Perhaps I've already mentioned before that I have no virus protection at all. This is because I never get any so I decided quite a few years ago not to slow down my already slow (because of age) system with an antivirus software. And since my important files are stored on a different partition to where my Windows and applications are installed, I don't really have anything to lose. Well today I contracted Antivirus XP 2008. My symptoms were: Wallpaper changed to a blue background with a yellow warning sign that said I'm infected and that I should get an antivirus software. The wallpaper tab and the screensaver tab in display options were missing. Antivirus XP 2008 software kept telling me that I was infected. The software looked really well designed (i.e., it looked microsoft) but since I knew there was no such program installed for me and I spotted a few spelling mistakes in its messages, I knew it was part of the virus. The task manager was greyed out. The first three were just for raising hype in the average person but the last symptom proved to be somewhat useful from the point of view of the virus - it prevented me from killing it straight away. First things first, I unplugged the network cable from my computer and suspended the network in network settings. Then I started Windows in safe mode and I began weeding out the files by running msconfig and unchecking the suspicious names. I applied the settings and rebooted, after which I phyisically deleted these files. This didn't help because it seemed to reproduce itself with different names every time so I took my chances and re-enabled my internet connection and googled the solution. I found this site, which helped, but I still needed the task manager to begin cleaning so I went over here and made the necessary changes. Needless to say these steps worked like a charm and killing the virus was child's play, literally. Why have I created this thread? For several reasons. First, for anyone having the same symptoms, because then they can solve it in 2 minutes. Secondly, I wanted to share this interesting story with you. My third and most important reason is to publicly thank the author of the virus for this great lesson in PC maintenance and the introduction to 'gpedit.msc'. :yes:
Good job Kuvasz. I had the same virus last week and was able to beat it but I still ended up reinstalling because it did some damage to my registry. The problem is that I got this thing through an e-mail in an Excel file from a friend. How crazy is that?
Haha, ez fix, but All i will say is, google it, If you are smart at Troublshooting, its ez.. I dont feel like telling the steps for it or anything, but good luck Dont download Porn next time or use Limewire.
Just fought off another, slightly different version of this. Same task manager disable trick but this time I had explorer popping up occasionally. Giving delete orders to Total Commander on a running process and then ending it in task manager to automatically delete it before it restarts works a charm. Screw antivirus softwares, this is fun. And people pay heaps of money when it can be done in 10 minutes...
It should be noted that gpedit.msc is only available to users who have Windows XP Professional installed.
