Bunky, many people have been in the same situation. Downloading a malware scanning program sounds like a great idea until you loose internet access on the computer. I would try to download some anti-virus and malware scanning software from another computer and transfering it to your system with a flash drive or CD-R disc. I would also try to borrow a Windows XP Professional installation disc from a friend or relative. It will allow you to run commands from the Recovery Console and may accept your product key if you have to reinstall. I just purchased a new laptop and one of the priorities in my selection was a reinstallation DVD for the operating system. Many systems include a recovery partition, but an OS disc is a necessity when it comes to hard drive crashes and some malware infections.

I read this forum quite regularly, but rarely post here...But sometimes.... I just gotta say it..... You people are nuts...... I am quite used to people telling me I am nuts and have no idea what I am talking about when it comes to such matters, BUT since I am never, make that NEVER the one who has neither virus/malware issues and problems and NEVER have spent even a dime nor any time on such matters, the reality of the situation is that I and the few other Linux users here are really the only ones who have any idea what they are talking about when it comes to PC Operating Systems and PC "security".... A whole forum of "what should I get","what's wrong" "I bought/installed and/but" "what should I do". Soon many reading this will be thinking "Oh he's just one of those Linux nutscases" But, ask yourself, does he "Buy this", "get this", "do this"......Oh yeah, and then ask yourself if your system can match mine on safety, security, performance. I have yet to have either of these boxes contract a virus or a worm or a root-kit nor any other form of malware, not bad for systems running zero AV/security software..... I very rarely ever disconnect from the W3 and rarely ever even turn either of these things off. I have 4 browsers running right now and my email account has been open for days. Other than an outgoing firewall, I am currently running absolutely zero "security" software of any kind. And no reformatting, no scans, no defrags, no registry anythings. I watch videos, play music, redo photo's, make phone calls and do all sorts of other sometimes fun stuff with neither and never a worry nor a care. And my total investment in Operating Systems and software on both boxes equals zero dollars and zero cents. And all my upgrades/dates are free too..... Do yourselves a big favor and go to distrowatch.com, read about the different flavors of Linux and pick yourself out a few LiveCD versions to trial. Or you can always just wait for MSWin7 to be released and start buying all sorts of new software to go along with your already penetrated and compromised, outdated and obsolete brand new high dollar Operating System. Some of the new Linus distro's are so simple to install and use that my best friends 59 y.o.wife has installed several different versions on the same hard-drive and has figured out how to use them all with little more than dang near no assistance from any body. She has even figured out how to use Knoppix6 full time and save everything she does/wants to a persistant image. Oh yeah, she is really good at kids and cooking and sewing and fishing and growing things and all sorts of DIY stuff, but, when it comes to computers, she has the techno-savvy and training of your average box of rocks..... Dang folks....even my daughter, whose "technotude" is somewhat close to absolutely zero has installed and has everything running and learned the ins and outs of both SimplyMepis and VectorLinux on her PC all by her little ol' self. And while her friends are having regular issues after frequenting such mandatory malware magnet sites as YouTube, and MySpace she has nothing of the sort, ever.... But, if you wanna believe that you must MUST have MSWin-something, feel free to spend way too much for way too little, and want to keep spending and installing/scanning/removing/etc for no other reason than you insist on running something as shaky and insecure as Vista1, hurry up and buy the fix for Vista1, Vista2, otherwise known as MSWin7, that's certainly your right.... Well, let's see...I may have exaggerated things a bit by stating the "free" thing........Getting Linux will cost you somewhere around $.125 for a blank CD-R, or the current cost of a blank DVD-R.... HAGD Here is a link that might be useful: better than MSWindows, IMHO it is anyway

@susieq07, Someone needs to put you in your place. And I'm going to do it! What you are doing is down right wrong. You have not been professionally trained in the removal of malware. If you would have jumped in earlier and told her to boot to Safe Mode and run MBAM this is what would have happened. All programs would have been gone and the malware would have won! Some malware does not even run in Safe Mode. Most of the threats now days installs a rootkit. Tell me..how do you remove a rootkit? If your are as good as you think you are then you would know the answer! If you were a professional then you would know that ASC is bad because it includes a Registry cleaner. A professional would never use that program. Oh an susieq07, Security Tool IS NOT A VIRUS!!! IT IS A ROGUE PROGRAM. Weren't you told that before? There is a really big difference between a Virus and a Rogue program! If you don't know the difference you are doing an injustice to the Seniors you think you are helping!!! See below for definitions of several different types of malware. http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110404055408AAZVTKy I'm sorry everybody, but I can not stand around and allow someone who thinks they know what malware is all about take advantage of the uneducated, especially when it involves the elderly. They are the most trusting people in the world. Someone has to protect/educate them to be aware of those who think they know what they say they do. Please accept my apologies. Here is a link that might be useful: Remove Security Tool

I just added Firefox for the first time this past weekend; it's version 3.5.3 which I believe is the latest. At Adobe, I installed/reinstalled Flash Version 10.0.32.18. It is for Windows, Firefox, Safari and Opera. I also installed the Flash Player 10 PlugIn 10.0.32.18 which is for Firefox. I tested at the Adobe site and they report Flash 10.0.32.18 was successfully installed. I also checked C:\Windows/system32/Macromed/Flash and found Flash10c.ocx and NPSWF32.dll there. During the time that I was still trying to get IE7 to work, I followed some directons using Start, Run and then entering each of the following separately, followed by clicking OK. They were regsvr32 mshtml.dll regsvr32 shdocvw.dll regsvr32 browseui.dll regsvr32 msjava.dll Success was reported with the 1st three, but on the last the message was: LoadLibrary ("msjava.dll") failed. The specified module could not be found. I googled it and one site said it won't be found because MS's Java has been replaced by Sun's version. Another site listed programs it's known to affect - Macromedia Flash was on the list. Since I recognized the work Java, I reinstalled that program just in case it might solve the video problem - it didn't. Since this all began somewhere in the process of updating to IE7 (which I then uninstalled) I did reinstall IE7 hoping for a magic solution - it didn't happen. I do plant to continue with FF, however. Is there a program (or maybe it's a tool that's already on my computer) that would show what's happening behind the scenes when the video is "loading"? Thanks for reading. Sorry about the length. - June