Hi all, I received a pop-up trying to sell me "PC Turbo" software. I ran "Spyware Doctor" and it dedected 2 "Known bad sites" with a high threat rating and 3 "Drive cleaner" infections with medium threat. I'm guessing that the PC Turbo problem is one of the three "Drive Cleaner" infections. Because the version of "Spyware Doctor" is a free version, it cannot remove the 3 Drive Cleaner infections or the 2 Known bad sites. Could you please tell me how I can remove these 5 items without purchasing the professional version of Spyware Detector or is it safer to just pay for the download? During the past few days, I also notice that my pc is running noticeably slower, do you think this may be connected to the drive cleaner infections and known bad sites identified by "pyware Doctor"? Thanks for any advice you may have. Bob

I don't run too many trial programs that don't let you remove infections. What you found are probably false positives to coax you into buying the software. Run this free scan http://www.spywareinfo.com/xscan.php and remove all it finds Then I would suggest running all the up-dated free ones: Spyware Blaster Spybot S&D Adaware SE A new one I use is Spyware Terminator (real-time protection) and try a few on-line scans: Housecall BitDefender All the above will remove infections found. What is your present AV and Firewall? Hopefully my advice will help you...Please post back with your results....thanks

XpUser4Real, Thanks very much for taking the time to reply with some great advice and software recommendations. To answer your question I have Microsoft Windows Firewall that came with my Windows XP and I run Kaspersky A/V. The following are the software that I ran (as per your recommendation) and the results of each. I certainly can see why you like Spyware Terminator as it still managed to detect one critical object and an invalid start-up item after I had run four different spyware applications immediately one after the other. Whenever I was given the choice to have my pc scanned completely I chose to do so. 1) X-Cleaner Micro Edition (Appelet) - Detected Drive Cleaner: CLSIDs - {2d2bee6e-3c9a-4d58-b9ec-458edb28d0f6} - Detected Registry Keys (1) - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Stats\{2d2bee6e-3c9a-4d58-b9ec-458edb28d0f6} - Created “system restore point” 2) Spyware Balster 3.5.1 - nothing detected 3) Spybot S&D (Search & Destroy) version 1.4 - previously installed but ran updates and installed version 1.4 (from 1.3) - created a system restore point and created a registry back-up - identified 17 tracking cookies and 2 registry values – all were fixed 4) Adware SE - previously installed but ran updates - detected 32 critical objects, all 32 were tracking cookies - quaranteened 5) Spyware Terminator – version 1.9.2.134 - downloaded and created system restore point - detected one critical object and one invalid start-up item – removed both 6) HouseCall - downloaded and presently running with 45 minutes remaining on the scan I am going out shortly and will be returning late this evening but will post then to tell you if my my pc is operating any faster or if I detected new problems, As an aside, when I use my curser to roll up or down a page, the page continues to roll after I let go of the mouse, even if I only move a fraction of an inch slowly. It happens in Excel and Word as well (not just the internet). This problem started a couple weeks ago, when my pc began slowing down. Do you think these rolling windows could be tied to the problem of the slowing pc? Any tips on what I can do? Once again thanks for all your help. Bob

If your PC is still slow after running these checks, what I have done before and it's cleaned out lots of infections. Download Avast Free to your desktop http://www.avast.com/eng/download-a... Then turn off your AV and install Avast and let it do a bootscan. Then move everything it finds to the chest. If that helps, then you can turn avast off and keep using your AV, as you can't use 2 AV's at the same time. Another thing you might try is sfc /scannow , that is IF you have an XP installation disc as you will need it to replace any corrupted system files. Some files may be corrupted causing the eratic behavior of your mouse or the slowing of your PC performance. If your mouse is a ball mouse, you may have to open it up and clean up the rollers with rubbing alcohol and a q-tip. If it's an optical mouse, I would uninstall it in the device manager, then reboot and let xp re-install it. See if that helps...Good Luck! Hopefully my advice will help you...Please post back with your results....thanks

Hi again XpUser4Real, I believe I may be in a bit of trouble now. I finished running HouseCall okay and the results follow: 6) HouseCall - downloaded - detected 1 “Adware Side_Step”, 1 “Adware Bhot_IE Helper” and 1 HTTP Cookie, and 1 vulnerability (MS04-028) – removed all but the 1 vulnerability, unable to remove it. Next I tried running BitDefender and Avast Free and could not complete the installation of these programs, please see following: 7) BitDefender 8 - could not complete installation of this software. Message reads: “Installer information – Could not create key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINES\Software\Microsofy\Windows\CurrentVersion\InProgress. Verify that you have sufficient access to that key or contact your support personnel.” 8) Avast Free - could not complete installation of this software. Message reads: “Avast Antivirus Setup - not enough user rights to continue The following is the Avast log: 29.05.2007 23:48:50 general: Started: 29.05.2007, 23:48:50 29.05.2007 23:48:50 general: Running setup_av_pro-3e9 (1001) 29.05.2007 23:48:50 system: Operating system: WindowsXP ver 5.1, build 2600, sp 2.0 [Service Pack 2] 29.05.2007 23:48:50 system: Computer WinName: DESKTOP 29.05.2007 23:48:50 system: Windows Net User: DESKTOP\Robert ****** 29.05.2007 23:48:52 general: Cmdline: /sfx /sfxstorage "C:\DOCUME~1\ROBERT~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\_av_sfx.tm~a00248" /srcpath "C:\Documents and Settings\Robert ******\My Documents\My Downloads\from the net" 29.05.2007 23:48:52 general: DldSrc set to sfx 29.05.2007 23:48:52 general: Old version: ffffffff (-1) 29.05.2007 23:48:52 general: Install check: SetupVersion does NOT exist 29.05.2007 23:48:52 general: SGW32P::CheckIfInstalled set m_bAlreadyInstalled to 0 29.05.2007 23:48:52 registry: ERROR!:Cannot create registry HKLM\Software\ALWIL Software\TestSetup, error code: 0x000003FB 29.05.2007 23:48:52 general: Err:Not enough user rights to continue. (please note that I removed my last name from line 5 and 8 of the log – Robert ******, rather than show it on the internet) What do you suggest I try now? Is it possible I may have removed too much this afternoon? The bad news is that my computer is still running slow, the good news is that at least it's running. ;o) Bob

Hmmm, that's quite interesting. Try the free version of WinPatrol http://www.winpatrol.com/ and you'll be able to remove the IE helper. Also D/L Crap Cleaner http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4... and run it to clear out excess junk and then click on Issues and clean that also. Is your Kaspersky a combination AV & firewall? If so, turn off Windows Firewall. If things are still slow and IF you have the XP installation disc (not the recovery discs) you could try a repair install http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/X... or http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/... Hopefully my advice will help you...Please post back with your results....thanks

Hi XpUser4Real, Since my last email, things kept going from bad to worse to the point that I was getting a blue screen warning me that Windows shut itself down to prevent causing damage to my pc. When I received that blue screen message three times in one afternoon, I threw in the towel. I brought my pc to a shop and received it back yesterday after they backed-up my personal data and did a complete re-install. The good news is that I sure learned a lot. I have saved and printed all the advice you gave me in case this should happen again. Many thanks for all your help. It's great that there are still people out there who give a damn and are willing to help novices like myself. Bob