I Need Some Computer Savvy Person To Assist Me!

[Noomi]

Can someone help me out here?

My computer seems to be full of spam and I don't know why. On this site, sometimes in posts, there are words that are underlined, and when I hover my mouse over the word, a window drops down and its a link to a site selling stuff.

Sometimes when I click the link to a thread here, another page opens up and it takes me to a spam site.
I have never have spam on this computer before - a few weeks ago I tried to download Microsoft Office 2010 or something, which I needed in order to view a file I had downloaded from my karate website. It seemed to have added other programs, and while I deleted it and the other programs, they still show up.

When I click on the Firefox button, two windows open up, instead of the one, and a window pops up in each one saying that an installation of something has finished, and I can't do anything until I click 'finish' and the window disappears, and only then can I visit this forum, or any other forum.

I know my computer obviously needs a clean out, but I have no idea how to do it - I want to keep all my passwords and bookmarked sites, including the sites I have in my drop down window at the top of the screen. How do I manage to get rid of this spam shit without getting rid of those?

 

[Noomi]

The words 'computer', 'download' and 'installation' are all underlined for me - is anyone else experiencing this?

 

[Chuckt]

I think you have an infected computer. Do you have any anti-malware software like Malwarebytes?

I think you should turn it off before you do more damage.

 

[Chuckt]

I had to rebuild my computer because malware got on our machine. I installed a new hard drive and had to re-install Windows.

The reason? We had malware on our machine and when I deleted the virus, it destroyed Windows because it embeded itself in Windows so when I got rid of the Virus, I got rid of Windows and my computer wouldn't boot.

You have to be proactive on these things and not re-active. We use Emisoft, Malwarebytes and Webroot (not all at once). Someone is going to tell you not to run more than one anti-malware/virus program at once.

 

[syrenn]

I think you have an infected computer. Do you have any anti-malware software like Malwarebytes?

I think you should turn it off before you do more damage.

I agree noomi

you need to clean your computer and add in malwear softwear.

 

[Noomi]

I had Avast, but it seems to have vanished. It isn't running like it used to.
I will try and download it again, see what happens.

 

[Chuckt]

It is possible that the malware disabled or turned off your Avast.

 

[Noomi]

I just checked. I have Avast installed, and it says 'my system is protected'.

I don't know what is going on.

 

[Chuckt]

You need to update your malware / virus definitions and scan the whole computer. Do a deep scan.

 

[Politico]

AVG getting turned off lol. That program has more tentacles than any virus ever could.

 

[Noomi]

You need to update your malware / virus definitions and scan the whole computer. Do a deep scan.

I don't even know how to do any of that. I know nothing about anti virus software or how to install it. I just want my computer back!

 

[Politico]

Just restore it to an earlier time.

 

[Noomi]

Just restore it to an earlier time.

No idea what you mean.

Going to call my sister. She knows computers lol. Maybe she can fix it.

 

[Chuckt]

I have Malwarebytes and it does a good job but then stuff started showing up. I added a second layer of protection and people rightfully say that I shouldn't run two anti-virus / malware programs at once because they will slow down the computer or interfere with each other. I understand that but I also don't listen.

We have Emisoft at work. My relative uses another program. PCMAG has good reviews on anti-virus programs. You basically want a program that automatically downloads their anti-malware/virus definitions from the cloud because if your definitions aren't up to date, the program can't always deal with what infects your computer.

It is alleged that some companies were designed to combat anti-virus and not malware because they weren't specifically designed to add on malware protection. I think that is EMIsoft's position and I don't know if they say that as their sales pitch but EMI Soft works pretty good.

 

[Chuckt]

Just restore it to an earlier time.

You could try that if it will restore to an earlier date but sometimes that can get disabled for a number of reasons.

 

[alan1]

You need to update your malware / virus definitions and scan the whole computer. Do a deep scan.

I don't even know how to do any of that. I know nothing about anti virus software or how to install it. I just want my computer back!

Purchase a decent package to protect you from malware.

Pick one

Kaspersky Kaspersky Lab US | Antivirus & Internet Security Protection Software
AVG AVG | Virus and Malware Protection | Privacy Protection | PC TuneUp (A good free one)
ZoneAlarm Firewall Antivirus Software and Computer Security Suite by ZoneAlarm

 

[Chuckt]

You need to update your malware / virus definitions and scan the whole computer. Do a deep scan.

I don't even know how to do any of that. I know nothing about anti virus software or how to install it. I just want my computer back!

I think it is best to turn your computer off. You can start your computer from safe mode which means there is nothing bad in the computer's memory and you can use a disk to scan your computer for malware / viruses. When the computer is off, the malware or viruses can't run and continue to do damage to your machine.

 

[Noomi]

You need to update your malware / virus definitions and scan the whole computer. Do a deep scan.

I don't even know how to do any of that. I know nothing about anti virus software or how to install it. I just want my computer back!

Purchase a decent package to protect you from malware.

Pick one

Kaspersky Kaspersky Lab US | Antivirus & Internet Security Protection Software
AVG AVG | Virus and Malware Protection | Privacy Protection | PC TuneUp (A good free one)
ZoneAlarm Firewall Antivirus Software and Computer Security Suite by ZoneAlarm

I can't afford to pay for anything, so I choose the free ones. I have Avast which obviously isn't working, so I might try AVG and see if that works.
I wonder if I should uninstall Avast first...

 

[Politico]

Start menu/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore

Select 'Restore My computer to an earlier time'. Then select a date. Go back a week or more to be safe. Make sure anything you have added to your desktop during that time is moved to your documents folder or it will be erased. In fact go back before you downloaded that shit pile Office program. You don't need it to read a file.

 

[Noomi]

You need to update your malware / virus definitions and scan the whole computer. Do a deep scan.

I don't even know how to do any of that. I know nothing about anti virus software or how to install it. I just want my computer back!

I think it is best to turn your computer off. You can start your computer from safe mode which means there is nothing bad in the computer's memory and you can use a disk to scan your computer for malware / viruses. When the computer is off, the malware or viruses can't run and continue to do damage to your machine.

I'd like to keep posting here, and how does one use safe mode to turn it on? I don't have any disks to scan with either!

Waiting to hear back from my sister. She's at work but she should be able to talk me through this, bit by bit. If not, she will be home in around 4 hours, so I will let her have a play around with it.
Its been infected for the last two weeks, so another few hours won't hurt. If I need to get a new computer, so be it. This one is around 2 years old anyway, lol.