Last week, after visiting some questionable websites (i.e. a splog that had reprinted one of my blog posts), I unsuspectingly walked away from my computer for a few hours. Yes, occasionally even I walk away from my desk! I didn’t shut down, or even shut my browser down, I never do. I can’t remember the last time my computer spent any real time turned off – probably the last time the power was out for a few hours.
When I returned, my screen was a mass of pop-ups, and other stuff that shouldn’t have been there. I was mortified. I had picked up the rogue spyware program AntiVirus Plus, which had then, in my absence downloaded 43 different trojans in the few hours that I was away.
What a freaking nightmare. My favorite virus scanner Malwarebytes, had somehow been disabled, either by the fake Antivirus Plus, or by one of the trojans, I may never know. I uninstalled and reinstalled it several times, to no avail, everytime the exe file would mysteriously disappear minutes after it finished installing.
Eventually, I got rid of it – them – the whole dang mess, but not until I had spent hours chasing down each trojan I found.
If you get this rogue fake spyware program Antivirus Plus – immediately download Malwarebytes (The free version – I believe the website it http://malwarebytes.org) and run it ASAP, do not leave your computer alone and connected to the internet, or you’ll end up with every trojan known.
After all that I think I desperately need a break, maybe I should join my parents on their upcoming Outer Banks vacation, I could go for a week in NC.
I feel your pain! Somehow the kids computer got infected with Personal Guard 2009. I tried everything to get rid of it. I even tried the Malwarebytes. I couldn’t get rid of the stupid thing and it kept downloading more trojans. Finally I bought an original restore disk off Ebay (we didn’t have one) and now I am just reloading antivirus software. What a pain!
Sandy S.´s last blog ..Meal Plan Monday 11/16
It sucks when it happens – I ended up restoring to the day before I got the virus – so I didn’t really lose anything, other than a few days worth of time messing with it. AntiVirus does the same thing, it downloads every trojan it can find…
So sorry to hear that. Well I hope everything is okay now.
Working great now, thanks to MalwareBytes!
How awful! I am glad you were able to fix it. I had to get a Mac because I got so many viruses. From what I understand, the virus writers don’t often make viruses for Macs. Unfortunately you can get a lot of viruses from visiting Entrecard blogs.
I’ve thought about switching to Mac – but I’m too set in my ways. I love my PCs – I even love the problems that come with them. Of course – I get paid to fix other people’s PCs – so maybe that’s why I like them so much!
Sorry you had trouble, but glad you got it taken care of. What virus protection do you normally use? I’m using a free version of Avast. I used and really liked AVG for years, then I guess they decided they weren’t going to offer the free version any longer.
Anne, the reason Mac’s seem to have fewer virus’s is because there aren’t nearly as many people using them. If everyone switches to Mac they too will have the problems. It’s not that there safer ass people misunderstand, it’s simply the numbers game.
Having a router helps too, vs wireless.
Sandy
sandy´s last blog ..Golf = Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
I run windows defender, that’s the only virus software that runs continuously on my machine. MalwareBytes runs a scan every night while I’m sleeping though. I find that most virus software either slows down your computer too much – or interferes with other programs.