Thanks so much! I did run Malwarebytes this morning, but it didn't remove the defender program. This afternoon it did. I must have done something wrong. Here is the log: (Let me know if you think I should do something else.) Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 1.34 Database version: 1864 Windows 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 3/18/2009 1:28:12 PM mbam-log-2009-03-18 (13-28-12).txt Scan type: Quick Scan Objects scanned: 73661 Time elapsed: 7 minute(s), 57 second(s) Memory Processes Infected: 1 Memory Modules Infected: 0 Registry Keys Infected: 8 Registry Values Infected: 1 Registry Data Items Infected: 3 Folders Infected: 0 Files Infected: 3 Memory Processes Infected: C:\Documents and Settings\Stephanie Turner\Application Data\pcdefender.exe (Rogue.Installer) -> Unloaded process successfully. Memory Modules Infected: (No malicious items detected) Registry Keys Infected: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ieocxapp.ieocx (Trojan.BHO) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\(a54dc52d-7aad-4d40-a126-337211631edc) (Trojan.BHO) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\(4b66e1df-4de3-4cda-83b5-11673eadab0b) (Trojan.BHO) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\(96ad72e4-2e2b-4ffc-a5bb-279c2714af12) (Trojan.BHO) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Stats\(96ad72e4-2e2b-4ffc-a5bb-279c2714af12) (Trojan.BHO) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects\(96ad72e4-2e2b-4ffc-a5bb-279c2714af12) (Trojan.BHO) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ieocxapp.ieocx.1 (Trojan.BHO) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\WinPC Defender (Rogue.WinPCDefender) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully. Registry Values Infected: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\sysav (Rogue.Installer) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully. Registry Data Items Infected: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center\AntiVirusDisableNotify (Disabled.SecurityCenter) -> Bad: (1) Good: (0) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center\FirewallDisableNotify (Disabled.SecurityCenter) -> Bad: (1) Good: (0) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center\UpdatesDisableNotify (Disabled.SecurityCenter) -> Bad: (1) Good: (0) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully. Folders Infected: (No malicious items detected) Files Infected: C:\Documents and Settings\Stephanie Turner\Application Data\pcdefender.exe (Rogue.Installer) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully. C:\WINDOWS\ieocx.dll (Trojan.BHO) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully. C:\Documents and Settings\Stephanie Turner\Application Data\BIT3E.tmp (Rogue.Installer) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.

Hi, Sorry for the delay. And apologies for the long response. I attempted a system restore and somewhere along the way my computer had stopped booting up completely. While I never got the blue screen of death, I did get the black screen of purgatory. ;-) Apparently (based on later events) the system restore never completed. At some point during the process I got a black screen with a white arrow/cursor (perhaps it was just after the "starting windows" screen). And it just stopped there. I manually shut down (turned off the switch at the surge protector) and tried restarting, but the computer couldn't get past that black screen! Well, at that point I started trying different things: - trying to boot up in safe mode (didn't work; got stuck at the same point), - trying the 'start up repair' option on the same screen as the safe mode option. That didn't work either and it was during these attempts that I got a blue screen saying, "a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer." Etc. But there was no way to shut down, so I had to do it the old fashioned way: turn off at the surge protector. Then on to trying something else. - trying the Windows Memory DIagnostic Tool, which I found inadvertently while poking around the same screen general menu area as the above. The WMDT started a two-part scan and froze during part 2. While it was scanning, though, it did display a "Status:" message indicating that hardware problems were detected and that I should contact the computer manufacturer. Well, instead I called the delightfully honest and knowledgeable computer guy who built my computer for me. :-) (more on that below) Finally, I again tried booting up and ended up on the same screen as the one where I found the WMDT option. At the top it simply said "Windows 7," which I thought was just a heading, but it was an actual option. So, I selected it just to see what would happen, and suddenly it took me all the way to the desktop screen! I had/have no idea how that happened! But once there, and after looking things over, I realized that the system restore I attempted earlier never went through successfully. Neither did my Pale Moon uninstall. Well, I skipped attempting another system restore and instead did the following: - again used geekuninstall to remove Pale Moon (this time also choosing the "forced removal" option, which ended up removing all registry items as well; I hadn't done that the first time), - shut down properly (first time I could do that in a while!) and fully (i.e. not the 'restart' option) and restarted manually, which finally took me through to the desktop as it should! - ran all scans (AV, MBAM, SAS) as complete scans, all of which were successful and detected no problems! Since then I have had no problems booting up or shutting down and no crashes of FF. :-) So, as far as I can determine just from the computer's behavior, it was probably all caused by using the 64-bit Pale Moon. :-/ Btw, my computer guy was going to come over and physically look at the computer (based on the computer's behavior and the status message I got (above), he suspected harddisc issues). But after telling him that I am now able to reboot and that everything is pretty much back to normal, we will be setting up a time and he will be able to access the computer remotely and do various checks. Now, in response to posts made since my previous one: owbist - Thanks for the link. :-) But I don't have the disc necessary to do that. DA - I was watching either You Tube videos or videos at the 'watchseries' site (mentioned here at this forum on occasion). Once in a while I watch old American TV shows from that site, but it never gave me any issues. And it seems that it really wasn't the problem this time either. It was just during the viewing of them that PM or FF would crash; more a symptom than the main problem. mikie - Thanks for your further suggestions! I never had a chance to read them before my journey into limbo, and now that things are working I'm afraid to mess with success at the moment by doing something I could easily mess up! :-D But I'll definitely bookmark this thread for future reference. Thanks to all for your feedback!

My good and long time friend Cat steered me to Virus Bulletin years ago. Though it is a commercial publication you can register for free with reduced access. One of the features accessible is their review/comparison of AV applications. DA Here is a link that might be useful: Virus Bulletin

why did you not submit it? that is exactly what you should do is submit it so they can analyze it and see if it is indeed the rootkit version of that file or the legit file which is giving a false positive. If it is the rootkit that is a serious infection. in the meantime if you do not have malwarebytes get it and follow these directions. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Please download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to your desktop. * Double-click mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program. * At the end, be sure a checkmark is placed next to Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, then click Finish. * If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version. * Once the program has loaded, select Perform full scan, then click Scan. * When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results. * Be sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected. * When completed, a log will open in Notepad. Please save it to a convenient location. The log can also be found here: C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Malwarebytes\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\Logs\log-date.txt * Please post contents of that file in your next reply