How to Defeated Advertising Popups and Search Engines. LONG
Apparently if you surf some porn sites or some crazy sites, they will install shit in the background, change your start page, and install advertising popups according to what you view (cookies). No matter how many times you change your start page, it will always revert to the same crap (usually some crappy search page). Some of you might know what I am talking about.
First of all, none of the current spyware (adaware, spybot) applications work for crap. Because I tried them all. None had effectively removed this problem. Had to go in manually with flame thrower and destroy these bugs.
Step One: Spyware programs usually run shit in the background. Ctrl-Alt-Del and "End Process Tree" them (works the same way as End Task, but I like this option instead to make sure everything related to that task gets destroyed). If you dont know what they are, just end task most (or all) of the non "System" processes.
Step Two: Run "MSCONFIG" (not available in NT and 2000) and goto the Startup Tab. Make sure you disable everything. Click apply/ok and reboot.
Step Three: Step three is a long step, because these spywares are smart and even when you disabled them on startup, they are still enabled after boot. Run MSCONFIG again and see what processes are still enabled, jot down the path and filename, its time to go deleting.
Like I said, these spywares are smart, you will not find them at their current path. The programmers have them +hidden and +system file as their file attributes. You will need to goto Folder options click on the view tab and select "Show hidden files and folders," and deselect "Hide extensions for known file types" and deselect "Hide protected operating system files."
Now you should effectively see these hidden files. Go ahead and delete them. These files are usually in the Windows and Windows/System32 directory. You might see a whole bunch of hidden files (indicated by a low opacity/ghost icon). Click VIEWS on top right, and select DETAILS. Now you can see the date on which these files where created. Sort your files by date, so most current on top. DELETE EVERY hidden file you find. A prompt will say if you want to delete so-so file, its an operating file, click yes.
WARNING: Deleting files in these folders is dangerous and can destroy your operating system, be careful on which files you choose to delete. Unless you just installed your OS, most files that the OS relies on should be dated. For instance I installed my OS a long time ago, thus all my OS critical files were dated in 2001, I deleted every hidden file dated 2004. Only the hidden files poeple, leave the regulars files alone, they might belong to legit programs.
NOTE: Some files will prompt that they cannot be deleted because an application is using it. First make sure no processes are active, CTRL-ALT-DEL and start End Tasking again. Sometimes there would be no active processes in task manager (these mofos are buried deep). You have to do this yet another way.
STEP THREE, Part Deux: Jot down those filenames that you cannot delete. Reboot and click F8 on boot menu. Choose "Safe mode with command prompt." When the OS boots (in command prompt) Go delete these files. Done and Done.
I have seen a few of these spyware programs and processes run on a few comps. Some spyware programs are actually installed in your Program Files directory. Here are some files you should look out for and delete PRONTO:
\Spyware Programs\
Viewmanager -this requires step3-2
TV View - this requires step3-2
My Search Web
MyShopping
\spyware files and *.dlls\
mdrok.dll
mfacf.exe
mxTarget.dll
systb.dll
twaintec.dll
schedLGU.txt
Then there are also a whole bunch of nonesense *.dll files like iakl.dll, khjsm.dll that belong to these spywares. Just delete them all.
These steps should help you out. I dones more stuff like running REGEDIT and manually editing my Regristry. I dont recommend this unless you really know what you are doing. Hope this helped anyone else. I searched google on these wierd filenames and theres no mention of them anywhere. I assume they change all the time. Thats why there are so many random *.dll files.
Also I recommend you download SPYWAREBLASTER and install that. Should keep you protected from these spyware crap ever installing again. Enjoy.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks