When my PC was up and runnig I checked the close program box(ctrl/alt/delete) to see what was running and there was a new addition ,of running task ,hloader.exe ? I opened the system configuration utility and sure enough it was listed with a check mark in it to run at startup, I removed the check mark and rebooted ,then it was listed twice in close program box and in msconfig ! I did a HD search and under Windows system was a what look like a folder with a DOS program inside folder ,I deleted it off my system ,went thru the steps agin of unchecking it from running at startup and rebooted ,so far it has not re-enabled itself again ,hopefully by deleting the programs folder it will stop that from happening .I have instructions on how to remove unchecked items from msconfig thru the registry however in the run- or runonce- section of registry the hloader is not listed ,so I cannot edit them out of registry ? Does anyone have a clue what the heck this is and why I suddenly recieved it yesterday on my system ? Its odd how my subscription to Norton Anti-Virus just expried on Oct 31st. and weird stuff like this happens ,last time it expried I had a virus sent to me a couple of days later ,they want $29.99 just to renew the subscription to my 2002 anti virus program . I also have Norton Utilities 2001 , and have spybot search and destroy installed and do daily spybot scans when I log off internet ! Any info or suggestions apreciated ! Thanks Nick

Probably not much help but I found this reference to it here: http://www.sqlcatalog.com/hloader/install.txt Does sqlcatalog mean anything to you?

What about AVG Free Antivirus? Just google for it. No excuse to not be protected. You can avoid many of these Windows problems with Linux. Linspire eases the transition for new users

Trojan.Lodear is a Trojan horse that attempts to download remote files. http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.lodear.html http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.lodear.b.html http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.lodear.c.html http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.lodear.d.html

Trojan.Lodear Removal Tool

I deleted the hloader folder off my system ,I have checked the registry and did not find any trace of this "virus" I have had CoolWebSearch show up B/4 in my spybot scans .However it appears my system is completely clear of this loader.exe. one more thing Iam going to do that I have not done yet is disable system restore and rebooot the re enable it ! I really wish Norton wasnt asking such a high price to renew my subscription for another year. I guess I will go to Best Buy and see what a new version of Norton is selling for ,take it from there ? Iam on a dial up and it appears from what I've read that the dangers fron the hloader are mostly to PC's on a network with cable internet ,always online type of thing ! Thank you to everyone that replied ,I appreciate the input !

Test drive the trial versions of other anti-virus software. That should keep you protected for almost a year. And there are the free ones also. I had 2002 but got sick of the redirector updates, the size of the file was almost like downloading another anti-v program. I also have dial-up. Good luck