Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

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Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby GeoffSmith » Sat 17.01.2009, 17:41

There is a fairly sophisticated virus that mutates once it infects your pc (see BBC) which makes it very difficult to eradicate. Far better to avoid getting it by installing Microsoft's security patch NOW to prevent infection.
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Re: Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby tweetdriver63 » Sat 17.01.2009, 17:56

If you have Windows automatic updates, you should already have the patch. My Vista notebook shows it was installed on Oct 25th. Go to Control Panel/Programs and Features/Installed Updates and look for "Security Update for Microsoft Windows (KB958644)." Based on what I saw at the Microsoft website, it should have the same Knowledge Base identifier (KB958644) in all Windows versions.
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Re: Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby Specky » Sat 17.01.2009, 18:21

At the time it just walked through most firewalls...

Here's some more information

http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default. ... s_k=153710

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Re: Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby GeoffSmith » Tue 20.01.2009, 00:29

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Re: Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby dapinky » Tue 20.01.2009, 11:46

Just a quick warning - if i've sent you anything since 10th January, treet it with suspicion!

Computer nerd ba$tards :twisted:

I'm (was?) running a Dell lappy with Vista Home Premium, obtained in August last year. Always got the download updates, and running with Norton 360 activated....

I got the 'patch' downloaded last October as part of the normal protocol.

Last week the 'puter froze a couple of times and needed to be manually switched off - I thought nothing of it........then it wouldn't remember to log me on to sites - I have LEC 'unread posts' as my home page on Firefox - but everytime i clicked the icon, got directed to the login page, despite checking the 'remember me' box. Same with 'Facebook' and others...

Windows then downloaded a 'Malicious Software Removal' tool automatically, which did a few magic things which i don't understand.

By now I was thinking something was wrong, so ran a full virus scan. 3 'conficker' worms and one Trojan Horse were discovered and removed :evil:

I don't know how they got in there as I have always had good AV software, but they sneaked in somehow :?

Anyhow, i went to 'system restore' but the virus had obviously beaten me well to it, and the earliest restore point available was 10/01/09. I tried a couple of restores, but after each one the machine told me to sod off! (well, it actually said 'restore action not completed, no files changed').

By now i was most unhappy!

I have a recent(ish) back up of my files and settings, so i have done another one onto external HDD and intended to do a full 'factory restore'.

THE MACHINE WON'T LET ME ! ! ! ! !

It came without any restore discs, and everything is on the 'D' drive partition, so when i went to that one, and clicked the button, it told me that the 'restore facility' is unavailable.

Now, i am about to get on the web to see what my options are, but if anyone has any ideas, feel free to shout up (i still have interweb at work and on other laptop).

Failing all that, how can i re-install Vista without paying for it?

Or do I just try and re-format the HDD and stick XP Pro on it?


Anyway, by my reckoning, i got this infection on 10th January 2009 (based on when the machine started playing up, and the earliest available restore point). I appreciate that it could have lain dormant in the system for days, weeks or months (is that right?) before waking up recently....

....my warning to you all, check your 'system restore' (Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Restore Centre) and make sure you can still restore to a previous set point/automatic checkpoint - if you can, update everything a do a back-up NOW.
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Re: Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby Specky » Tue 20.01.2009, 20:25

and the worst bit, If you don't patch it.... the virus will...thus hiding it...

It has now infected over 10 million computers

Also there are different varients of this virus..

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Re: Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby Exbury » Sat 28.02.2009, 15:53

Can you get a 'copy' of Windows and install that but use your original license code, thereby using a copy product admittedly but with a legal code?

No idea, but another in-depth scan is needed I feel.

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Re: Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby Jackonicko » Sat 28.02.2009, 20:19

Just buy a Mac!
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Re: Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby nitroman » Sun 01.03.2009, 04:31

I use AVG. It's the first time something got past that firewall. They had it fixed in a couple of days though; one partial patch the next day, then the following day a complete fix. This all happened the weekend prior.

So I can say, if you load & then run the AVG tool it should clean up your computer. Thus you'd need not restore from a backup.
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Re: Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby saska » Sun 01.03.2009, 17:10

I'm (was?) running a Dell lappy with Vista Home Premium
...
It came without any restore discs, and everything is on the 'D' drive partition, so when i went to that one, and clicked the button, it told me that the 'restore facility' is unavailable.

Failing all that, how can i re-install Vista without paying for it?

Or do I just try and re-format the HDD and stick XP Pro on it?


Need Model number of Dell. It may well have a restore partition which can be accessed during BIOS screens (when you first startup, before Windows starts loading). You can't do the restore from within Windows. There are various key combinations to try - CTRL+F11,Alt+F10, Alt+F11, F11. If none of these work you could also try tapping F8 once per second after the Dell Logo screen at startup to get into the Safe Mode etc. menu. At the bottom there may be a Full System Restore.

Need the Dell latop model number to find out for sure.

BTW. On any machine that runs vista, XP Pro will fly. Also I believe Norton 360 to be buggy as hell and much prefer Kaspersky or NOD32 for anti-virus.
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Re: Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby esprit888 » Sun 01.03.2009, 19:26

I agree, three AV programs, including AVG, missed this bugger but Kaspersky kicked its a** out right away

saska wrote:
I'm (was?) running a Dell lappy with Vista Home Premium
...

BTW. On any machine that runs vista, XP Pro will fly. Also I believe Norton 360 to be buggy as hell and much prefer Kaspersky or NOD32 for anti-virus.
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Re: Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby The Ref » Sun 01.03.2009, 19:52

esprit888 wrote:I agree, three AV programs, including AVG, missed this bugger but Kaspersky kicked its a** out right away

saska wrote:
I'm (was?) running a Dell lappy with Vista Home Premium
...

BTW. On any machine that runs vista, XP Pro will fly. Also I believe Norton 360 to be buggy as hell and much prefer Kaspersky or NOD32 for anti-virus.



I have used nod32 for a year with my dell xps m1710 it is very good, and never let me down.

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Re: Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby dapinky » Mon 02.03.2009, 16:21

Sorry, I should have updated this thread when i fixed it!

I had tried all the usual key cobinations to get to a 'factory reinstall' page through BIOS, but nothing would do it - ended up getting someone to loan me a set of Dell disks, re-formatted the HDD, and did a full 'Ghost' from my back-up drive.

Then i ditched Norton 360 and went back to AVG - no problems since.
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Re: Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby lotos » Mon 02.03.2009, 18:15

My only real complaint about AVG is that it really seems to slow down a lot of things. Downloads, P2P, sending email, etc. I know it's sort of a necessary evil, but it's very noticeable.
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Re: Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby GeoffSmith » Tue 03.03.2009, 14:13

:agree: I eventually ditched AVG and went for Avast! which is a professional product available free for home use - you just need to re-register (free) annually. Noticeably less intrusive than AVG apart from the American accented ..... "Your virus database has been updated"!
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Re: Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby RayD » Tue 03.03.2009, 15:27

Me too...two years ago...it's been no trouble.

Anyone with a slow machine might benefit from having a look what they have in “Start Up”

Go to Start ...Run...type msconfig...click Start Up
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Re: Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby muley » Fri 06.11.2009, 01:17

RayD wrote:Me too...two years ago...it's been no trouble.

Anyone with a slow machine might benefit from having a look what they have in “Start Up”

Go to Start ...Run...type msconfig...click Start Up



To cut a very long story short. I've been having a whole host of problems with my old PC.

I have now got rid of the 'scottish' antivirus software and installed avast (see previous post) and run msconfig (this post). I was amazed at the number of tasks that were running so I chopped them all out apart from avast and the difference is STAGGERING! :D

Ray, I owe you a pint - thanks a million!

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Re: Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby RayD » Fri 06.11.2009, 10:29

Thanks Jim,

What you can do now is download “msconfigcleanup” then you’ll be able to remove the list of un-ticked items from startup ... apparently it lessens the chances of them starting back up on their own.

On restarting the machine for the first time a System Configuration box pops up ... tick the box ... “Don’t show this message......” and click OK.

Ray
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Re: Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby RayD » Sat 13.02.2010, 16:03

I haven’t seen this phenomenon first hand so it may seem a bit vague …

I’d emailed my next door neighbour a picture of his car covered in 8” of snow – he’d been in Tenerife at the time – It’s not clear if the picture was visible on the page as it would be on mine – but he clicked the attachment and it opened up in Picture and Fax Viewer – whereas mine would open in Paint Shop Pro.

When he clicked the right button there was a picture of a packet of crisps, then a wedding dress, a pair of shoes and so on – dozens of pictures - all related to things that may have been viewed on the internet recently on their computer – his daughter’s getting married – I’m not sure about the packet of crisps!

So … does the fax viewer keep an historical record and if so how do you adjust the settings?

When I open an attachment I have an “open with” option whereas my neighbour doesn’t.

Edit: Is it solved by clearing temporary internet files?

Thanks
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Re: Urgent warning for those who use XP and Vista

Postby al » Sun 14.02.2010, 14:25

dapinky wrote:Computer nerd ba$tards :twisted:


Oi!
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