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Need help with Adware Removal


#98QBKiller

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Somehow I've gotten Adware on my computer. I'm getting pop-ups on pretty much any site I go to (including ES). After clicking a few links on a site or clicking on a few different threads on ES I'm getting ads popping up for cameras, games, pills, etc.

I think this happened while searching for the Erin Andrews videos lol.

Anyway, I have AVG, Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware, Spybot and Ad-Aware. I've run full scans with all four and have found nothing but some minor cookies that were deleted and I'm still getting these pop-ups.

Anyone have any advice?

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Somehow I've gotten Adware on my computer. I'm getting pop-ups on pretty much any site I go to (including ES). After clicking a few links on a site or clicking on a few different threads on ES I'm getting ads popping up for cameras, games, pills, etc.

I think this happened while searching for the Erin Andrews videos lol.

Anyway, I have AVG, Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware, Spybot and Ad-Aware. I've run full scans with all four and have found nothing but some minor cookies that were deleted and I'm still getting these pop-ups.

Anyone have any advice?

1. Go to System Restore (right-clock on My Computer >Properties > System Restore tab > select "Turn off System Restore for all drives") and disable it.

2. After that, restart your computer, hit F8, select "Safe Mode with Networking," and reboot with Safe Mode, making sure to login with an administrator account.

3. Once you're logged into your administrator account, open a browser and Google Smitfraudfix. The first hit should be the page for this program (with instructions on its use). Download it and execute the program.

4. After that, download Combofix (the second hit, from bleepingcomputer.com, has instructions on its use) and execute that as well.

5. Finally, just to run one last cleaning, execute Spybot and the MalwareBytes program.

6. When finished, reboot back into Windows and ensure the issue is resolved. If it is, go ahead and re-enable your System Restore.

Yes, this will take a while, but it should remove your issues (which really isn't adware, but probably a Vundo or a SmitFraud virus).

Let us know if you have any further questions or issues.

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Thanks for the info guys...I think I'm going to try your advice Baculus...

Just a second ago though, I found a program on my PC under "add or remove programs" called "System Search Dispatcher" I researched online and found that it's connected to Adware, I removed the program but got a message saying that all components of it could not be removed, that some would need manual removal.

Should I follow the same procedures you listed Baculus or is there a way to go in and find/manually remove the other components of the program?

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1. Go to System Restore (right-clock on My Computer >Properties > System Restore tab > select "Turn off System Restore for all drives") and disable it.

2. After that, restart your computer, hit F8, select "Safe Mode with Networking," and reboot with Safe Mode, making sure to login with an administrator account.

3. Once you're logged into your adminitrator account, open a browser and Google Smitfraudfix. The first hit should be the page for this program (with instructions on its use). Download it and execute the program.

4. After that, download Combofix (the second hit, from bleepingcomputer.com, has instructions on its use) and execute that as well.

5. Finally, just to run one last cleaning, execute Spybot and the MalwareBytes program.

6. When finished, reboot back into Windows and ensure the issue is resolved. If it is, go ahead and re-enable your System Restore.

Yes, this will take a while, but it should remove your issues (which really isn't adware, but probably a Vundo or a SmitFraud virus).

Let us know if you have any further questions or issues.

This.

www.malrwarebytes.org

Love it.

Use it.

~Bang

And this.

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Thanks for the info guys...I think I'm going to try your advice Baculus...

Just a second ago though, I found a program on my PC under "add or remove programs" called "System Search Dispatcher" I researched online and found that it's connected to Adware, I removed the program but got a message saying that all components of it could not be removed, that some would need manual removal.

Should I follow the same procedures you listed Baculus or is there a way to go in and find/manually remove the other components of the program?

Sure, no problem.

I doubt if this malware can be removed that easily (you can try to it, though), so I would advise to at least run SpyBot and MalwareBytes in Safe Mode and see if that does the trick.

Also, I would recommend to install Avast! antivirus to prevent future issues.

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Ok, just to update, I've found a few more things under "add or remove programs" that are suspicious and are listed as adware on Malwarebytes forum:

System Search Dispatcher

Internet Savings Optimizer

Media Access Startup

I've removed all of these so far....still looking at the list though.

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Ok, just to update, I've found a few more things under "add or remove programs" that are suspicious and are listed as adware on Malwarebytes forum:

System Search Dispatcher

Internet Savings Optimizer

Media Access Startup

I've removed all of these so far....still looking at the list though.

If you remove them, reboot and see if your problem persists. Sometimes they can linger around via System Restore, which is why I recommend to disable it before the other listed steps.

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If you remove them, reboot and see if your problem persists. Sometimes they can linger around via System Restore, which is why I recommend to disable it before the other listed steps.

Not to mention they could also be packed away in other files waiting to reinstall themselves. So if those programs come back you know they're the culprit. That's why you definitely need to use some spy/adware removal program.

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If you remove them, reboot and see if your problem persists. Sometimes they can linger around via System Restore, which is why I recommend to disable it before the other listed steps.
Not to mention they could also be packed away in other files waiting to reinstall themselves. So if those programs come back you know they're the culprit. That's why you definitely need to use some spy/adware removal program.

Alright, I definitely appreciate it guys, right now the pop-ups have ceased. I'm going to reboot and see if I can get off the hook easy or not. If they come back I'm going to go back to the original plan Baculus.

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Alright, I definitely appreciate it guys, right now the pop-ups have ceased. I'm going to reboot and see if I can get off the hook easy or not. If they come back I'm going to go back to the original plan Baculus.

Good luck! :) Hopefully you got the suckers.

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Not to mention they could also be packed away in other files waiting to reinstall themselves. So if those programs come back you know they're the culprit. That's why you definitely need to use some spy/adware removal program.

Indeed, good point.

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Good luck! :) Hopefully you got the suckers.
Just wanted to add, I googled all those program names and they are spy/adware. Googling them should give you a way to remove them completely with enough work.

Well after rebooting, the programs are gone off of my "add/remove" list and the popups have ceased.

Should I go back and re-run any of the scans now just to be safe?

Also, like I mentioned earlier, I have AVG as my main anti-virus protection, but I also have Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware, Spybot, and Ad-Aware. Although, I don't keep these programs running, I just use them for scanning.

Is it necessary to keep all of these on my PC and if so, should I have any combination of them running with AVG?

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Well after rebooting, the programs are gone off of my "add/remove" list and the popups have ceased.

Should I go back and re-run any of the scans now just to be safe?

Also, like I mentioned earlier, I have AVG as my main anti-virus protection, but I also have Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware, Spybot, and Ad-Aware. Although, I don't keep these programs running, I just use them for scanning.

Is it necessary to keep all of these on my PC and if so, should I have any combination of them running with AVG?

I would reboot once again to ensure the issues are really gone. If it is, than you are probably good, though I would be tempted to go into Safe Mode and at least run MalwareBytes and SpyBot. Just as a precaution.

I usually keep these programs installed, just in case you need them again. Also, I would recommend Avast!, because I believe it is more pro-active than AVG.

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