Simviation Forums

hey guys, ive been offlie for a while cuz of school and all, anyway....for some reason beyond me my sister has started to use my computer...she, and her friends went to a jokes site over the weekend when i wasnt home and now my pc is flooded with spyware, it keeps on changing my home page and popups and stuff, and also a new buton appeared on my IE bar, and a few programs are on the list of install/uninstall software. but i cannot uninstall them, they wont let me. i downloaded spyware blaster, spyware guard and spybot search&destroy. they cleaned up a bit, but still the whole issue of changin the homepage every 3 minutes is pissin the he** out of me. please if u know how to get rid of this problem tell me.

Sounds like your next task will be a good ole' C:/Fdisk (reformat the hard drive

NO NO NO! NEVER reformat unless you have to! Here are two very good (FREE) anti spyware apps. : http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ (AdAware SE)
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html (Spybot S&D)
I use them both and they work, WELL.

NO NO NO! NEVER reformat unless you have to! Here are two very good (FREE) anti spyware apps. : http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/ (AdAware SE)
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html (Spybot S&D)
I use them both and they work, WELL.

i have SB S&D and it works ok, but not enough.....

do a search on yahoo for the FREE yahoo spyware utility...


it got rid of things all the others wouldn't...

If you do a lot of downloading for your various hobbies, it's not a bad idea to reformat periodically.  I do mine about twice a year...

Try ad-aware aswell, it will complement spybot.

That and also download Stinger, ir scans for viruses and trojans (which spyware basically is).
Search for Stinger on the web it is updated frequently and is a stand alone program, follow the directions and it will wipe all nasties off your computer.
I had something similar going on and ran all the adware programs you could find and nothing happened, so I tried Stinger and wala gone!

You might also want to run HiJack This, but be sure you know what each thing it list is for, real easy to remove something you need!

Sounds like you got worms or trojans on there I am afraid.

Use a combination of Ad-aware SE and a program called Hijackthis to rid of this.

You need to have some knowledge to use Hijakthis though as you have to search through what it scans to decide what is bad and what is not.

I would also suggest an online scan maybe use the AVG one.

Felipe, what did it reset your homepage to?  Sometimes that can be a clue.  I have seen things that Ad-aware and Spybot S&D couldn't catch.  Give us a heads up on that, and do a google search in the meantime.

he should do a windowsupdate session...
latest IE will ALWAYS warn you for changes in the 'startup' page, and has the security problem that gives spyware a backdoor to change the startup page fixed

I use a few items for spyware; Adaware, Spybot S & D, and Spywareblaster-- for Active X I require a prompt --  always use a firewall and anti-virus software -- and a utility callled CCleaner or "crap cleaner" that will emty your temp files and get rid of old reg entries. ALso (use with care) Hijack this, and also CWshredder will get rid of some browser hijacking. Another utility called Zilla Anynomous Surfer has some features to clean up all other traces of sites you have been on -- if you download it be sure it is version 3.0.0.2 or so because earlier version were riddled with spyware from Ebates and Navexcel (although it can be cleaned up with Adaware and Spybot and still run).
Be sure to check for updates for definitions.

Get rid of the biggest spyware around.

Young sister: known to download and spread other virues and spyware. could potenially cause damage to files and computer. Can be stopped with a password.

For a problem like that, I would reformat my hard drive and reinstall windows.

Using a password might help your account, but on a shared computer makes no differance.
My account is password protected and the other user does the same going to sites, downloading all kinds of stuff, uses IE instead of Firefox etc.
Any spyware that may be downloaded by the other user(s) password or not is on the hard drive and able to screw with all accounts