OT: Virus protect pro
 

Ok. So. This weekend I was web browsing and was prompted to download a activeX file for firefox in order to watch a video. Being the idiot that I am I dled it. I don't know why. I knew it was something bad seeing as I've never had problems watching video's on any other site. So anyway, I dl it, it creates a "setup" icon on the desktop. When I go to open it, it's for Virus Protect Pro. I cancel it, delete it, and run a spyware scan using AVG. Now I have this downloader.something thing that wont go away. I THINK I got rid of it. I've ran the spyware thing about 3-4 times and not finding anything. However. I now have this little icon down in the lower right part of the start bar. It goes from a little red cirlce with a X in the middle of it to a blue circle with a question mark on it. If you click on it it opens IE and brings me to Virus Protect Pro's website. It pops up about every 2-4 minutes say the system detects spyware and to click there to dl stuff to remove it. Problem is it's annoying, no matter what I'm doing it will minimize the app or game so that I can be made aware of the problem. I need to get this thing off. Anybody have any exp. or suggestions they'd like to offer? Any help is most appreciated. Thanks in advance.

P.S. And yes, now I know not to DL stuff unless I KNOW what it is.

Re: OT: Virus protect pro
 

FF doesn't use ActiveX (unless you specifically install an extension to do so, which really just wraps IE in the tab as needed for ActiveX controls).

Try some of the online house call scanners (you'll need IE cause they use ActiveX, sadly). Panda and Trend Micro provide decent ones.

If this doesn't solve the problem, get spybot search and destroy, update it. Reboot into safe mode and run it. It might be able to delete the malware. If not, run your virus scanner, still in safe mode.

If this still doesn't work, get hijack this, run a scan, and post the log on a security forum (such as on dslreports.com), along with all info you can provide, like the OP and what you have tried thus far.

Re: OT: Virus protect pro
 

Do a search for the exact name of the file. Some sites can tell you what it is and how to destroy it.

Re: OT: Virus protect pro
 

I don't know about Panda's, but the TrendMicro can run as either ActiveX or as a Java applet. So you can use it from firefox if you have a JRE installed.

Re: OT: Virus protect pro
 

Hmm... did they add the java applet recently? I don't recall it the last time I used house call. Good news, though. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: OT: Virus protect pro
 

Try superantispyware free version.Go to superantispyware.com to get it.What you got is not a virus,its scumbag ware.Good reports about the prog and free is good.Paid version does realtime scanning.Free does on demand only.regards.

Re: OT: Virus protect pro
 

VirusProtectPro is the recent corrupt antivirus software application which shows fake alerts about computer infections. Further information and removal method can be found here:

http://www.spyware-removal-guideline...ectpro-removal

Re: OT: Virus protect pro
 

Is that superantispyware any good? does it have hidden garbage that'll keep coming up? anyone else use it? I could use another one and I was wondering if this one is any good

Re: OT: Virus protect pro
 

Why do you need another one? How many do you use regularly?

Re: OT: Virus protect pro
 

adware, spybot, norton (which is a real pain)

Re: OT: Virus protect pro
 

With adaware and spybot, you are already covered for spyware/adware. Nortons not that great against virus/trojan stuff, but it works.

Re: OT: Virus protect pro
 

norton is bloatware.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/OptimizeXP.html
there you will find some good solid tools for securing and optimizing windows.

However, he's dead wrong on internet explorer, I feel.

Re: OT: Virus protect pro
 

Dead wrong on all things browser related, really. Well, other than Opera being fast.

Re: OT: Virus protect pro
 

He's right about Opera not being compatible with some webpages, and Firefox being slow. I normally use Opera, but recently had to install Firefox to get into a site that neither IE or Opera could load properly.

Re: OT: Virus protect pro
 

The 10-15% incompatibility is way off, though (unless he is counting every single minor display variation resulting from IE's backwards implementation of parts of the DOM box model). Its not really Mozilla's or Opera's fault that there are still people out there that only design sites for IE bug sets and not standards. They try to accommodate the bugs and poor implementations for compatibility, but its a huge challenge. Luckily IE is slowly moving more towards standards compliance now. IE7 was a baby step; let's hope IE8 can pass the acid2 tests. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

FF seems just as "fast" as IE to me on the machines I've run it on. Opera tends to be snappier, but he was comparing the speed to IE mostly. I'm not sure how many people actually believe FF is faster than Opera... just more "common myths" this guy has concocted for a longer article. Sure there are idiotic fanboys, but most people aren't at that level.

Re: OT: Virus protect pro
 

the guy running the IE7 team is making IE into a better browser for the betterment of the net, not microsoft. and i that I applaud (including his efforts to reach out to firefox for cross-compatibility).

However, IE has a long road to go. And firefox still loads faster for me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Opera is okay, but I dislike the fact every so often I see pages without the CSS loaded upfront.

Web designers like myself have to design pages with piles of hacks and crap to get them look the same in all browsers. This is because of IE6, however if more web designers would embrace the CSS-Zen Garden method of design, then we can get great pages on modern browsers and still serve content (even to old browsers) without breaking the page or the browser.

Re: OT: Virus protect pro
 

Perhaps people would get better results if they just tried for "legible" rather than "look the same".

Re: OT: Virus protect pro
 

I think you misunderstood me. I was referring to cross-platform & cross-browser compatibility. Legible content is, on to itself, another major issue in web design as many web designers don't know how to write copy for the net.

(the trick is to front-load documents for skimming, then build out into detailed content)