Help with Post-Spyware/Virus Cleaning

[Garibaldi]

I just got done running spybot, ad-aware, startup inspector, ect getting quite a few viruses and spyware programs removed. I had alot of popups, so I switched over to firefox. One thing I was wondering is if there is a way to disable ie from being able to run at all without uninstalling it. That way I could have it on the computer but never risk pop-ups again because they would have to run through ie. which would be disabled. I'm not concerned with Win Updates because I have it set automatically. Also I'm running XP home. I tried renaming iexplorer.exe to something like iexplorer.ex or iexplorer.exe_ and that worked for about ten seconds until windows promptly created another iexplorer.exe. Is there any way to disable this feature? Thanks.

[Garibaldi]

Also, does anyone know of a good, secure, and free alternate to aim? Maybe Yahoo?

[thecoalman]

The SP2 update removes any possibilty that a webpage can produce a pop-up. They have to be user initiated. Regardless of which browser your using spyware can produce pop-ups because they are "user" initiated. Firefox or IE won't consider it a opo-up because the origin of the request is from the spyware not a webpage.

You can't uninstall IE it's part of XP.

[Garibaldi]

The only thing is that I have heard some bad things about SP2. The computer that I am talking about installing it on would only be used for word processing, internet surfing, ect... basic functions. What is your recommendations about installing sp2?

[IAIHMB]

You can use Service Pack 2 with most popular progams and run in to no problems. Search for them, I named off all of the ones that ran just fine on my computer and a few other people did to. Also, I've noticed people have more luck with Service Pack 2 if it is integrated with Windows XP upon installation, the update just don't seem to cut it.

[thecoalman]

What is your recommendations about installing sp2?

You don't need to install to sp2 to block pop-ups with IE. Just don't use it or install a pop blocker. The one that comes with the google toolbar works good.

As for me I'm going to install SP2 eventually, probably in a few weeks. I'll let everyone else find the compatibility issues, by then most problems will have been addressed and have a fix.

[CoasterCreator]

same here just playing the waiting game ..besides I can not install SP2 since it does not play well with linux ( I belive I have to unintall any trace of linux to get sp2 installed) will play with it later ..

[Garibaldi]

same here just playing the waiting game ..besides I can not install SP2 since it does not play well with linux ( I belive I have to unintall any trace of linux to get sp2 installed) will play with it later .

Are you running a two partition drive, one ntsf for win xp and a fat32 for linux? What distro are you using? If you still want to use linux with sp2 I would highly recommend downloading Knoppix (www.knoppix.net). Its a free distro based on Debian that runs completely off the cd. Just stick it in a cdrom drive, reboot, and your running linux. You can also save your files to a fat32 partition of your hdd or to a flash drive or floppy. I would highly recommend it. Also it is KDE. If you want Gnome go to www.gnoppix.net

It sounds like sp2 is more bother than its worth. I think I'll hold off on it for now. It sounds like a typical Microsoft product.

[BJ_M]

sp2 problems:

http://www.pcwelt.de/news/sicherheit/103039/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/14/reg_readers_windows/
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5321783.html
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=18527