[cefoxtrot]

PC running Vista Home Premium is unable to run any programs under normal mode. Under Safe Mode most programs work. The problem started when user downloaded "PC Speed UP" tool in error. Does anybody have any info or experience on this? Doing searches on line has not been effective.
Thanks!

[coastie65]

Hi. Try , downloading, and running www.malwarebytes.org. You may have to do this in Safe Mode / w Networking. Also in safe mode, go to Control Panel and then Programs and features and see if that thing id listed. If so uninstall it, then run www.CCleaner.com, using both the claeaner and the registry tool. One other thing tio try first would be to use System Restore and go to a date before this was installed.

[cefoxtrot]

coastie65, on 02 February 2012 - 10:55 AM, said:

Hi. Try , downloading, and running www.malwarebytes.org. You may have to do this in Safe Mode / w Networking. Also in safe mode, go to Control Panel and then Programs and features and see if that thing id listed. If so uninstall it, then run www.CCleaner.com, using both the claeaner and the registry tool. One other thing tio try first would be to use System Restore and go to a date before this was installed.

I have run Malwarebytes. Didn't find anything. Doing it again in safe mode with networking, then I'll try CCleaner, as you suggest. I'll post the results. Thank you so much.

[coastie65]

cefoxtrot, on 02 February 2012 - 11:54 AM, said:

coastie65, on 02 February 2012 - 10:55 AM, said:

Hi. Try , downloading, and running www.malwarebytes.org. You may have to do this in Safe Mode / w Networking. Also in safe mode, go to Control Panel and then Programs and features and see if that thing id listed. If so uninstall it, then run www.CCleaner.com, using both the cleaner and the registry tool. One other thing to try first would be to use System Restore and go to a date before this was installed.

I have run Malwarebytes. Didn't find anything. Doing it again in safe mode with networking, then I'll try CCleaner, as you suggest. I'll post the results. Thank you so much.

I didn't know you had it installed. The Safe Mode with Networking was if you couldn't install and or run it normally.

[cefoxtrot]

coastie65, on 02 February 2012 - 12:19 PM, said:

cefoxtrot, on 02 February 2012 - 11:54 AM, said:

coastie65, on 02 February 2012 - 10:55 AM, said:

Hi. Try , downloading, and running www.malwarebytes.org. You may have to do this in Safe Mode / w Networking. Also in safe mode, go to Control Panel and then Programs and features and see if that thing id listed. If so uninstall it, then run www.CCleaner.com, using both the cleaner and the registry tool. One other thing to try first would be to use System Restore and go to a date before this was installed.

I have run Malwarebytes. Didn't find anything. Doing it again in safe mode with networking, then I'll try CCleaner, as you suggest. I'll post the results. Thank you so much.

I didn't know you had it installed. The Safe Mode with Networking was if you couldn't install and or run it normally.

No viruses found, after running Malware and Ccleaner. The latter found a lot of bad entries in the registry, so that got cleaned up. Now it tells me that the Windows installer is not working when I try to uninstall that "PC Speed Up" program. Go figure...

[LiveBrianD]

Try revo uninstaller to get rid of that PC Speed up crap. That sounds like a scam (you know, freak out the user claiming there are tons of errors to get them to pay up, when there really isn't a problem).

[coastie65]

http://www.revounins...e_download.html

[cefoxtrot]

LiveBrianD, on 02 February 2012 - 03:41 PM, said:

Try revo uninstaller to get rid of that PC Speed up crap. That sounds like a scam (you know, freak out the user claiming there are tons of errors to get them to pay up, when there really isn't a problem).

Revo Uninstaller could not finish the job. Setup.exe and windows installer could not be found... I am giving up and reinstalling Windows, as there are too many loose ends.
Thank you all for your help.
Cefoxtrot

[LiveBrianD]

It scans manually after running the program's built-in installer. That said, if your windows install is really screwed up, reinstalling is a good idea.

[Rommel]

cefoxtrot, on 02 February 2012 - 06:11 PM, said:

Revo Uninstaller could not finish the job. Setup.exe and windows installer could not be found... I am giving up and reinstalling Windows, as there are too many loose ends.
Thank you all for your help.
Cefoxtrot

Sometimes this is best.
If you have your OS disc and motherboard resource CD more power to ya.

A fresh start after yrs of use is good anyway especialy being you have so many loose ends.
It will also give you peace of mind that you are clean.

BTW, what is your security setup?

[coastie65]

Although that is what we call the Nuclear Option and try to avoid it, there comes a time, when that is probably the only option left, unfortunately.

[cefoxtrot]

Rommel, on 02 February 2012 - 06:47 PM, said:

cefoxtrot, on 02 February 2012 - 06:11 PM, said:

Revo Uninstaller could not finish the job. Setup.exe and windows installer could not be found... I am giving up and reinstalling Windows, as there are too many loose ends.
Thank you all for your help.
Cefoxtrot

Sometimes this is best.
If you have your OS disc and motherboard resource CD more power to ya.

A fresh start after yrs of use is good anyway especialy being you have so many loose ends.
It will also give you peace of mind that you are clean.

BTW, what is your security setup?

The PC has an image setup on drive D:, which I used to reinstall the OS. Everything going well so far. Now restoring user data from backup created before the actual Windows install.

Security setup? PC is protected by F-Secured, which works fairly well. The problem seems to have originated by the user downloading files and/or programs in error. Not sure actually.

Last step will be to reinstall all the programs (Office, email, etc..... a royal pain). So far so good... (Knocking on wood).

[coastie65]

cefoxtrot, on 03 February 2012 - 10:16 AM, said:

Rommel, on 02 February 2012 - 06:47 PM, said:

cefoxtrot, on 02 February 2012 - 06:11 PM, said:

Revo Uninstaller could not finish the job. Setup.exe and windows installer could not be found... I am giving up and reinstalling Windows, as there are too many loose ends.
Thank you all for your help.
Cefoxtrot

Sometimes this is best.
If you have your OS disc and motherboard resource CD more power to ya.

A fresh start after yrs of use is good anyway especialy being you have so many loose ends.
It will also give you peace of mind that you are clean.

BTW, what is your security setup?

The PC has an image setup on drive D:, which I used to reinstall the OS. Everything going well so far. Now restoring user data from backup created before the actual Windows install.

Security setup? PC is protected by F-Secured, which works fairly well. The problem seems to have originated by the user downloading files and/or programs in error. Not sure actually.

Last step will be to reinstall all the programs (Office, email, etc..... a royal pain). So far so good... (Knocking on wood).

Sounds like all is going well. From my research, I don't think that was Malware, but just something that screwed up the computer and yes, having to go through that is a pain for sure and the reason we call it a last ditch option.

[Rommel]

coastie65, on 03 February 2012 - 10:59 AM, said:

Sounds like all is going well. From my research, I don't think that was Malware, but just something that screwed up the computer and yes, having to go through that is a pain for sure and the reason we call it a last ditch option.

It can consume time.

My only reinstalls that have messed up is when I forgot to unplug a usb device and my drive letters ended up screwy.

Being that was noticed right away, yep, disc back in.

Hope it all continues without an issue.

[LiveBrianD]

coastie65, on 03 February 2012 - 06:51 AM, said:

Although that is what we call the Nuclear Option and try to avoid it, there comes a time, when that is probably the only option left, unfortunately.

In this case, I think that is the best option.

[LiveBrianD]

Rommel, on 03 February 2012 - 11:16 AM, said:

coastie65, on 03 February 2012 - 10:59 AM, said:

Sounds like all is going well. From my research, I don't think that was Malware, but just something that screwed up the computer and yes, having to go through that is a pain for sure and the reason we call it a last ditch option.

It can consume time.

My only reinstalls that have messed up is when I forgot to unplug a usb device and my drive letters ended up screwy.

Being that was noticed right away, yep, disc back in.

Hope it all continues without an issue.

Yep, that happened to me once. I installed XP on a PC, and C: and D: were for the card reader, and E: was the dvd drive, and F: was the hard drive. I tried a registry hack to fix it, and it wouldn't boot properly. I had to reinstall, this time remembering to unplug that dang card reader.

[coastie65]

LiveBrianD, on 03 February 2012 - 03:35 PM, said:

coastie65, on 03 February 2012 - 06:51 AM, said:

Although that is what we call the Nuclear Option and try to avoid it, there comes a time, when that is probably the only option left, unfortunately.

In this case, I think that is the best option.

Yeah. FRom my research, it wasn't malware. Most likely a badly written program that really screwed things up. Not much you can do with that except go back to square 1.

[cefoxtrot]

coastie65, on 03 February 2012 - 03:43 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 03 February 2012 - 03:35 PM, said:

coastie65, on 03 February 2012 - 06:51 AM, said:

Although that is what we call the Nuclear Option and try to avoid it, there comes a time, when that is probably the only option left, unfortunately.

In this case, I think that is the best option.

Yeah. FRom my research, it wasn't malware. Most likely a badly written program that really screwed things up. Not much you can do with that except go back to square 1.

Well, the restore is finally finished. Email, all documents and Office 2007 back in place. The only glitch I had was with one of the printers... I attempted to do it manually, without the original CD... no go. Finally, the CD was found and all is well now.
I did miss the happy hour but, this being the start of the weekend, I can go and celebrate another finished good samaritan's task.
Thank you all for your ideas and support. Have a great weekend!
Cefoxtrot

[Rommel]

cefoxtrot, on 03 February 2012 - 06:35 PM, said:

coastie65, on 03 February 2012 - 03:43 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 03 February 2012 - 03:35 PM, said:

coastie65, on 03 February 2012 - 06:51 AM, said:

Although that is what we call the Nuclear Option and try to avoid it, there comes a time, when that is probably the only option left, unfortunately.

In this case, I think that is the best option.

Yeah. FRom my research, it wasn't malware. Most likely a badly written program that really screwed things up. Not much you can do with that except go back to square 1.

Well, the restore is finally finished. Email, all documents and Office 2007 back in place. The only glitch I had was with one of the printers... I attempted to do it manually, without the original CD... no go. Finally, the CD was found and all is well now.
I did miss the happy hour but, this being the start of the weekend, I can go and celebrate another finished good samaritan's task.
Thank you all for your ideas and support. Have a great weekend!
Cefoxtrot

Have a great weekend too.
Glad you are back in operation.