Had several viruses on my laptop. Installed Avast and that took care of them. However, how do I get that annoying DANGER SPYWARE message box off of my desktop?
Hope this is not a dumb question… :
Liz
Hi :
Apparently Avast took care of ONLY PART of the problem; that is why we usually recommend using other programs, such as Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware
( www.malwarebytes.org/mbam/php ) AND/OR "SUPERAntiSpyware
( www.superantispyware.com ) , BOTH of which come in FREE Version(s) .
P.S. There are few, if any, computer “viruses” nowadays .
Does it actually say “DANGER SPYWARE”?
Are you sure this message is from avast?
I believe this is basically a rogue/fake security alert that usually advises you visit a site or download software to do a scan, don’t do either as you will either be properly infected or conned out of cash, the process of which could also steal your details.
Run both of the applications suggested by Spiritsongs, preferably from safe mode and report the findings (contents of the log files) here.
Booting into safe mode http://www.pchell.com/support/safemode.shtml
I suggest:
- Clean your temporary files.
- Schedule a boot time scanning with avast with archive scanning turned on. If avast does not detect it, you can try DrWeb CureIT! instead.
- Use SUPERantispyware, MBAM or Spyware Terminator to scan for spywares and trojans. If any infection is detected, better and safer is send the file to Quarantine than to simple delete them.
- Test your machine with anti-rootkit applications. I suggest avast! antirootkit or Trend Micro RootkitBuster.
- Make a HijackThis log to post here or this analysis site. Or even submit the RunScanner log to to on-line analysis.
- Disable System Restore and then reenable it again.
- Immunize your system with SpywareBlaster.
- Check if you have insecure applications with Secunia Software Inspector.