[katika]

My laptop had a worm in it, according to what the virus scan said, although the worm wasn't really the problem. It was actually the virus scanner, since it kept using up memory and then making the computer shut down due to low memory. So far I've deleted the "VIRUS" file in my C: drive, but i still think that the worm is in the computer cause it is really slow and internet explorer won't let me set my homepage to google, it keeps reseting it to msn. The anti-virus pop-up has disappeared, so it isn't eating away memory, but my start menu has nothing in it. I did go to download.com to get anti-viral programs, but windows says it's not authorized to open it. So is there anyway that i can clean up the rest of the worm? Thanks

[awdark]

oh that sounds really bad..

O_o anyone think theres hope in a system restore?
Perhaps Safe mode + virus scan might clear it out.

[katika]

Is there a way i can do a system restore?
I went into safemode and ran the anti-virus software, but now my computer is really really slow....

[awdark]

System restore is stored at

%SystemRoot%\System32\restore\rstrui.exe

so you could run that.

or go to C:\WINDOWS\system32\Restore and run rstrui.exe

O_oa is that what you wanted?

[Fishscene]

My laptop had a worm in it, according to what the virus scan said, although the worm wasn't really the problem. It was actually the virus scanner, since it kept using up memory and then making the computer shut down due to low memory.

So far I've deleted the "VIRUS" file in my C: drive, but i still think that the worm is in the computer cause it is really slow and internet explorer won't let me set my homepage to google, it keeps reseting it to msn.

Those two quotes tell me that you had a worm, but you were able to delete it.

I have never ever heard of a computer shutting down because it was out of system memory. I know because I have completely overloaded it before. You probably have some other malware on your system that's doing this.

Anyway, it seems to me that you are in desperate need of a a couple of programs.

1) New antivirus. If your computer is hijacked to the point where you can't install new files. You need a new virus scanner
I recommend either:
Avast!: ( http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html )
AVG: ( http://free.grisoft.com/doc/5390/lng/us/tpl/v5 )
2) LavaSoft Ad-aware ( http://www.download.com/3405-8022-5153545....dl&tag=top5 )
3) Spybot Search and destroy ( http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html )

Go ahead and boot into safe mode (with networking) and download and install these.
And by the way, go ahead and clean up ANYTHING that these programs find.

Let us know how it turns out


*edit*
In truth awdark, I've never ever used system restore. Except for once on a Dell laptop because we needed important files off of it, but Dell kept telling us to use the oem cd to wipe everything out and start over.

But go ahead and use System restore and see if that works.

[awdark]

@Fishscene
I have found System Restore to be an invaluable utility. Before firefox I got a lot of spyware. And I distinctly recall killing spyware individually and it was a pain in the butt.
System restore undoes dll and exe files that were modified... so things that were installed gets uninstalled. Downloaded apps sometimes go away too. But it undoes a lot of the damage. Definitely not as good as a ghost image but it can often save you a LOT of work and fusteration.

That along with XP repair install are the two LEAST destructive methods to fix computers and since most of us soompiers never do system backups, data preservation with repairing the system are my primary concerns.

SOMETIMES system restore does fail if the restore files were infected as well. But if thats the case, I would consider the data a total loss anyways. If it does get infected, you could disable the system restore. Then continue with the antivirus, anti-worm... etc to kill the virus but thats at the point where its too much time to fix so just wipe the drive.