Why won't anything run?

Question

Background:

- My computer is about 3 years old with Windows XP.

- I had a problem with Spyware Guard 2008 malware. Nothing I tried would get rid of it (I tried Spybot Search and Destroy, Trojan Remover, Malwarebytes and several others) so I left it alone until I could find something that would work.

- About a week ago, Spyware Guard 2008 started giving me warnings about Internet Explorer (which I had never gotten before). I don't even use IE, I use Firefox. They popped up constantly and got to the point where I couldn't do anything because I had to keep clicking "cancel" and "ok" buttons. I managed to download a newer version of Malwarebytes and rebooted. But about a minute after I logged in, it rebooted again and kept doing that every time I logged in.

- From there, I rebooted in safe mode. That worked, so I ran Malwarebytes. It removed some things, but SG 2008 was still partially there. On another computer, I looked up a manual way to get rid of it. This included ending a few processes. I'm familiar with ending processes, so I'm fairly sure I didn't end anything I shouldn't have, but it's possible. Finally, by the end of the day, it looked like SG 2008 was gone. But now when I log in, very few icons appear in the task menu (no volume icon, no internet connection icons) and nothing happens when I try to open most programs (including drives and control panel).

I'm completely at a loss as to what to do. If I can't figure it out, I'll call someone to come look at my computer and figure out what's wrong, but I figured I should look for help on the internet first. Does it sound like I ended a process that I shouldn't have by accident, and if I did, any idea what it could be? Could malware be doing this (one of the processes running right now is reader_s.exe which, according to a google search, is malware)? Any suggestions as to what I can do or where a better place to ask would be?

Answer 1

Edit: If you have access to a "thumb" drive, or your sister has a CD burner on her machine, you could download the software I mentioned, copy it to the drive/CD and then transfer it to your PC.



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I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it might come down to you completely restoring your computer in order to bring it back to original factory condition.



Before you go that route, however, I'd recommend downloading some well-established and well-known anti-malware tools. You definitely did the right thing in running Spybot, but I'd also consider installing and using both AdAware and Windows Defender (from Microsoft). Make sure you get both of these programs from their own websites and not a third-party site. I've included links, below.



It also can't hurt to have current anti-virus software on your machine. AVG Anti-Virus is free and would probably be a good place to start, but you might want to invest in a more effective and accurate piece of software. BitDefender and Kaspersky are two excellent programs in the under $30 price range. I've included a review link to help along those lines.



Spyware Guard is notorious for tricking people into thinking they have a problem and then downloading their malware-infected software in order to fix it. Don't feel that you're alone in this. Overall, it sounds like you're pretty savvy as far as these things go, which is always the best defense: being aware of how adware/malware/trojans/viruses work and how to prevent them.



If worse comes to worse, you could either go back to a Windows "save point" using System Restore. Failing that, it might require a complete recovery or operating system reinstall.



I hope this helps!

Answer 2

It sounds like you have already done a lot.



It is, generally, possible to remove these forms of malware, and any others that you have manually or through utilities that you have available.



Sometimes the best option is to format the drive and reinstall everything. However, if you want to try and work on removing these items I would start with the reader_s.exe



You should be able to remove this with a program called Hijack This

Freely distributed: http://www.download.com/Trend-Micro-HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10227353.html



Be careful: Hijack This does not report on only bad things - it reports everything. You only want it to remove the reader_s.exe



You might be able to use it to remove the SG 2008 as well. If nothing else, it might help to know what else is running on your system and the hijackthis program will do that.



If you want assistance, then feel free to email me ([e-mail]) the log generated from hijackthis.



I have seen some references to the infestation made by SG 2008. It might be possible to manually delete the files and the registry settings. I'd be willing to help you go through that as well if HijackThis doesn't get rid of it.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

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