"Search Protector's".......... Alert!

[PPRuNe Pop]

Yep! That's what they call them. 'Wajam' 'Bling' 'Conduit' and others all STUFFED on your computer whether you like it or not. Problem is I don't remember what it was I loaded that halted my computer as though a brick wall was in the way.


I spent something over two hours looking for 'strangers' and lo and behold a programme call Optimizer Pro, which I did NOT seek or download suddenly appeared amongst those above.


IE crashed, Live Mail crashed, and other progs just would not open.


I decided to do a system restore and even that was made useless!


I restarted and that made no difference.


Then I sought the help of Malware - it found 198 PUP's including ALL of the above.


I simply gave them a tick and got rid of them. Malware then threw up and urgent 're-start' - very urgent.


Then tried to open everything that was corrupted before - and job done!


These programmes that invade us should be dealt with as a real enemy. I will keep looking to see if they get back that's for sure.


The principal is that these so called search protectors STOP you using the
what YOU want.


PPP

[The Flying Pram]

I decided to do a system restore and even that was made useless!

I've never had much success with SR. I now use Easeus Todo Backup, and take regular "Images" of the O/S partition. If this becomes so screwed up that you can't boot, or access the program, it will also run directly off a CD which you can make when first installing the programme.

Note - from the above, you will (hopefully) be aware that I have the O/S and "My documents" on separate partitions - in fact, on this machine they are on different drives. I also do regular backups of those files, but it's inevitably a much larger size, and keeping the two apart means an O/S restore only takes minutes.

[mad_jock]

pop are you running in a normal user account or an admin account?

And if you are using a normal user account do you have to put in the admin password every time you install anything?

[PPRuNe Pop]

MJ - I am running a normal user account. No passwords are required in that case. I am seeing where are coming from though.


What bothers me, and it applies to others, is that it happened so quickly and messed things up big time.


PPP

[Keef]

'Tis a major worry.

I have the operating system and all the "programmes" on an SSD drive C.
I try to stop the "major churners" from using that for their data. They think they're using drive C, but the PC knows to shift them quietly elsewhere.

My "stuff" is on a conventional hard drive D, and e-mails, iTunes, and other such on another hard drive. They all get backed up on a rota to four different external drives. I think the theory is that the Windows backup could recreate my drive C if anything hosed it, but I bet that's not the case in reality.

[mad_jock]

you need to set up your user account control so that it prompts you for the admin password for any changes.

When it does go, things do happen very quickly. Trick is to lock things down so no changes can be done without you knowing about it.

[onetrack]

PPRuNe Pop - I use Emsisofts Online Armor program, it detects all that nasty malware, blocks it, and alerts you it is trying to install.
In a large proportion of cases, OA just refuses to let it through, because it recognises it as a known nasty.
You need something like this program looking over your shoulder at all times. It's saved me a lot of angst and hours of repairing.
I got caught quite a few years ago with that nasty and notorious Russian scam mob, Winspy - and I swore I'd never get caught again.
What make it hard is that most of these malware businesses are quasi-legit, with little legal recourse to hit them with criminal charges - but they're scammers, nonetheless.

[mad_jock]

thing is if you basic security isn't there your about stuffed.

That's why you need to lock down with admin password required for software installations.

That alone solves 99% of the problems.