Thanks
DeepC, though I could only find one question on AdStat which hadn't been answered. It's become fairly obvious to me though that it is a nasty, but getting rid of the little bugger has proven rather difficult.
I went through the whole process that Liam described on the major hijack thread, Adaware, Spybot, booting into Safe, deleting Windows temp, rebooting, Ccleaner, reboot, whatever, and a virus check, and still every time I did a HJT scan there it was again.
The main file appears to be in C:/Program Files/Windows/AdStat, or something like that. I deleted that file in safe mode (no idea why except that Liam suggested it ) and while I was there I noticed a little Registry cleaner program I have called RegCleaner which can be downloaded from
here
so I ran that while I was there. It picked out the Adstat file as one to delete, I said go right ahead, and it seems for the moment at least that it has disappeared.
I've also noticed two folders sitting in Program Files called Search Relevancy and Search Relevant. I've deleted both of them, because after reading all these HJT scans I'm becoming paranoid about anything with search in it. :ooh:
(Disclaimer: this advice comes from a non-geek and should be treated with extreme caution)
As an afterthought, I thought I may as well post the final HJT log for the perusal of the experts.
Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.0
Scan saved at 10:56:59 PM, on 2/3/2005
Platform: Windows XP SP1 (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP1 (6.00.2800.1106)
Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\System32\hkcmd.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\carpserv.exe
C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPLpr.exe
C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.exe
C:\Program Files\CA\eTrust EZ Armor\eTrust EZ Antivirus\CAVTray.exe
C:\Program Files\CA\eTrust EZ Armor\eTrust EZ Antivirus\CAVRID.exe
C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe
C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunesHelper.exe
C:\Program Files\CA\eTrust EZ Armor\eTrust EZ Antivirus\ISafe.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\ADAPTE~1\CreateCD\CREATE~1.EXE
C:\Program Files\MSN Messenger\MsnMsgr.Exe
C:\Program Files\FinePixViewer\QuickDCF.exe
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\OSA.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\webshots.scr
C:\Program Files\CA\eTrust EZ Armor\eTrust EZ Antivirus\VetMsg.exe
C:\Program Files\iPod\bin\iPodService.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\wuauclt.exe
C:\HJT\hijackthis.exe
O2 - BHO: AcroIEHlprObj Class - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {1D7E3B41-23CE-469B-BE1B-A64B877923E1} - (no file)
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {53707962-6F74-2D53-2644-206D7942484F} - C:\Program Files\Spybot - Search & Destroy\SDHelper.dll
O2 - BHO: Google Toolbar Helper - {AA58ED58-01DD-4d91-8333-CF10577473F7} - c:\program files\google\googletoolbar3.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [IgfxTray] C:\WINDOWS\System32\igfxtray.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HotKeysCmds] C:\WINDOWS\System32\hkcmd.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [CARPService] carpserv.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SynTPLpr] C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPLpr.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SynTPEnh] C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [REGSHAVE] C:\Program Files\REGSHAVE\REGSHAVE.EXE /AUTORUN
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [CaAvTray] "C:\Program Files\CA\eTrust EZ Armor\eTrust EZ Antivirus\CAVTray.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [CAVRID] "C:\Program Files\CA\eTrust EZ Armor\eTrust EZ Antivirus\CAVRID.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AdaptecDirectCD] "C:\Program Files\Adaptec\Easy CD Creator 5\DirectCD\DirectCD.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QuickTime Task] "C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [iTunesHelper] C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunesHelper.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [CreateCD50] C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\ADAPTE~1\CreateCD\CREATE~1.EXE -r
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [MsnMsgr] "C:\Program Files\MSN Messenger\MsnMsgr.Exe" /background
O4 - Startup: Webshots.lnk = C:\Program Files\Webshots\Launcher.exe
O4 - Global Startup: Exif Launcher.lnk = C:\Program Files\FinePixViewer\QuickDCF.exe
O4 - Global Startup: Office Startup.lnk = C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\OSA.EXE
O8 - Extra context menu item: &Google Search - res://c:\program files\google\GoogleToolbar3.dll/cmsearch.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Backward Links - res://c:\program files\google\GoogleToolbar3.dll/cmbacklinks.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Cached Snapshot of Page - res://c:\program files\google\GoogleToolbar3.dll/cmcache.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Similar Pages - res://c:\program files\google\GoogleToolbar3.dll/cmsimilar.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Translate into English - res://c:\program files\google\GoogleToolbar3.dll/cmtrans.html
O9 - Extra button: Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\MSMSGS.EXE
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Windows Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\MSMSGS.EXE
O16 - DPF: {4F1E5B1A-2A80-42CA-8532-2D05CB959537} (MSN Photo Upload Tool) -
http://by102fd.bay102.hotmail.msn.co...s/MsnPUpld.cab
O16 - DPF: {5D9E4B6D-CD17-4D85-99D4-6A52B394EC3B} (WSDownloader Control) -
http://www.webshots.com/samplers/WSDownloader.ocx
O16 - DPF: {B38870E4-7ECB-40DA-8C6A-595F0A5519FF} (MsnMessengerSetupDownloadControl Class) -
http://messenger.msn.com/download/Ms...Downloader.cab
O23 - Service: CAISafe - Unknown - C:\Program Files\CA\eTrust EZ Armor\eTrust EZ Antivirus\ISafe.exe
O23 - Service: iPod Service - Apple Computer, Inc. - C:\Program Files\iPod\bin\iPodService.exe
O23 - Service: VET Message Service - Computer Associates International, Inc. - C:\Program Files\CA\eTrust EZ Armor\eTrust EZ Antivirus\VetMsg.exe
Hmm, one further edit, I had a look at that and decided I didn't like the look of the O2 - BHO: (no name) - {1D7E3B41-23CE-469B-BE1B-A64B877923E1} - (no file) so I deleted that as well.
what on earth am I doing?