I hate the internet

[CandyApple]

I hate the internet.

A few days ago I was surfing the internet, trying to find some useful sites to help me plan my move. I was braindead when it came to figuring out useful searchwords, so I decided to just plow through the results. I got past the 30th page in Google, and had clicked on many links in that pile.

After a while I noticed my computer started acting weird. Progressively it would allow me to have fewer and fewer windows open, and it started running slower. It's done that before, so I was sure it was some stupid spyware thing that would go away once I'd rebooted like it has in the past.

This, time it was different- upon rebooting it did NOT get better, in fact it was worse! My computer runs at a crawl now- I can actually watch the screen redraw when I click on something, and it can take a minute to go from window to the next when I click on it. Not loading a program, but CLICKING on one that's already open. Loading takes even longer.

Also, when I hit alt-ctrl-del the task manager doesn't have the tabs anymore, so I can only look at the programs that are running, not the processes or even close the thing. I have to close it in the taskbar. That's happened before sometimes too, but now it's permanent!

I had Spybot, AVG Antivirus, and Spyware Blaster, but apparently that wasn't enough to stop this terror. I updated Windows, it didn't help. I ran my antivirus and I even got a new one (winClamAV) from either tucows.com or download.com, I forget which. My computer is going so slowly that it literally took 25 HOURS to run the new antivirus, and the AVG takes at least three times as long as it used to. WinClamAV found a few things, but it didn't get rid of whatever is mucking up my computer.

How much antivirus/antispyware stuff do I need?! How many programs do I have to download before I get rid of this piece of junk that's goobering up my computer? I got Spyware Terminator to try and fix it, that didn't help. I tried SpyCatcher, that keeps saying it's missing some files, so it's not even TRYING to find anything. ARG! I emailed them about that, hopefully the SpyCatcher people will tell me how to fix it.

I remember back in the day I didn't even HAVE an antivirus/antispyware program and I could surf the 'net. These days... you can't even connect to the internet without having something installed, let alone browse. I'm sure the damn virus is downloading more junk on my computer as I write this. I can see my powerful 56Kb connection is maxed out even though I'm doing nothing.

I'm wondering, will logging on as user with no abilities make it harder for diseases to infect my computer when I'm on the 'net? I'm always logged on as the administrator.

Thanks for letting me vent.

[T.S.]

Browsing with Firefox instead of Internet Explorer will help stop some junk from installing.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

Make sure you have everything checked and blocked in Spyware Blaster too.

In Windows go to Start, then Run, type msconfig, press enter, click the startup tab and it will list everything that starts when you boot Windows. You might be able to find something odd in there. Google the name of anything that you are unsure of in the list. Uncheck anything that you don't need started.

[CandyApple]

I downloaded Firefox after the virus hit. Unfortunately it doesn't remove viruses, so I'm still screwed.

I just typed msconfig in the run box, but it says it can't find the file. I did a search for msconfig and it still didn't find it. Is it called something else in Windows 2000? Is there another way to get to the configuration file? Or is it just more viral hijinkx?

[T.S.]

Originally Posted by CandyApple

I just typed msconfig in the run box, but it says it can't find the file. I did a search for msconfig and it still didn't find it. Is it called something else in Windows 2000? Is there another way to get to the configuration file? Or is it just more viral hijinkx?

They took it out for Windows 2000, then put it back again for Windows XP. It will still work if you add it. Download this, unzip it, save msconfig.exe to your c:\winnt\system32 folder, then try again.

http://www.talkstates.com/temp/msconfig.zip

[CandyApple]

Thanks for the msconfig thing! Should come in handy.

Update: My computer is now functional. I think the Spyware Terminator did eventually fix the problem, because it kept stopping rootkits from installing and then weirdly my computer got better.

I was using the msconfig, but my computer was running at a crawl and it took forever just to look up one thing, and there were LOTS of things to look up. So I went to a forum I found that specializes in fixing this kind of thing. They said they couldn't find anything wrong, but by then my computer was back to normal, so I guess everything is good again. Here's two good sites to go to:
http://www.cybertechhelp.com/ and http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/
Just go to the forums, and they have a process to help you get rid of spyware/viruses/etc. I highly recommend them both!