WinPC virus?!
 

Hey all, I have a virus on my laptop.
I started getting loads of crap poping up for 'WinPC' saying that I had a virus and I 'needed' thier antivirus, and would I be kind enough to give them my card details and order it NOW!!

Obviously, i sussed out that it was a scam, as the 'very good looking' windows popups, were not quite perfect enough.
By the time I realised that all this was crap, it was too late, and it's put a virus on my comp.

Anyone have any Idea how to get rid?

It now keeps freezing the comp up after so long, and sometimes wont even let me get onto it. also it has dissabled all the programs etc, that are used to 'system restore' and to completely re-boot it. So I cant even do that.

Its really p'ing me off now.

I sorted a friends laptop only last night, it downloads with a CODEC or something similar.

I installed AVG Free, patched it with the latest updates, then did a full scan, all sorted.

just delete it from c:\docs n settings\%user%\app data

Simple :)

it is also elswhere to dude

usual run of the mill is to disable system restore (which may be tricky in your case) but makes that sector readable by the virus scan. boot into safe mode and do a scan hopefully thatll fix it. if not then youd need the actual viruses name the can get a list of registry entries to delete and modules to dissable on startup. n f that fails do a reinstall from cd (if system restore is on Hd you can get a restore cd from microsoft thats for vista btw)

or try looking here http://www.2-spyware.com/remove-winpc-defender.html

Terry

Download and install this - it removes all the registry keys too unlike just removing the contents of the appdata folder. You wont even be able to see that folder anyway unless you have " show hidden folders and files" ticked in folder options.

Shout back if you need more help mate ........

http://dw.com.com/redir?edId=3&siteI...54cb3038aaf623

AVG removed the registry entries too, person hasn't reported any more popup issue's.

I am not a great fan of downloading more 'free software' to remove something dodgy.

I know where you are coming from with your theory on this - some do more harm than good !

Just do a search of some of the geek PC forums, MalwareBytes is one of the good guys along with Lavasofts Adaware and Spybot - Search and Destroy.

I have been building, repairing, overclocking :blush: and generally fidling with computers since the advent of the 16k ZX Spectrum :)

Use it,its great.

I just have a general 'distrust' for most things free.... and anything PCWorld, lol

ZX Spectrum, that goes back some, I was a BBC B person, myself.

yer it will hide itself in loads of files :thumbdown:

i had same problem and i did this and it worked really well. i seems to have gotton rid of the virus:thumbsup:

Hi,

Malwarebytes is free and excellent ...
Cheers,

Ian

Thanks for the info dudes.

I got the AVG free, but the virus was freezing the computer before it had time to do a full scan, so that didn't work.

I eventually found the file, by right clicking the icon it put on the desktop, and just clicked, 'find file'. I did delete it but it didn't make any difference, as it just kept re-applying itself and re-installing later on....little b'stard!

Eventually just re-booted the system off a disk my dad had. So problem solved...for now.
Unfortunately I didn't have time to back loads of stuff up before it hit. I normally back up at the end of every month, so....:rolleyes:

The virus hit when I was on Facebook, on the Fantasy F1 thing. So not sure if thats where I got it from. Used it many times without a problem.

am i missing somthing here?:lol:

Occupation - Computer Engineer - nuff said, thanks Ian, pleased someone believes me ;)

Vote #3 for malwarebytes here, it helped me provide engineers with a solution to that Antivirus 2008 scam (similar to this from the sounds of it) last year. It's now part of my permanent tool kit along with Spybot and a decent antivirus.

I dont understand why free makes people suspicious, as this virus is evidence that payment required is more suspicious lol!

All my favourite tools have to fulfill 3 criteria:

1)Free (as in free, not stolen/pirated lol)
2)Doesn't install, ie just an executable
3)Can't actually remember this one...I think it was size (ie small filesize and memory footprint)

You just have to do your research before trying anything new, and recommendation from a knowledgeable friend is always a good source of information.

Hope you get it all sorted