whomper Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 this is why i like the reformat when giving my computer a new start. absolutely clean install and only put back what is absolutely needed. i've never had much luck on updating in place. maximizes your available hard drive space and does improve performance. of course, once done, you then enter a new fight on the malware, but hopefully start up with stronger protection practices,. I know but then its a hassle for me to put back programs that I dont have a product key on like Microsoft office etc . Ill try this first and maybe end up doing a reformat. we shall see Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whomper Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 If you have that much spyware, you might be better off formatting at that point. haha. However, Malware bytes should find everything after a few scans and reboots. Be sure to scan several times to make sure everything is gone, and again, be sure to update it every time you scan. Somethimes there are new definitions put out a couple times a day. As for freeing up disk space, you can delete your temporary internet files, but one thing that would likely help is doing a search for *.tmp & *.chk files. Temp and check files. They are just junk files that take up space. Once you find them all, you can delete them at will as they have no real use. Sometimes this frees up a lot of space, other times it is minimal. You could also just delete all the pron you have. When the malware is identified do i just quarantine it or is there a better way to remove it ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peepinmofo Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 When the malware is identified do i just quarantine it or is there a better way to remove it ? I believe in Malware Bytes there is an option to "remove infected items", or something like that. Removing anything it finds has always worked for me. Quarantine will move the items so they are not being used anymore, but that doesnt always "clean" the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Square Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 I know but then its a hassle for me to put back programs that I dont have a product key on like Microsoft office etc . Ill try this first and maybe end up doing a reformat. we shall see Hey, what version of Microsoft office are you using? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azazello1313 Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 windows xp so you go to start->search->for files or folders. then expand where it says "what size is it", click the "specify size" radial button and put in "at least 10,000 KB", then click search. that will find all files on your hard drive more than 10 MB. now what it brings up, if you don't know what it is, you probably shouldn't delete it. but chances are it will bring up a lot of stuff that you know what it is and don't need it anymore. that stuff you can delete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Cid Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 FYI, I just did this for a friend of mine this morning. Once you've finished with Malwarebytes, download and run Ad-Aware from Lavasoft. None of these programs finds everything, doing scans with two or more programs is highly recommended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whomper Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 Hey, what version of Microsoft office are you using? I believe its 2003 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Square Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 I believe its 2003 That sucks. Most of my office was running 2003 and my boss bought us new (but still lame) computers. Well, we couldn't find the 2003 disc so he upped and bought M$ office 2010 for everyone. I could probably spot you a key code for 2007 as I believe you can use it on 3 computers and we are going to update all of ours to office 2010. If I run into our old 2003 stuff I'll let you know (since I'm sure it won't be used in our office and now that we don't need it, some mofo will dig into their drawer and find it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peepinmofo Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 I believe its 2003 Didnt I give you one in the past? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithkt Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 I believe its 2003 Again, I recommend downloading Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder. I believe it will retrieve the product keys for office as well through 2007. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whomper Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 (edited) Didnt I give you one in the past? Yes. I still have yours but with my last reinstall lost office and couldnt find the key. my boss actually gave me the one I have in there now. Maybe it is 2007. Edited June 22, 2011 by whomper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delusions of grandeur Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 I believe its 2003 Do you have the disc and have just lost the product key? Because if you don't have the disc, then I don't think it'll be easy to find a download to reinstall it. If you can get a 2010 key however, then you can go on to the office website, download the trial, and enter the key later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Square Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Yes. I still have yours but with my last reinstall lost office and couldnt find the key. my boss actually gave me the one I have in there now. Maybe it is 2007. Jebus man. Did excel and word have funny looking toolbars on the top. And there was a round button instead of the old "File" button you hit to save items? If yes, than you had 2007. If no, than you had at least 2003 or older. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt770 Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Yes. I still have yours but with my last reinstall lost office and couldnt find the key. my boss actually gave me the one I have in there now. Maybe it is 2007. I use 2003 and prefer it to the 2007 version. I have a disc and product key I can send you if you need it. FYI, I just did this for a friend of mine this morning. Once you've finished with Malwarebytes, download and run Ad-Aware from Lavasoft. None of these programs finds everything, doing scans with two or more programs is highly recommended. Many thanks for this tip. I just built a new system and ordered Webroot from Amazon because it got good reviews. In the meantime I am running Norton because it comes free with my Comcast account. I just installed Ad-Aware and it has already found 8 malicious items and is still running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Square Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 I use 2003 and prefer it to the 2007 version. I have a disc and product key I can send you if you need it. Yea, that is why half the office only had 2003. I kind of warned everyone that is was "different" and not really in a good way. 2010 is supposed to be better, but I haven't gotten around to upgrading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt770 Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Yea, that is why half the office only had 2003. I kind of warned everyone that is was "different" and not really in a good way. 2010 is supposed to be better, but I haven't gotten around to upgrading. It's like many things with computers, at some point a CPU is fast enough, you have enough memory, a piece of software is fine the way it is. They keep tweaking stuff so they can sell you their latest new and improved crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whomper Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 Jebus man. Did excel and word have funny looking toolbars on the top. And there was a round button instead of the old "File" button you hit to save items? If yes, than you had 2007. If no, than you had at least 2003 or older. Its 2003. I am home now so I checked it. I hardly use it so I didnt really know which one it was. My kids use it for school Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunder Chicken Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 download and install Advanced System Care. in addition to cleaning up spyware and malware, it removes old registry entries, cleans up junk files, removes stuff you don't need, scans to see if you need a defrag, etc. I run it at least once a month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whomper Posted June 23, 2011 Author Share Posted June 23, 2011 download and install Advanced System Care. in addition to cleaning up spyware and malware, it removes old registry entries, cleans up junk files, removes stuff you don't need, scans to see if you need a defrag, etc. I run it at least once a month. Thanks . I did what Az suggested last night and did a search for all files over 10k and deleted the ones that I knew were safe to delete and I believe I did see some of these registry files. Did the malware scan last night and removed over 600 infected items . I was able to get rid of that video spyware that popped up when my comp was idol which has brought great joy to me and my children, although the videos were actually funny. Comp is moving faster but I do have to free up some room on the hard drive. The max capacity is 37 gb and I have used 30. Evene after dumping some big files and programs I still havent freed up much room. I tried to do a disk clean up but it seems to get stuck calculating how much free space the clean up will provide. Ill try Thunders link and see if that helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Cid Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Thanks . I did what Az suggested last night and did a search for all files over 10k and deleted the ones that I knew were safe to delete and I believe I did see some of these registry files. Did the malware scan last night and removed over 600 infected items . I was able to get rid of that video spyware that popped up when my comp was idol which has brought great joy to me and my children, although the videos were actually funny. Comp is moving faster but I do have to free up some room on the hard drive. The max capacity is 37 gb and I have used 30. Evene after dumping some big files and programs I still havent freed up much room. I tried to do a disk clean up but it seems to get stuck calculating how much free space the clean up will provide. Ill try Thunders link and see if that helps Excellent start, but run the malware scan again and/or run another one. Even running the same one twice can find things it didn't get the first time. If you ran a quick scan the first time run a full scan now. It's amazing where all this little crap can hide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithkt Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Excellent start, but run the malware scan again and/or run another one. Even running the same one twice can find things it didn't get the first time. If you ran a quick scan the first time run a full scan now. It's amazing where all this little crap can hide. Agreed. I'd also consider running a program called rkill before running the scans. Some of the malware does a very good job of hiding from the scanners. rkill was designed to simultaneously kill the processes of some of the more clever malware, making it more likely you will have success removing it. Google it. rkill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursa Majoris Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 The max capacity is 37 gb and I have used 30. When you are done with this cleanup, consider obtaining an external USB drive for all data storage. 37GB? There are video files bigger than that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whomper Posted June 23, 2011 Author Share Posted June 23, 2011 Excellent start, but run the malware scan again and/or run another one. Even running the same one twice can find things it didn't get the first time. If you ran a quick scan the first time run a full scan now. It's amazing where all this little crap can hide. Will do and just thought of something. After the scan it said malware has made a list of objects that they couldnt remove. What happens there ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azazello1313 Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 make sure you try running both scans (adaware and malwarebytes) from safe mode (restart and keep hitting f8 until you get the prompt, per RR's instructions). that will more than likely kill the stuff that the programs are unable to quarantine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocknrobn26 Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Excellent start, but run the malware scan again and/or run another one. Even running the same one twice can find things it didn't get the first time. If you ran a quick scan the first time run a full scan now. It's amazing where all this little crap can hide. Sorry for the late reply but Comcrash was down here for 24+ hours. No phone, internets, or TV. Plus one on Kid's sugg. Getting rid of this stuff is like eating an Artichoke... pull a leaf off and there's another right behind it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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