on, does he leave his browser open? Anybody else in the house who could be surfing the web while he is asleep? Does he have software like Adobe products, Java, etc. set to automatically update (that often includes junkware for his convenience). Generally, having stuff downloaded starts with action from his computer. I've also seen infections that re-infect the computer while the AV software is still working; the AV software says it is done while new infections are spreading behind it. It can take numerous scans to get rid of it or a system restore followed by scans.

 

[Joe S]

You might also try running the AV and MBAM scans in safemode.
Joe

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I downloaded Hitman Pro and ran it on my computer.
It found a number of things that I didn't find with my other software so I'll install it on his computer and have a go at it.

We did switch from Chrome to Firefox to see if that helps, and it didn't seem to make any difference.

My friend is 79 and not too computer literate so I pretty much have to go there and make the changes myself.

No one else uses his computer, his wife uses laptop and doesn't seem to have the same issues.

He uses the computer most for gaming.
The same stuff I'm playing, The Secret World, The Elder Scrolls Online, Skyrim etc.

Other than that he emails and edits photography in Photoshop, not much for general browsing, or downloading software unless I send him the links.

I'll try and get over there and look at it again this week, and run Hitman, and see what happens.

As soon as I'm pretty sure it's clean I'll make a system image do we can fix it quickly in the future.

Mike

 

[Fixer1234]

He uses the computer most for gaming.
The same stuff I'm playing, The Secret World, The Elder Scrolls Online, Skyrim etc.

I'm not a gamer so I'm not up on security issues with them, but interactive gaming opens hooks that are not there for non-gamers and picking up other players in "public" places adds exposure that you don't have with something like VPN. Is there a known problem of spammers trolling for players and exploiting vulnerabilities for spamming access?

 

[badrobot]

Hi

I downloaded Hitman Pro and ran it on my computer.
It found a number of things that I didn't find with my other software so I'll install it on his computer and have a go at it.

We did switch from Chrome to Firefox to see if that helps, and it didn't seem to make any difference.

My friend is 79 and not too computer literate so I pretty much have to go there and make the changes myself.

No one else uses his computer, his wife uses laptop and doesn't seem to have the same issues.

He uses the computer most for gaming.
The same stuff I'm playing, The Secret World, The Elder Scrolls Online, Skyrim etc.

Other than that he emails and edits photography in Photoshop, not much for general browsing, or downloading software unless I send him the links.

I'll try and get over there and look at it again this week, and run Hitman, and see what happens.

As soon as I'm pretty sure it's clean I'll make a system image do we can fix it quickly in the future.

Mike

Try to take advantage of the 30-day trial for the Hitman Pro because the trial version will not actually get rid of the problems it found. It should be good enough to at least remove stubborn rootkits from your friend's PC.