I have this thing and I can't get rid of it...I'm the type of person who needs every step spelled out for them, so if someone would like to talk through AIM, I will provide them with m y name. I have adaware and spybot...Please help me, I don't want to lose my music through a system restore.
BlindMelonade 0 Newbie Poster
DMR 152 Wombat At Large Team Colleague
Hi BlindMelonade, welcome to TechTalk!
Unfortunately, we do not troubleshoot problems via AIM, email, or other "offsite" methods for a few reasons.
The most important reason for our policy on this is that by keeping the entire troubleshooting history of our members' problem(s) documented in our forums, we create a valuable archive of resources which people from around the world who are seeking answers to computer-related questions can access. Many of our new members have found our site through Google or the like, and we want to be able offer them as much helpful information as possible; if we were to offer solutions to a particular member's question(s) by methods other than our forums, other people would not have access those solutions.
That said- since you indicated that you are infected with some variant of the Home Search Assisant (HSA) parasite, here are some suggestions I posted a while ago for another member who had a similar issue:
Unfortunately, most variants of the Home Search Assistant (HSA) are very difficult to remove. The methods of infection used by HSA variants are constantly evolving/changing, and they have the ability to "morph" the names of the malicious files they use in such a way that the names of those files can change every time you reboot your computer.That being the case, there are no "simple steps" for 100% assured removal.
1. The free utilities "about:buster" and "HSRemove" can remove some of the HSA variants. Download the programs from the following site and run them. Read the instructions on the download pages carefully:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4289.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4286.html
2. At the above site there is also a "spyware" removal tutorial which has more information on general prevention/removal techniques and tools; you should give it a read:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407
2. Download HijackThis:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3155.html
Once downloaded, follow these instructions to install and run the program:
Create a new separate folder on your drive for HijackThis, move the program into thids folder, and run it from there. (Don't run HJT from within any Temp or Temporary Internet folder, and don't run it directly from your desktop.) Do not have HJT fix anything yet, only have it scan your system! Once the scan is complete, the "Scan" button will turn into an option to "Save log...". Save the log in the folder you created for HiajckThis, open the log in Windows Notepad, and cut-n-paste the entire contents of the log here. The log contents will tell us a lot about what "nasties" have crept into your system, and once we analyse the log we can tell you what to do from there.
Please ask us if you have any questions at all about the above and we'll help. Asking is a lot better than clicking the "Wrong Button", after all...
:mrgreen:
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