tetonbob

Please print out or copy this page to Notepad. Make sure to work through the fixes in the exact order it is mentioned below. If there's anything that you don't understand, ask your question(s) before proceeding with the fixes. You should not have any open browsers when you are following the procedures below.

You have an outdated version of HijackThis. Click here to get the latest version of HijackThis and run it.

Before you give us a new log here, if we gave you instructions for a fix, please do the fixes first and then post the new log with this updated version.

1. If it gives you an intro screen, just choose 'Do a system scan and save a logfile'.
2. If you don't get the intro screen, just hit Scan and then click on Save log.
3. Get HijackThis Analyzer and save it to the same folder as the hijackthis.log file. Run HijackThis Analyzer and type in y if you agree. The result.txt file will open up in Notepad. Copy the whole result.txt log and post it in the forum. We do not need the original hijackthis.log (unless we ask for it). Do not fix anything in HijackThis since they may be harmless.

Turn off system restore by right clicking on My Computer and go to Properties->System Restore and check the box for Turn off System Restore. Click Apply and then OK. Restart your computer. After we are finished with your log file and verified that it's clean, you may turn it back on and create a new restore point.

Go to My Computer->Tools/View->Folder Options->View tab and make sure that 'Show hidden files and folders' (or 'Show all files') is enabled. Also make sure that 'Display the contents of system folders' is checked. Windows XP's search feature is a little different. When you click on 'All files and folders' on the left pane, click on the 'More advanced options' at the bottom. Make sure that Search system folders, Search hidden files and folders, and Search subfolders are checked.

For the options that you checked/enabled earlier, you may uncheck them after your log is clean. If we ask you to fix a program that you use or want to keep, please post back saying that (we don't know every program that exists, so we may tell you to delete a program that we think is bad to keep).

Download CWShredder and run it. Click on 'I Agree' button if you agree with it. Click on 'Fix' (it will automatically fix anything it finds for you) and OK. If it asks if you want to delete a certain random file, choose No and post that filename here. Let it finish the scan and then hit Next and Exit.

Reboot into Safe Mode (hit F8 key until menu shows up). Make sure to close any open browsers. Go into HijackThis->Config->Misc. Tools->Open process manager. Select the following and click Kill process for each one if they are still listed (they shouldn't be - but double check it):

C:\WINDOWS\system32\msdevcore.exe

Run a scan in HijackThis. Check each of the following and hit 'Fix checked' (after checking them) if they still exist (make sure not to miss any):

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Bar = about:blank
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant = about:blank
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Local Page = C:\WINDOWS\about.htm
R3 - Default URLSearchHook is missing
O16 - DPF: {084F552D-19EB-4668-9788-984CBC781A8F} - http://survey.otxresearch.com/Preloader.dll
O16 - DPF: {15AD6789-CDB4-47E1-A9DA-992EE8E6BAD6} - http://static.windupdates.com/cab/CDT/ie/bridge-c2.cab
O16 - DPF: {4B4513E2-4E57-43DF-9496-FCD37E9DFA64} (GINNAVY Class) - http://66.98.132.156/g_bin_eng/navy_2_0_0_9.cab
O16 - DPF: {DF780F87-FF2B-4DF8-92D0-73DB16A1543A} - http://antu.popcap.com/games/popcaploader_v5.cab

Delete the following Files/Folders (delete folders if no filename is specified) according to their directory (if none, just do a search for them) and delete them if they exist:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\msdevcore.exe

Reboot into Normal Mode and run new HijackThis scan. If there were some entries that didn't show up in Safe Mode, you may check and fix those that appear now in normal mode (if you do that, make sure to run a new scan again). Save the log file and run KRC HijackThis Analyzer in the same folder to get the result.txt log. Just post the contents of the result.txt file in the forum.