Hopelessly infected, please help!

No, I have no questions. I want to thank you for helping me though! I'm going to donate. It's not much, but you and your team do really great work and it is appreciated.
 
Hi Scofield,

You're very welcome, and we thank you for your donation. Glad I was able to help. :bigthumb: Have a great day.

Since this issue appears to be resolved ... this Topic will be closed.
 
Hi Scofield,

Sorry to hear you are still having some issues.

  1. Have you made any changes to the system?
  2. Can you gain access to update Windows?
  3. Do you have the tiles visible and they just won't open?

Reply with a bit more detail and we'll see what solutions we can find.
 
Hi OCD and thanks again. The only changes I make were what was suggested. The tiles are available, but when I click to access them, they start to open, then don't. I started is safe mode, and it says something along the lines of Administrator settings not allowing access (Paraphrasing, I don't remember exactly). I can access windows update.

Thanks again for helping me.
 
A little more info if it helps..... When in normal mode, when the tile is clicked, it expands like it is going to start, and then stops and returns to the start screen. When in safe mode, I get the following message: "This app can't open. [App name] can't be opened using the built-in administrator account. Sign in with a different account and try again."

I tried using my administrator account, and the other account that is on here, and neither will work. Thanks again!
 
Hi Scofield,

I am not very familiar with Windows 8. Try using System Restore to a date before the issue was first noticed.

Post with an update on results.
 
Hi OCD. I also am not very familiar with windows 8. I did a system restore to 8/11/13, and that did not work. Then I did a system restore to 8/10/13, and the restore did not finish because it said that possibly my antivirus program was preventing programs from being restored. I thought I had diable all of the antivirus programs first, but I must have missed something. I can try again in 8 hours (at work, computer at home). Also, I'm starting to wonder if this issue has nothing to do with the initial infection, and may simply be an unrelated problem. I do appreciate your patience though
 
Hi Scofield,

I am pretty confident that we removed all the malware that was present. So you summation that this might not be related to that is probably true. Therefore we need to determine what change was made to the system that might have caused this to occur.

Here are some tutorials to help with turning off your security software. Since I am unsure exactly what type of Norton Security Suite you have you might need to go to Norton's website and search for instructions. Generally speaking though you should be able to right click on the icon and choose disable. But with this being a Windows 8 machine I don't know if that is an option. Try again to disable all of these tools, reboot, then try system restore to an earlier date. Then update me on any change.

Disable windows Defender : http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/...on-off#turn-windows-defender-on-off=windows-7

Turn off Windows Firewall : http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/windows-firewall-from-start-to-finish
 
Hi OCD. Well, I tried everything. No luck with restore, safe mode, or the other user account. No Windows 8 tiles would open. So I "Refreshed my PC". Now things seem to work as before. Tiles open now, nothing seems out of place. I lost a lot, including my office 2010 software, spybot, chrome etc., but that is okay, I just bought office 2013, and the rest can be replaced. Here is a paraphrasing of what "Refresh your PC" told me.... "Here's what will happen: files and personalization settings won't be kept, PC settings will reset to default, Apps from windows store will be kept, Apps installed from discs or websites will be removed, A list of removed Apps will be saved on your desktop.

So I re-installed Chrome and Spybot, and installed my Office 2013 software. Everything seems okay. I did a scan with spybot and just got some browser cookies. I don't think I have any anti-virus software on here now, so any recommendations would be nice. I am limiting my browsing on here to make sure I don't do anything too stupid.

Oh, one last thing, I ran a windows update search, and it found 65 updates. It says I can't download them because I'm set for automatic updates and it will happen then. I disabled automatic updates, but still couldn't download them, so I re-enabled automatic updates then responded to this forum.

Can't thank you enough for the help,

Scofield.
 
Quick update, I managed to download the Windows updates. Everything seems okay, albeit being reset to factory defaults. I'm okay with that, however. I should probably create a new restore point I suppose, but I won't do anything without your advice.
 
Hi Scofield,

Sorry for my delay in responding to your previous post (today was a work day).

Sounds like a busy day for you. From your description of "Refreshed my PC" it sounds like it restored your computer basically back to it's factory original settings with a few minor items.

So with that in mind you should make sure you have an Anti-Virus & Firewall installed and enabled. You should also check to make sure System Restore is turned on. By default it should be enabled, but check just to be sure. It should give you the option of creating a restore point, or you can let it create on on it's own. It will do it automatically if System Restore is enabled.

Here are just a few suggestions:

Free Anti-Virus

Free Firewall

Using a third-party firewall will allow you to give/deny access for applications that want to go online. Without a firewall your computer is susceptible to being hacked and taken over. Simply using a firewall in its default configuration can lower your risk greatly. A tutorial on firewalls can be found here.


Please let me know if you have any other questions.
 
Hi OCD. From here, it looks like I will just follow your advice with the antivirus program and 3rd party firewall. Everything seems good. I have no further questions. I do want to truly thank you for all your help. It is very, very appreciated.

Scofield.
 
Hi Scofield,

You're very welcome. Glad I was able to help. :bigthumb: Have a great day.

Since this issue appears to be resolved ... this Topic will be closed.
 
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