I am helping an elderly neighbor with his HP Compaq desktop computer running Windows XP SP3. His computer locked up with the FBI scam malware. I used Defender Offline to gain back control (2 viruses were found and rremoved). I then downloaded and ran
Malwarebytes which found several more viruses. Finally, he had installed AVAST Free on this machine and I scanned with that and it found even more things to remove.
Then I noticed that the AVAST had been installed over MSE. I uninstalled AVAST using the AVAST removal tool, and uninstalled MSE using Control Panel/Add-Remove. I ran One Care Cleaner. I also ran the McAfee and Norton removal tools, just to be sure.
I reinstalled MSE, but MSE could not turn on the Windows Firewall. After reading some Posts in this forum on this issue, I tried to turn on Windows Firewall through Security Center. I got the message that "Due to an unidentified problem, Windows cannot
display Windows Firewall settings". I checked services and found NO Windows Firewall listed there. Not sure where it is. Also, fyi, it appears Windows Update is not working either. I get an error message when I click EXPRESS to install updates ("The website
has encountered a problem...").
YIKES. Looks like a real mess. Any suggestions on next steps?
Thx,
Mike T in VA.
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Malwarebytes which found several more viruses. Finally, he had installed AVAST Free on this machine and I scanned with that and it found even more things to remove.
Then I noticed that the AVAST had been installed over MSE. I uninstalled AVAST using the AVAST removal tool, and uninstalled MSE using Control Panel/Add-Remove. I ran One Care Cleaner. I also ran the McAfee and Norton removal tools, just to be sure.
I reinstalled MSE, but MSE could not turn on the Windows Firewall. After reading some Posts in this forum on this issue, I tried to turn on Windows Firewall through Security Center. I got the message that "Due to an unidentified problem, Windows cannot
display Windows Firewall settings". I checked services and found NO Windows Firewall listed there. Not sure where it is. Also, fyi, it appears Windows Update is not working either. I get an error message when I click EXPRESS to install updates ("The website
has encountered a problem...").
YIKES. Looks like a real mess. Any suggestions on next steps?
Thx,
Mike T in VA.
View this thread