Ok, I've got a serious adware problem! Anything I do will not make them go away. I'm sure it's a browser hijacker because it shows up every time I open IE at the bottom tool bar it pops up and I can close it but it always come back every single time I open IE. It has also added 7 icons to my desktop. They are: "Website Hosting", "Bingo", "Casino Online","Printer Cartridges", "Card Games", "Poker", and "Travel". I cannot delete or even move these icons. I can't even right click on them. Only thing I can do to them is open them and they take me to a web page dealing with the corresponding name. I've tried opening Windows Task Manager on start-up and trying to wacth what the name is when they load but no luck. Although, when I end IE in the Processes tab they go away but of course IE opens itself back up and they come back within a few seconds. Thats why I think it is in IE. I read the sticky at the top of the fourms on how to get rid of hijackers but no luck with that either. I've ran Spybot Search and Destroy, Adaware, and Microsoft's new antispyware programs but no luck with that either. So, could someone please tell me a program or anything that will get rid of these critters once and for all...please!
Go to this site. http://www.hijackthis.de Select the Direct download or mirror links to download the HijackThis software. Unzip and run. Select Do a system scan and save a logfile. Copy the text from the logfile and paste in the textbox on that same site. Click Analyze button. The site will analyze the logfile and give helpful suggestions about what is safe and what is not. You will have to look at the information carefully and figure out what can and needs to be removed. Put a check in the box(s) in the HijackThis software that correspond to the what is to be removed, and the click the Fix checked button. If you are not sure what you should remove even after the site give you the analysis, then post the logfile text here also and someone should be able to help you.
I did just that and still they exist. It showed about 5 "Nasty" files and I fixed them but no luck. I even deleted "Unecessary" and some "Unknown" files. Thanks for the link though.
download cwshredder & run it to see if it finds anything. check your msconfig/startup for anything not to be there but watch what you uncheck
Try Spyware Doctor. It found several items the aformentioned programs did not. http://www.download.com/Spyware-Center/2001-2023_4-0.html?tag=dir Also, consider using Fire Fox. You mentioned you are using IE. Get it here: http://www.mozilla.org/ Another program you might want to consider is: Registry First Aid. Try this link http://www.digitalriver.com/se_creative/landing_page/pcworld/pcworld_rev3_v2.html
You could also try a online scan from anti virus sites, Trendmicro etc. http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ This tool will also scan for adware.
