A few days ago I accidentally inadvertently clicked upon a popup ad that I was trying to get rid of and a black screen appeared on my desktop replacing my wallpaper with a message that still reads, 'Warning, your computer is infected!

How the hec do I get rid of this ruddy thing?

I am fairly new to computers, therefore, at this stage will not go into areas of the computer where I have no knowledge. I have tried using various tools to assist me to change this situation, get it back to normal, to no avail so far.

I have on the computer Symantec Premier System Tools 2005 + AVG Grisoft free edition, also running Spybot Search and Destroy, Adaware, CWShredder, AdwareAway, SpySubtract, Trojan Remover, SysClean and finally Norton GoBack.

An hour or so ago I ran the Trojan Remover, at least the computer after running this speeded up considerably, prior to this it was attaining web pages dead slow.

The computer is a Compaq PIII.

Please be patient with me if you would be so kind, walk me through the process and please help to get this machine; virus, trojan, doodah this and doodah that, completely free of all this crap that seems to have found it's way on here.

Would really appreciate professional experience upon this from someone trustworthy.

Please keep it as simple as possible.

Thank you ever so much for your time and consideration.

All the best!!

Mark

Download HijackThis selfextracting zip version from here. Once downloaded, double click on the file & it will install into it's own, permanent folder.
Start HJT & press the "Do a system scan and save a log file" button. When the scan is finished a window will pop up giving you the option of where to save it. Save it to desktop where it is easy to access. Open the log file and copy the entire contents of the file & paste it into the body of your post. DO NOT FIX ANYTHING YET. Most of what is there is necessary for the running of your system.

Thanbk you for taking the time to assist with this.

You say that once I have downloaded the self extracting zip file (done) to double click on the file something or other. How do I do this? What do I click on next?

Thank you for your patience!!

Mark

Hi. Just double click on the file you downloaded and follow the prompts. It should self install to C:\Program Files\HijackThis
Go to that location and double click on hijackthis.exe and then follow the instructions from my previous post .

Some of what you say makes sense, the rest is like the French language, however - Do I now copy and paste the contents into my next reply or ought I to put the dooberry somewhere else? My apologies for my complete lack of computer language!! Appreciate your help and thank you for getting back to me.

So I take it you have scanned with hijackthis and have a log that it created? If so, open the text file and then highlight the entire text by pressing Ctrl+A together. All text should now be highlighted. Now press Ctrl+C and the text will be copied to the clipboard. Hit the reply button here and then press Ctrl+V and the text will be copied here.

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Click "Start", "Settings", and then click "Control Panel". Open the "Display" applet.
Click on "Desktop", "Customise Display..." and "Web".
In the box under "Web pages" look for a checkbox named "Security". If found select it and click "Delete".

Not sure that I have / am doing the right thing here, but here goes:

http://www.hijackthis.de/index.php#anl

I'm not sure either . Did you download from the link that I gave you? What you posted there was an online scanner. I gave you a link for the actual hijackthis program to install on your pc. If you go to other threads here, you will see what is needed to be posted .
Did you try the other suggestion from my previous post?

Ok I cocked up I can see that, my apologies.

I followed your instructions ( I think (hopefully)):

Click "Start", "Settings", and then click "Control Panel". Open the "Display" applet.
Click on "Desktop", "Customise Display..." and "Web".
In the box under "Web pages" look for a checkbox named "Security". If found select it and click "Delete".

Clicked Start, clicked Settings, went into Control Panel, clicked on Display, so far so good, that made sense, but where the ruddy dickens is Customise Display, not showing up, hmmmmmmmm my apologies for being just ever so slightly thick as five short planks of wood, but what now? :rolleyes:

Oh my giddy aunt, computer language is more baffling than bloomin French!!

Aghhhhhhh!!! You poor sod putting up with me!!

Can we get this any simpler?

I've edited this section for I was not sure whether it was wise to post the entire logfile here. Is that what you need me to do?

Apologies for being so cantankerous.