Sounds like a job for "Super Zonker"--

install and run malwarebyte's antimalware (its free, just get it off the net). can't call at the moment, but may have time tomorrow to help if you still have probs. normally other ppl on here good with PCs so they should be able to sort you out! 

@charlie (bowing) thanks, man.

@g great advice, and exactly what I also suggested

@lana you were good to get to Safe Mode and do a System Restore. Fingers crossed that it works, but still do the Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware scan and I would recommend a complete anti-virus scan, as well, with your Avast.

If that hasn't solved everything, then please don't hesitate to call/write. +41.79 783.09.90

When you are sorted, I would recommend Avast! Home Edition - its free and I've never had an issue with a virus of any kind, nor have any of my friends/family who I have recommend Avast to.

First, disconnect your laptop from the internet.

Second, I advise you to clean up your system via bios, i.e. without launching windows.

For this, download this > http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

burn it into a cd and run it when you boot your laptop (see for the special button that will take you to thee bios, it's usually shows before windows starts up. It should be either F11 or F12).

once you've booted from the cd, run the right anti-virus. Then restart your pc to see if the problem is resolved.

Once you've removed the malware, I advise you to install Microsoft Security Essentials, which is available free of charge from this website (choose the right one for your system): http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security_essentials/default.aspx

Good luck!

To extend what Elizabeth said, and this is for *everyone*, there are three excellent anti-virus programs that are COMPLETELY FREE: AVG, Avast and Avira. They can all be downloaded from download.com where they are consistently in the top 10 downloads.

For personal and home use, there is NO REASON TO PAY MONEY FOR AN ANTI-VIRUS program. The three listed above are more than adequate and you can save your money on the yearly subscription for Norton, Kaspersky, McAfee, and the like.

Additionally, I recently (last year) learned that there is a whole category of "gremlins" that the anti-virus programs won't catch, because they aren't viruses, trojan horses, or whatever. That's why Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware (MBAM) is a good complimentary program. I've had client computers which were scanned by numerous anti-virus programs with no infections found, but MBAM found several files which were causing problems. Cleaned 'em out and the system worked wonderfully.

That being said, all these programs lose much of their effectiveness if the account you use day-to-day is an Administrator account and/or if you have no password on your User Accounts.

So, in summary, this is how I *always* configure Windows computers

1. One Admin account with strong password that I *only* use to install/uninstall programs.

2. All other accounts (Albert, Bob, Calvin, Detlef, Mom, Dad, etc.) are "Standard" or "Limited" accounts, but also with strong passwords.

3. Install AVG and run a complete scan

4. Install Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and run a complete scan.

If you do this with a new or clean system, you won't suffer from system slowdowns, gremlins getting into your system, etc. It'll be smooth sailing.

Even for a Windows computer. ;) <evil grin>

Lana, there's good advice here, but I recommend taking it to one of the folks on the thread. The cleaning and resecuring of your system can be done in about an hour (burn CD, scan, clean, restore checkpoint, rescan, resecure).

After that is done:

Good security maintenance site, which checks your plugins for holes and which you should run once a day: https://browsercheck.qualys.com/ (Firefox or 32-bit Internet Explorer)

I would also install McAfee's SiteAdvisor and Web of Trust, which would likely have warned you against the infected download in the first place, by way of a red stoplight.

When your computer is as secured, as it can get this week, I recommend considering a privacy protector.

Looking forward, there's value in using a virtual machine to browse in, as you can always reset just the virtual machine and not have your whole machine infected.

Hello I repair computers for a living and have seen this before.  

I sugest you try the procedures outlined on this link:

http://www.wiki-security.com/wiki/Parasite/MSRemovalTool

If your still having trouble you could always call me. 

Good luck!

...Bob

079 402 96 71

I also regularly use Wise Registry Cleaner Pro to avoid slowdowns. It re ally gave my 2009 laptop a second youth:)

Dear co-Glocals,

Thank you all for your precious advice, the problem is solved!

Lana 

Virtual machine?  

It's a program, that emulates a whole PC, in which you can install another copy of Windows or Linux, for example. Despite it being a complete "second" PC, it really doesn't take up a lot of space - normally 10GB at most, and most modern PCs can run a virtual machine for internet browsing easily.

The advantage is that this virtual PC is isolated from your real PC (the "host"), meaning that, if it gets infected, your documents on your host PC will be a lot safer. This is where the safety comes from. Virtual machines can, in most cases, simply be copied and so it is easy to have a "clean" copy to start from, if you get a virus in one of your virtual machines.

Some call it virtualization, or a hypervisor. The most used virtualizers are: Virtualbox by Oracle/Sun and VMWare Player by VMWare. Both free to play with and use. Both pretty easy, too.

Another usable technique is "sandboxing" your browser, so anything it does, will be reverted, when it closes.

That about sums it up ;)

Get A Virus Free Computer ;) instead of doing all this stuff (mentioned above)