Please help with virus?

Hi Jay

The cookies can be from ads on headers or sidebar ads when you visited legit sites. Ever been to a site and seen an ad for that contractor? Could be that is what installed the cookie.

I had problems in the past with hard-to-kill viruses. I found this forum

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=3540...

these guys are awesome. If you follow the directions on this front page, using the tools they recommend, it will get rid of 99% of your problems. After you have done that, if the problem persists, post to their help forum.

All the software they suggest is free, and honestly its better than any paid versions I have ever bought. Yes, it takes a lot of time to follow all of their steps. But believe me its well worth it.

2

Well, you need a new windows system, either Vista or the new one that is just coming out Windows 7. Both those systems have advanced and enhanced anti malware, antivirus and superior firewalls built right into them. You don't need to run anything else in the background.

Windows XP (probably want you have) is a nice system but it has its weaknesses and if you go to a site that is bad, you will have the problems you are experiencing now no matter how good your antivirus program is. You may have to do a system recovery (not fun, takes hours and you will lose everything unless you save it beforehand) or possibly a system restore (easier but not as effective) to an earlier date before you had the problem.

Actually some of that antiviral software brings on even more problems once you start using it. This contrary to what most people believe.

If virus scans and spy/ad ware scans don't remove the issue, then your next logical step is to plan to reformat your hard drive. There are better anti-virus programs out there that may find and remove the issue, but at a cost, and typically with a recurring fee to keep it (and personally I've never found one that removes a full blown virus anyways). What I do is instead of paying for anti-virus, i pay for backup storage, this way should i come across a virus, I can just reformat the drive, reinstall windows, then restore my drive as it was for the last automated backup I had scheduled. The backup service i use i will recomend, it is in no way needed, but saves a lot of hassle. http://www.backupspace.com/

Also make sure you don't format your drive until you have a windows install CD, or you will delete windows and not have a computer at all for the the time being.

Learn more about tracking cookie in here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie

Tracking cookie will always come into your computer whenever you go online.

This is not a harmful thing, sometimes it can also be useful to enable you to access websites.

If all the cookies are being stopped, you may not be able to access websites, even if it is legitimate.

Tracking cookie is not virus, it may be associated with spyware, but it is not really harmful.

1. you can only run one AV - Norton or Avast - delete one.

2. we all get cookies, you can cut down on cookies by blocking third party cookies.

3. all scan are best done in safe mode.

4. use free Ccleaner:

http://www.ccleaner.com/

before reformatting, there's another way to clean things up and making sure nothing is left to chance.

if you guys have a linux savvy tech:

download a linux live cd image online, burn it to a cd and boot from it.

install an evaluation version of mcafee or f-prot antivirus for linux, update the virus databases and run a full hard drive scan.

this has always allowed me to clean systems that have really important data and has saved time and money.

new trojans and malware have the capability to hide, disable or bypass antivirus scans. if you have one of these, then your only option is to boot from a live cd.

since no windows program is running, the malware isn't active at any time and when you're done, reboot and there is nothing to remove since you didn't install anything from the livecd.

Is it a virus or an someone is jumping on your network or your computer by remote access.

Use Malwarebytes to kill it?

Go here for easy step by step directions (~_~)

http://www.malwareexorcism.com/search/label/Use%20...

And if that doesn't do it try this:

http://www.malwareexorcism.com/search/label/Malwar...