HELP! My wife infected my computer!!

[Guyver1]

Being an IT manager and PC builder and tweaker for 10 years i can recommend the following:

Spyware detection:
Lavasoft Ad-aware - http://lavasoft.com/
Spybot - Search & Destroy - http://www.safer-networking.org <-- only visit that site, there are clones of spybot that are spyware themselves
Spywareblaster - http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
SuperAntiSpyware - http://www.superantispyware.com/

No spyware detection program catches 100%, they all do about 80% and they all overlap with what they catch. These 4 together will catch everything.

Anti-Virus - AVG Free or AVG , quite simply the best, doesnt slow your machine down, doesnt install a ton of crap and bloat like norton does these days. Its very streamlined and transprent and WORKS.

if you dont keep these upto date you may as well not have them on there. Its like a condom with a hole in the end... pointless.

User ignorance and laziness are the main causes of PC infection through out of date software.

[zeegler]

I tried a couple of Spyware programs, but it wouldn't stop, so I reformatted. Now I have to reload all my fucking software too. Fortunately, I didn't have to back up any files, since I have a secondary 500 gig hard drive that I keep everything on.

[Spivonious]

I tried a couple of Spyware programs, but it wouldn't stop, so I reformatted. Now I have to reload all my fucking software too. Fortunately, I didn't have to back up any files, since I have a secondary 500 gig hard drive that I keep everything on.

Ah, there were secondary steps to take if the spyware scans didn't work. Oh well.

If this happens again, download and run HijackThis and post the log here. I cleaned up a co-workers computer that took 5 minutes to boot, had pop-ups every few seconds, and kept generating .eml files everywhere. Ran Avast antivirus, Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, and HijackThis in safe mode, cleaned up all that I could, rebooted, ran them all again, rebooted, and things were back to normal.

[joelayres]

http://lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

It's free and works better than anything else I've found.
And set a password so it won't happen again.
Damn women!

[Spivonious]

Windows vista, now theres a virus for ya!

[SEEGERMANY]

To prevent future problems, type a note that reads "honey, I've just scratched my sweaty, stinky asshole with all ten fingers. It will be your dilemma in determining which keys I touched. Much love!" Tape this note to the monitor.

[zeegler]

Well, my PC was always password protected, but I had disabled standby, so it was always on and ready to go, so she never had to enter a password. I've changed that already to standby after 5 minutes.

[Chief]

at least she only infected you computer.

[joelayres]

Well, my PC was always password protected, but I had disabled standby, so it was always on and ready to go, so she never had to enter a password. I've changed that already to standby after 5 minutes.

Even simpler, enable a screensaver to activate after 1 minute and check the box to require a password (on resume password protect).

[zeegler]

Even simpler, enable a screensaver to activate after 1 minute and check the box to require a password (on resume password protect).

Just did that.

[Norton]

at least she only infected you computer.