XP Home Security - how do I get rid of it?

[Philpool]

Thanks - that sounds good. An oddity I had was that the problem was only occuring on one user account and seemed to be fine on the other we have for my kids.

After a day with the problem I ended up with a situation in which nothing other than Internet Explorer would open - I got a bogus looking pop-up (even in safe mode) when I tried to start any other programme, including My Computer, asking me what programme I wanted to use to open it... I tried downloading malwarebytes and it had the same problem.

I did though download malwarebytes onto the kids profile and cleared out load of malware (mostly seemed to have come from sites offering childrens games....) and, having done this, I found that I was able to run maleware from safemode in the affected account.

[pricegspt]

Its Rkill that does the trick;  it  stops the application running, after its stops running is when the Malware program can remove it.

I made a mistake with the program name in Rkill it should be 'iexplore.exe. sorry for that.

[CarterMagna]

Just had this problem and it ended up doing some massive damge. *.exe files wouldn't run, kept asking what program I wanted to use to run *.exe. Well, *.exe of course!

Had to do a reinstall of XP. 

[CarterMagna]

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pricegspt wrote:

Its Rkill that does the trick;  it  stops the application running, after its stops running is when the Malware program can remove it.

I made a mistake with the program name in Rkill it should be 'iexplore.exe. sorry for that.

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After running Malwarebytes, it found 30 odd infections. I've been running Virgin Media Security for over a year so why didn't VMS pick it up?

[rabp]

No anti virus program will keep your computer 100% safe, but VMS seems to have more than it's fair share of problems.

I personally don’t like it (too heavy on system resources) so I don’t use it, I also don’t like the idea of a one stop program ( firewall, anti virus in one) because if one part stops quite often you are left with nothing to protect your system until you can fix the problem.

With the result I use a septate firewall and anti virus program and a couple of programs that I can run on demand as the need arises, and so far (touch wood) have not had any problems that I have not been able to fix.

And best of all they are all free and well supported.

If in doubt check all advice before making any changes to your computer the internet can help with this

[Philpool]

Do you mind if I ask what programmes you do use as I'm finding the VMS really tiresome. Many thanks, Phil

[rabp]

I use Avast anti virus and Comodo firewall at start up and Malwarebytes, Window Defender and Spybot S&D as back up to run as I need them. I have heard that Microsoft Security Essentials is good but I have not felt the need to get rid of my current progs to give it a go. At the end of the day it is all down to a matter of preference as to what you feel most comfortable with.

As I have said no anti virus or firewall program will keep your computer 100% safe but so far the above has worked for me and I go to some sites that are a prime target for drive by viruses.

have a look at the links below and have a read about the programs that they have reviewed and see what you think your self.

After you have decided which firewall is the best for you give this link a try and see how secure your firewall really is. https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-firewall.htm

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/collection/5928/2011_free_av.html

the links for the programs that I use are.

http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/

http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/ (spybot)

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default_prod.mspx

If in doubt check all advice before making any changes to your computer the internet can help with this

[Philpool]

Thanks - thats very helpful, Phil

[rabp]

no problem