Re: can't personalise my desktop

On 6/6/2007 2:25 PM On a whim, Tracee L pounded out on the keyboard

I let my son use my laptop, to email a friend. He accessed some website for gamers and, now, all kind of wierd things are going on with my comp. All of a sudden, the background I had loaded, an old X flies wallpapaer, won't show up when I open my desktop. When I try to go back and select the pic again to personalise it, it won't even let me pick a picture. It allows me to select a color for the background, but not a picture. Any ideas? I've got a anti-virus system called BullGuard which, I was told by the person installing it, that he's never had any problems with it. I seem to have all kinds of problems with it. When I scan, sometimes, I end up with eleven or twelve missed viruses...I have to do this all the time, besides having to scan for my spyware... Seems that since I stopped paying for my AOL, all kinds of pop-ups and downloads have been messing up my computer, requiring almost daily scans...and now, this? Got any ideas? please, help...

Hi Tracee,

Sounds more like adware/malware than a virus. If your son went to a game site, he probably downloaded a bunch of stuff that carried a payload (if one reads the agreement before clicking "I Agree) they would probably see the list of items that were installed along with the game)

Here are some suggestions (by Shenan Stanley):

Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the following:

Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 128MB and 512MB. (Betting it is MUCH larger right
now.)
Click OK.
Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.


Turn off System Restore.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310405
Reboot the Computer

Install the first five of these: (Install, Run, Update, Scan with..)
(If you already have one or more - uninstall them and download the
LATEST version from the page given!)

Lavasoft AdAware (Free and up)
http://www.lavasoft.de/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php
(How-to: http://snipurl.com/atdn )

Spybot Search and Destroy (Free!)
http://www.safer-networking.net/en/download/
(How-to: http://snipurl.com/atdk )

SpywareBlaster (Free!)
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/sbdownload.html
(How-to: http://snipurl.com/ate6 )

IE-SPYAD2 (Free!)
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/uiuc/resource.htm#IESPYAD
(How-to: http://snipurl.com/ate7 )

SuperAntiSpyware (Free and up)
http://www.superantispyware.com/

CWShredder Stand-Alone (Free!)
http://www.trendmicro.com/cwshredder/

Hijack This! (Free!)
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
(Log Analyzer: http://hjt.networktechs.com/ )

Bazooka Adware and Spyware Scanner (Free!)
http://www.kephyr.com/spywarescanner/
(How-to: http://snipurl.com/ate3 )

ToolbarCop (Free!)
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/toolbarcop.htm

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Browser Security Tests (Free Tester)
http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/BrowserSecurity/

Popup Tester (Free Tester)
http://www.popuptest.com/

The Cleaner (~$49.95 and up)
http://www.moosoft.com/

Sometimes you need to install the application and reboot into SAFE MODE in order to thoroughly clean your computer. Many applications also have
(or are) immunization applications. Spybot Search and Destroy and
SpywareBlaster are two that currently do the best job at passively
protecting your system from malware. None of these programs (in these
editions) run in the background unless you TELL them to. The space they
take up and how easy they are to use greatly makes up for any inconvenience you may be feeling.

After everything is clean, turn System Restore back on and reboot.

Another option is to use an alternative Web browser. I suggest
'Mozilla Firefox', as it has some great features and is very easy to use: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/


Some alternative anti-virus programs:
AntiVir http://www.free-av.com/
avast! http://www.avast.com/
AVG Anti-Virus System http://free.grisoft.com/

Report back,

--
Terry R.

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