i think my PC is full of spyware, adware, trojans ect..


we have had broadband for a few months now, over the past few weeks our computer has been running slower and slower.
i have tried to run an anti virus scan (spybot s&d) however this programme now failes to load and my PC is now running slower than ever and we can no longer load internet explorer. there are suscpicious files on my PC E.G CometCursor and BackWeb.EXE.
Any Avice would be great?

i have Windows Xp and have a packard bell computer

graeme, May 2007

If you can't connect to the Internet you will find copies of Spybot, Ad-Aware and AVG Anti-virus on the DVD which comes with the computer magazine PC Authority. Other mags also may have such programs on their discs.

Stan, August 2007

For the spyware problem run Spybot, then Spywareblaster, then Lavasoft Adaware.

They need weekly checks to make sure updates are downloaded . The best anti virus freebie is AVG. You can get additional free scan only from Trend Micro or pandascan.

Its important to scan ALL drives; C, A floppy, and any USB pens you have. The viruses are tricky devils.

Its also worth looking at ShieldsUp to see how vulnerable your machine is google shieldsup to find it.

Do you have a firewall? Zonealarm is the best freebie.

Sorry if i am teaching granny to suck eggs here but who is using the machine? Anyone viewing porn? Not a judgement but you need to be careful to scan and scan to prevent reinfection.

Hope its some use.

jc, August 2007

Big Thanks guys for the advice however we are now unable to connect to the internet through our internet explorer.EXE i have noticed that a lot of the settings on my computer have changed and there are a lot of New unexplained .exe files in my system32 folder.
qwertybot.exe is one of them, i have heard this is a virus, sometimes we can connect to the net although we are only able to access some sites, we cant access google or yahoo ect

is it time for a new pc???? or can this problem be fixed.
i have heard that formatting my c/: drive should remove all spyware and other threats. is this correct and how do i do this.

graeme, May 2007

Go to filehippo.com It is a website full of free programs. It has about four or five free anti-virus programs. Check those out. Also, try using firefox browser. It is much better than internet explorer. Go to firefox.com Let me know what happens.

Kenny, May 2007

Spybot is a spyware scanner, not a virus checker.
AVG is free and easy to use.
http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/5390/lng/us/tpl/v5#avg-anti-virus-free

Big Softy, May 2007