My PC recently became infected with what I believe is the downloader virus. I must have a strange variant of it, because I can't remove it using the posted methods. When I try to run Hijackthis or try to download any detection/removal tool from the web, Hijackthis or the browser shuts down. This occurs on any website that has a reference to "downloader" or "vundo" (which I thought that I originally had). I also cannot start in safe mode - must be some side effect of the virus. The other symptoms that I have are: slow PC, explorer taking 10 - 20 seconds to show my directory list, many porn popups, and other odd-ball error messages.

Rename hijackthis.exe as spyware/virus often key off of the name. Go to start> search> files and folders> type in the top space "hijackthis.exe" without the quotes> click search> when it is found in the right pane (looks like a pile of dynamite)>right click on it> click rename> rename it "show.exe" without the quotes> click a blank space on the screen. Then post your hijack this log. Please download VundoFix.exe to your C:\. Double-click VundoFix.exe to run it. Click the Scan for Vundo button. Once it's done scanning, click the Remove Vundo button. You will receive a prompt asking if you want to remove the files, click YES Once you click yes, your desktop will go blank as it starts removing Vundo. When completed, it will prompt that it will shutdown your computer, click OK. Turn your computer back on. Note: It is possible that VundoFix encountered a file it could not remove. In this case, VundoFix will run on reboot, simply follow the above instructions starting from "Click the Scan for Vundo button." when VundoFix appears at reboot. Post the log located at C:Vundofix.txt. Please download ComboFix to the desktop from this link: http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/sUBs/ComboFix.exe Double-click combofix.exe Follow the prompts. (Don't click on the window while the program is running, it may cause your system to hang.) Please post the log it produces.