[Roadsters] OT Re: SPAM on roadster list

[Mitchell Planck]

I just cleaned a computer infected by an e-card earlier this week. Start
with Avast, free edition, and download their program update for that.
Install Avast, schedule a boot time scan but don't reboot. Install the
program update then reboot and let it scan. You can register this later if
you want to keep it.

After that get cwshredder.exe from TrendMicro, smitfraudfix.exe, &
Malware-Bytes AntiMalware. (Find these with google)

Reboot into safe mode with networking (reboot and hit F8 until the screen
pops allowing you to pick this). Run cwshredder, smitfraudfix (select
clean), then antimalware (let it update from the Internet).

This combination can clean out most anything. You can also use
superantispyware.exe to further scan.

Check c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts - this file can be read by
notepad and should have only one line that doesn't start with a # sign. It
should be 127.0.0.1  localhost. If there is anything else delete it. This
won't hurt anything.

Try going to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com in Internet Explorer and
installing the latest updates and patches. If the site won't come up (I've
had this happen) it can be caused by a virus. You can also download and run
Windows Defender from Microsoft.

More dangerous (for your computer):
Go into c:\windows\system32, sort by date so most recent is on top.
You will also need to go to the Tools->Folder Options->View and select Show
hidden & system files, and uncheck hide extensions & hide protected
operating system files
This will show new files in this directory. Many bad programs will hide here
with random filenames that end in .exe or .dll but if you delete or rename
the wrong file you can make your computer completely broken so you have to
reinstall windows. BE VERY AWARE OF WHAT YOU DO! These are usually cleaned
out by the other programs so this is a last resort.

Good luck,
Mitch Planck
'69 1600
'70 1600