Using Firefox going forward - IE infected by spyware + other

[VEFF]

...malicious code

I had been using IE over Firefox (already installed a while ago) mainly because I like the way you can have the bookmarks in a frame on the left while viewing the associated web pages to the right, which I prefer for navigating.
However, with the preponderance of spyware and other malicious stuff which apprently affect IE more than other browsers, I will have to reluctantly get used to the way Firefox handles / displays bookmarks/favorites and start using it exclusively.

Even after using NIS and NAV on an ongoing basis, and, after my PC was infected, running Spyware Blaster, Spybot Search and Destroy, MS Spyware beta (by Giant) and manually deleting registry entries (from 'run' and 'run once' keys), still having certain resilient things keep popping up.
I will have to set my PC for auto updates. I intentionally didn't have this, because I didn't want it to kick in automatically while I was in the middle of burning data, flashing a drive or performing other sensitive operations that I didn't want being interrupted.

Symptoms (just started yesterday, so haven't had a chance to fully work on it - was busy with other stuff:

- (In IE) Search page gets changed continually (sometimes MS AntiSpyware beta (sort of like a TSR) kicks in (after reboot) AFTER the malicious code has already run, so it is too late.
Once I 'restore browser'

- They even seem to be killing NIS/NAV (several icons disappear from taskbar after initally appearing when bootup is complete).

- When I shut down the PC, I get an error that 'TaskbarWindowApp' [can't remember full name] can't close, so I have to end it manually (I'll have to google that one tonight to see if it is an official Windows program or if this has to do with the weird taskbar behavior).

- MS Spyware beta detects, and blocks, about three or four different types of attempts to hijack my browser; these appear to be set to activate
every so many minutes.

I may try restoring my PC from a Ghost image (think I did one pretty recently - I'll just check 'Program Files' folder [and other fldrs] (sorted by last change date) to see what was installed / done after the Ghost image was created.
If not, I may reinstall Windows and all my apps from scratch; this is a last resort, since it is a time consuming process.

[VEFF]

Norton Ghost to the rescue!
Restored to an image from the beginning of this year and all is fine again now
I just need to reinstall a few programs that were installed after the image was created.

Going to make an updated Ghost image of my other PC now!!

[UALOneKPlus]

I LOVE Norton Ghost. It's the best software for cases like this.

It's much less stressful knowing that you can always go back to a previous state 100%, unlike Windows Restore which I don't like.

[VEFF]

I LOVE Norton Ghost. It's the best software for cases like this.

It's much less stressful knowing that you can always go back to a previous state 100%, unlike Windows Restore which I don't like.

Yes, Windows' system restore is pretty good, but like you state it isn't a 100% restore, which can cause problems or in this case potentially not completely get rid of issues currently being experienced.
The one benefit of system restore over Ghost is that it is much quicker to create a restore point than to create a backup with Ghost, BUT the extra time to create a perfect image is worth it.

Going forward I will create a Ghost image every month or two and just use system restore to create restore points in the interim since it is good for undoing bad driver or other bad software installs.

The Ghost image I had was about 7 weeks old and I hadn't installed that much since then, thankfully.

[Spazmogen]

I agree.

Ghost is an underrated program. It's saved my a$$ twice now. Once back in August when LOP spyware killed XP and again back in October or November, when XP got goofy again.

The best spyware remover I've tried is Webroot's SpySweeper.

Thanks again Matt.

Matt got me to try it out, and I have not had a single instance of Spyware at all. None. Zippo. Zilch.