Support Getting rid of malware

Discussion in 'Technology' started by Fearless, Oct 15, 2013.

  1. Fearless A good and beautiful child

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    I somehow managed to get that stupid search assistant malware thing on my computer. Anyone wanna help me get rid of it?

    I run Windows 7 on an Acer Aspire. I have a sneaking suspicion that it snuck onto my computer when I updated AIM.
     
  2. Amaury Legendary Hero

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    What's the search thing called?
     
  3. Fearless A good and beautiful child

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    Search Assistant. It's that thing that causes orange links to ads on every other word on text based sites. It's not necessarily malicious as far as I can tell, but it sure is annoying as all hell.
     
  4. Amaury Legendary Hero

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    What browser are you running?

    I had a similar experience once. That might help you.

    EDIT - 11:36 PM PT: It looks like this may be easier. I had a similar thing once with some search thing, and I simply removed it from my add-ons listing on all browsers.
     
  5. DigitalAtlas Don't wake me from the dream.

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    The best way is to first clear out your browser's cookies.

    Then download Malwarebytes and rename the .exe to something any smart malware won't recognize. Update it, then turn off your computer.

    Boot it up in safe mode (F8 while booting. No networking)

    Run malwarebytes and should be all good. Worst case scenario you'll have to go to your list of programs and manually uninstall search assistant. Maybe afterwards download a program called Defraggler and run it while you're out of the house or not going to be using your PC.

    Your PC will be run like a dream after this.
     
  6. Fearless A good and beautiful child

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    I ran Malwarebytes and that didn't do jack all, so I ran it again, booted up in safe mode, and did a system restore to about two days ago. That seems to have worked.