Captcha for Windows XP Professional
I have never seen this before and I am trying to figure out if I have a virus that nothing seems to be catching. I have a Popup on my desktop that says it is from Microsoft Windows XP Professional that has a captcha. It gives me about 2.5 minutes then says it will shut down. I have not entered this. I forced my computer to shut down several times to avoid the shut down, and have waited to see what it would do. It does not shut down and I cannot get any virus scanner to catch it. Is this something new from XP? or do I need to worry?Thanks for any and all help.1 person needs an answerI do too
March 13th, 2010 3:58am

This is not from XP. Your computer is severely infected. I don't know what you've tried but if you have been as thorough as the steps outlined at the link below with no success, then back up your data if necessary from outside of Windows and do a clean install/restore to factory of Windows. If you need instructions for retrieving data when you can't get into Windows, please let me know. http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows - What you will need on-hand MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
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March 13th, 2010 4:45pm

Actually, this is the virus WORM/Koobface.AC. I sent in the info detailing its symptoms and other info, like popping up with any internet access, like IE, FireFox or even OutLook. The latest update of AVG Free Edition (and probably others) now removes this. NO NEED to pay for the antivirus to fix this. The free version works fine. Please, there is NO NEED to wipe the system and completely reinstall everything! This is a blunderbust approach to removing a sliver, usually recommended by the Geek Squad. lol I virtually NEVER have to blow a persons system away and lose their whole environment. (I fix people's PCs for a living) Clean a system with AVG, Ad-Aware and Spybot regularly and you're in good shape. (you can get them all from my website's Tips & Tricks page) One other hint, to make scans do less work and finish a WHOLE lot sooner. Before doing scans, delete all files in these directories: C:\windows\temp and in XP: C:\Documents and Settings\{usernames}\Local Settings\Temp or in Vista/Windows 7: C:\Users\{usernames}\Local\Temp C:\Users\{usernames}\LocalLow\Temp C:\Users\{usernames}\AppData\Temp where {usernames} is each user name on the system. (if any files cause an error and can't be deleted because they're in use, just skip that file and delete the rest in each TEMP dir - as long as most are deleted, it'll save time) Then right-click the Recycle Bin and Empty it. This will remove thousands of files from being scanned needlessly. Disk Cleanup does NOT clear all these files! But do Disk Cleanup too and get rid of thousands of Internet files that won't be scanned too. This alone stops a lot viruses and spyware dead in their tracks by removing their working environment that normally goes unscathed by most utilities. NOW scan with AVG/Ad-Aware/Spybot or your fav utilities and they'll finish a lot sooner.
March 24th, 2010 7:52am

I appreciate the feed back, and actually found a solution. I had to turn off my System Restore and run a free program called Malwarebytes. I had tried AVG, Symantec, McGaffee and nothing would catch it. But this worked as long as I ran it in SafeMode. Apparently this worm was protected in the locked files with the Restore in place. Interesting stuff. But again I appreciate the feed back and help.
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March 24th, 2010 8:00am

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