I've run HijackThis and fixed many a things but the TVMedia and SearchAssistant are being so stubborn that they just keep appearing. Another problem is that when I do a serach at Google, even though the first page of search results is in the Google template, it's actually fake results with links to other search engines. Note: I have deleted TVMedia (tvm.exe) from the Startup but it keeps coming back after rebooting. I also see "RFX_auto_upgrade" in startup. Is this something I need? Thank you very much for your help.

I just removed TVMedia from my neighbor's WinXP computer - it is a real bugger to get rid of. However, it can be done, and everything you need to do it is FREE (yes, all of the programs I recommend are FREE and I use them on my own PC - I have been a computer professional for over 20 years). You will need to use a boot disk or boot CD - you should be able to make one by downloading one for Win 2000 from here: http://bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm Once you have a bootable diskette or CD, do a clean boot to a command line (don't start up windows), and delete the "C:\program files\TVMEDIA\" directory and all of its contents. The reason TVMedia is so hard to get rid of is that it runs in memory and will put itself back into startup, as you found out. Once you've gotten rid of the TVMedia files, you can go ahead and boot back into Win 2000 regularly. To rid yourself of SearchAssistant and any other nasties you might have on your system, download Spybot Search and Destroy from: http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=mirrors and run it - let it fix everything and also use the innoculate function to help protect you from future attacks that it knows about. This program has definitions, just like antivirus programs do, that can be updated, so every month or so run it, have it check for updates, and then have it check for problems just to make sure no spyware has snuck in behind your back. Then, download and install AntiVir (the only AntiVirus software I trust my PC's data with): http://www.free-av.com/ and run it...I always have it check ALL files rather than just executables, just to be safe because nowadays people are hiding viruses in files with all kinds of extensions, not just executables. Also, I recommend having it delete files without prompting to make things go faster. I've found that infected files are rarely, if ever, worth keeping anyway. You'll want to keep your virus definitions updated very frequently since new viruses come out every day - check for new updates at LEAST once a week (there's an update function within the AVGUARD), even every couple of days isn't a bad idea if you're on the web a lot and have broadband (DSL, cable). Once you're done with all of that, you should be clean. Now, to prevent further infections, you'll want to run Spybot Search and Destroy every couple of weeks if you're on the internet a lot, and keep AntiVir Guard running in the background at all times (it takes very few resources, even when scanning all files). Now that your computer is clean, you might want to add a good firewall to the mix. Sygate has a good one that can be found here: http://soho.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm If you want a good internet browser that will allow you to surf the web without all of the popup windows that you get with IE, you can download Mozilla (or Firefox) - it's not just for geeks anymore. It will import your favorites from IE automatically for you, and you can even "skin" it to make it look more like IE if you want to. If you want it, you can download it here: http://www.mozilla.org/ The decision on whether to use Mozilla or Firefox would be: Mozilla comes with email and newsgroups, Firefox just comes with the browser. So, if you just use IE to browse the web and use something else like Outlook for email, you can use Firefox (smaller download). Otherwise, the browser part is the same in both of them. If you want a safe email application, you can use Pegasus mail. It takes some setup, but if you're currently using Outlook for email, you'll be 1000% safer using Pegasus because it doesn't automatically open attachments or anything like that. It does its best to protect you both from attachments and from bad things that can be planted in HTML emails. If you decide to try it out, it's also free: http://www.pmail.com/ And, of course, don't forget to keep up-to-date on security patches from Microsoft. One last tip before I ramble on forever...Beware of all the ads for spyware/adware removers, etc. Some of those actually PLANT spyware and adware on your PC. Also beware of most of the toolbars and searchbars that are out there on the internet that sites try to get you to download and install - many of those are spyware as well. Good luck! I hope this helps!

Help Please: "do a clean boot to a command line (don't start up windows), and delete the "C:\program files\TVMEDIA\" directory and all of its contents." I have created the boot disk set and am ready to try to delete the tvmedia. Can you please give me step-by-step instructions on getting to the clean boot? I think I know how but please forgive my ignorance, I am a novice and scared to death of removing something I need or screwing up the computer completely. thank you so much! :)