Is her pc dead???

[essbee]

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[essbee]

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[rickman]

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[essbee]

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[debs26]

my techie boyf says its dead. sorry hope he is wrong but he is pretty confident. he says this problem could have many causes

[jampots]

hve you tried trend micro?

[GeorginaA]

Yep.... it's been passed along via MSN tonight.

The virus is a trojan. Anyone who opened a .pif file from MSN this evening (even if from a trusted source) should run their virus checker to check for ALL FILES (not default executables only) after checking they have the latest virus definitions installed. After that you should run a spyware check as apparently it can deposit spyware on its route of destruction.

Essbee: it sounds that in yorkiegirl's case it's completely trashed some key windows files In that instance I would strongly recommend she get it to a techie in person rather than anyone talk it through - it'll probably require rescuing her important data then doing a reinstall.

Oh, my other tip for the day - take lots of backups of important data!

[lunavix]

essbee - tell YG I'm so sorry that I can't help, hope she sorts it out though, sorry we can't finish our converstaion - early night for me! - and I'll talk to her another time.

Hope you are feeling okay too hun.

xx

[GeorginaA]

Okay, AVG seems to be detecting it - we're not sure if it'll clean it yet. It's a free anti-virus package and very very good. You can download it here .

Once that is done, to clean spyware, I can thoroughly recommend SpyBot search & Destroy also free.

[essbee]

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[GeorginaA]

Some other tips that came up in conversation that might be useful:

.pif files - in almost every case if someone sends you one in an email or via MSN it is a virus do not open.

When cleaning with a virus checker you'll be faced with several options:

• heal should be your first choice - this will attempt to repair the file (some viruses piggyback on important system files and can damage them in the process) - doesn't always work though.
  
• move to vault (or equivalent) should be your next choice. It moves the file into isolation. Once you've determined it's not a system critical file (i.e. you can reboot, run windows etc normally) then you can safely delete that file from the vault.
  
  On a regular basis (set up an automatic scheduler if possible, if not diary it) try and:
  
• check all virus definitions are up to date
  
• run a full system virus scan
  
• check you have a proper firewall on your PC
  
• run a spyware removal programme
  
• backup important files such as photos, documents, financial data
  I know it feels like a chore, but the day something terrible happens is the day you realise your last backup is 6 months old
  
  If someone sends you a file either via email or MSN:
  
• check that they actually sent it (a quick message back saying "did you know..." can save a lot of grief later)
  
• check that they reference it in the text or if you requested it.
  
  I know it's easy to say with hindsight. Fingers crossed not too many people were affected tonight. Hope your machine gets repaired quickly Yorkiegirl.

[hub2dee]

Doubt it's a dead PC. Sounds like a nasty virus.

I was working on a box like this a couple of weeks ago. Complete mare. It will see an installation floppy if BIOS (that black and white weird stuff before Windows) is told to search Floppy 'A' before hard drive / CD 'C' or 'D').

If you can boot into Windows off a clean system disk or an antivirus floppy, you will be able to run virus checkers / spyware programs (try going for safe mode to start with).

If you can't get into Windows easily, or don't have the expertise to solve it, and don't want to fork out on getting it fixed by a third party, you might just want to reformat / resintall.

Really sorry but don't have time to do step by step posting instructions on here, and will be in and out for several days. This kind of stuff is unpredictable and can take an absolute bloody age too. Spend time on a healthy computer googling about removing viruses and I am sure you will find some helpful sites. Post any v. specific qs here, and there'll doubtless be a few computer boffs to assist...

It might not want to be what anyone wants to hear, but you could contemplate getting a Mac. They've just launched a small, 'cheap' one for £400 where you reuse your screen / mouse / keyboard from a PC to keep costs down. Essentially no viruses, no spyware, no hourly reboots, and is aesthetically lovely, easy to use and great with photos / video of the kids. I was a hardcore Windows user, often putting together PCs, for a seriously long time but just got sick of living with this kind of sh*t.

[misdee]

i have 4 trojan horse virus' on my pc. atm they are isolated, but need to know if i can get rid of them.

3 are in temp files. so can i wipe them?

1 is in c drive, windrive32. what about that one?

[misdee]

bump.

[Toothache]

Misdee - Yes you can wipe the temp internet files.

Right click on the Internet Explorer icon. Click on Properties.
On the General tab you should see a section called Temporary Internet Files. Click on Delete Files. This will delete the files, but not the Cookies. If you want to delete the cookies as well click on Settings (in the same section), then View Files. Highlight the cookies you want to delete and press delete. HTH

[hub2dee]

Delete any temp files by all means.

Other files may be system files, so are perhaps best handled by an anti-spyware thing as you can often not be quite sure if a particular file is part of Windows or a piece of scum.

[misdee]

dh wiped all 4. seems to be working fine.

[GeorginaA]

Incidentally, from what I read last night, this particular virus is a bit like nits () in that it can reside in several files - if you miss one, it can then reinfect the entire PC again. Strongly recommend you do a virus sweep every day for a few days just to double check you got everything.

I'll post this to the other virus threads too.