I keep restoring my machine to a time prior to getting the stupid associated ‘smileys we love’ toolbar from Delta whatever, and I get reinfected weeks later!!! Go figure. I can’t track the source of the infection.
This is embarrassing :-[ as I’m a Sysadmin with 6 years experience and my only saviour is my backups, which are clean, and the bare bones of my system with just the essentials, like Win 8, MS Office and Chrome, drivers, Avast (paid for Internet Security version), Acronis and that’s about it…
I originally got the infection from Foxit PDF converter - so stay away from that one!!! Even when you say no to the toolbar it installs anyway.
So the toolbar was never installed at the time I backed up, and my backup is clean as a whistle. I keep getting a new infection from an unknown source. I’m the only user on this laptop, and I NEVER just click something without reading carefully what I’m installing. I rarely install anything full stop. I’ve researched some of the sources for the darned ‘smileys we hate’ and can safely say I’ve never come across them, nor am I likely to use any of the other types of payload/sources .
Why can’t Avast clean this scurge? The first good AV I come across the can clean it effectively will get my money! I’m ready to change. I’ve had to restore my machine 5 times :-(, and included the disk signatures to ensure I get rid of all traces of this repeat horror. I’m really angry that Avast doesn’t deal with this invasion.
Is there anyone out there from AVAST who is prepared to comment on why AVAST doesn’t/cannot clean this threat?
This is embarrassing :-[ as I'm a Sysadmin with 6 years experience
then you should know that this is not a threat
this is classed as PUP = not virus / Possible Unwanted Program … usually crap that comes bundled with freeware downloads
avast PUP detection is default off…exept for in boot scan…so if you want PUP detection, turn it on
After examining the details outlined in your responses, I was able to identify a ‘Add on’ in Chrome for ‘Smileys emoticons’
On this basis I believe I may’ve found the source of the mysterious reinfections.
The symptoms have been serious enough to make browsing impossible. The smileys we love banners cover images on web sites making browsing completely useless on most sites. It’s far from a ‘Possible’ unwanted program, and is insidious.
Sadly the fixes outlined would take almost as long as the reloading of software from scratch… I just have to bite the bullet and make a new image from scratch, so I have a nice fresh image to roll back to in the future, should I require it
Sadly the fixes outlined would take almost as long as the reloading of software from scratch.... I just have to bite the bullet and make a new image from scratch, so I have a nice fresh image to roll back to in the future, should I require it :-)
if you attach OTL log from this guide http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=53253.0
then one of the malware removal experts here will remove it for you…
I keep restoring my machine to a time prior to getting the stupid associated ‘smileys we love’ toolbar from Delta whatever, and I get reinfected weeks later!!! Go figure. I can’t track the source of the infection.
