I'm having real difficulties with my internet, wondering if any resident computer boffins could lend a hand...

I'm on AOL dial up at present, whenever I try to click on a link, an enlarged pic or anything that will create a seperate screen, a window appears which says 'internet explorer' ar the top and is totally light blue in colour. At that point my computer's frozen and I have to CTR/ALT/DEL to end program.

Any ideas? I'm pretty much completely useless with computers so if my explanation makes no sense I'm not surprised.

You may try the following:

- alternative internet browsers - forefox mozilla is recently a nice one

- remove spyware, adware. Spybot Search & Destroy is a good one - freeware

This probally has to do with spyware as mart7x5 suggested, i can help you when needed. Just download http://www.hijackthis.de

Copy it into a folder on your main hardrive probally C: in the folder HijackThis.

CAUTION!!! Hijack This can delete files that are needed for your internet explorer or things related to it. Do not delete files that you are not sure of

Well i guess you don't know what processes you have to stop in your taskmanager?

Download Ad-Aware 6 SE http://www.lavasoft.de or anyother program, install it and update it.

You first have to go to savemode, reboot and press F8 while the computer is starting up, you will get a dos screen and select safe mode and enter, without network things or anything.

Now you are in safe mode:
Run Ad-Ware or some other anti-spyware program and delete the files that it finds.

restart computer:
Run the hijackthis program and save a logfile into the Hijackthis folder. Select all the text in this logfile and press on copy or something.

Go back to http://www.hijackthis.de and paste the stuff you just copied into the big box named "You can paste a logfile in this textbox".

You will then see things that you should keep and things that need to be deleted. It is also possible that the site doesn't know what those files do, so leave them alone. Just delete the files in hijackthis that this site tells you to, so only the files in red. If you don't trust this, then jsut send me your logfile, and i will tell you which files need to be deleted.

There is only one problem, when these processes are in your taskmanager, then this probally means that some of them won't be deleted this way. Anyway when i am online on msn you can tell me what's wrong with your internet, and i will do anything to help you.

Some other things, please tell me what is installed on your computer in the software folder, you know Start -> Control Panel -> Software It needs the classic look though on XP, because it is easier that way.

Okeey look along the list, and when there are programs that you think belong there, post those names here. And i will tell you which of them need to be deleted.

Anyway for people that are having more trouble with spyware, always try to run anti-spyware programs in safe mode, this is really important, because this way these programs aren't activated. If someone has spyware problems please post them, i am willing to help you.

you think that solves the problem already???

Anyway did you had a fine holiday Gavin?

Nice one. Back to normal.

hmmmm mine did this too, wasnt malware, was just my new installation of windows media edition upgraded with sp2 ... sp2 is just pants

sp2 rocks dont diss it, the security centre is uber

sorry dude i gotta disagree, i had to change it to 50 outbopund connections from ten, i got a buddy who works for a government I.T department and they refuse to put SP2 on, all the security in SP2 is to aid computer first timers who dont know jack about online security, experienced people like us already know how to keep our machines reletively safe, as i was once told by an expert "if an experienced hacker wants into your machine, no matter what you do he will get in" heck sp2 didnt even disable the file and printer sharing protocol in the network setting's nor windows messenger, two of the main access points for a determined experienced hacker. just using those open doors your machine could become infected, become a zombie, used as a gateway or just maliciously deleted one file at a time... plus i fileshare and SP2 knocked my speed down to a piddlin ammount .. i opened it up and now trundle along at around 80kbps, im planning on going back to good old xp SP1,.. if you stay with SP2 i hope you like sherlock holmes cuz ya gonna see an awfull lot of DRWatson

yes i am working in a ICT company, and sometimes i have to install some PC's, and i always try to NOT use SP2. I have read on the internet so much problems with it, so why use it? Drivers stop working, internet or network connections that won't work anymore or won't work fully. Anyway those are a few of the examples that come often with it.

What is your opinion about FireFox and Opera? I mean which browser do you guys prefer and please tell me why. I want to install finally a new browser on my computer and use IE only for certain tasks such as windows updates. This is because of the latest Home Search Assistant, i managed to uninstall it after a few hours but really who wants this ****? So please tell me the pros and cons of these browsers.

i recently tried Opera, id give it a 5 out of 10, it had problems with browser freeze during .. well uh browsing heh .. i went to firefox and havent looked back, its very stable and fast, i havent looked into the technical side but it apears to built on a netscape platform.

I downloaded Microsoft's new Anti-spy where Beta yesterday for one of my windows boxes and I found it works well. It's kept my IE cleaner and more stable.
-Jega

I've read reviews of it, they say that the program doesn't really deleted many cookies, because they are harmless. They also said that it works in most cases better then the free version of Ad-Ware. So i really think that this program has potential.

I haven't found a problem with Microsoft's beta yet, i've run 14 system scans so far, and a complete system scan (on my machine) takes only about 5 minutes. I'm Farly happy
-Jega

yes but now is the question can it delete spyware such as the horrible Home Search Assistant? Or anyother spyware that can prove extremely difficuly to delete. I don't mean the small fish, that we all know of.

Yes theirs one IEloader that nothing gets rid of, so ya theirs limitations to everything, thats why I format my machine about every week (i'm a paranoid)
-Jega

The best thing is to make sure you don't get these on your system. An that is fairly easy. Just tweak IE's settings a little, don't download free screensavers or smiles and such crap, and if you install something always scan the eula for "third party software".

Also I use spywareblaster and ad-aware. Have HijackThis too, but havent been infected for a couple of years at liest. And I'm constantly on the net.

Well i did got these things on my PC, and the main advice from forums is to format your drive, i mean looking for new options is strange for them. I manage to always destroy all the the spyware on my PC, even the once that have proven to be indestructible by some, (although some managed to delete them in time). You idea of tweaking and stuff, will ofcourse not ensure a 100% spyware prove PC. Anti-Spyware software proves to be less effective, only when you scan in Save Mode you have a higher chance to destroy them, but even this is impossible to delete with Home Search Assistant. If anyone wants to try it, you can always search it on the internet and try to delete it on your PC, i am waiting the results.

Something else for the people that know little of HijackThis and stuff, you can always create a log and paste it onto http://www.HijackThis.de . It then Scan's auto in some database and will tell you what you can delete. Something else my advice would be to do this is in savemode, just write down what can be deleted and then press F8 in reboot.

It's really a superb website, even for people that know their way in killing spyware.

i find using "Adware" and "spybot s&d" gets rid of 99.9% of spyware problems, pest patrol is good too as it detects almost all malware even keyloggers and trojans, but it aint free, another usefull tool is pc bug doctor, it detects problems/bugs/errors in your windows installation that can cause some malware type effects, like pest patrol it isnt free.

Since i'm a reading fanatic I bought one of those huge 800 page Windows Security inside and out books, well I've been reading it and their are a ton of little tricks you can do, theirs also little tools from the command prompt that I didn't know existed (one that writes over all unused data portions of your disk with o's then 1's then random numbers so data can't be recovered) and now I want to implement a ton of these things but my systems already 'compromised' so next format, secure system here I come!
-Jega