How are you managing with this Falcon Chick? Still got it? Welcome to the wonderful world of Malware.
As you said the link I posted was only to results of a Google but it did show what an absolute minefield and trap for the unwary this stuff is. It is extremely difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff and most often the cure is as bad or worse than the infection. I had a look at the first 2 pages of those results and would not with any confidence recommend any of the results as being reliable or trustworthy.
As a simple rule of thumb,never ever trust any of the sponsored ads as it is a living certainty they are scam sites will cause you more grief and/or try and get money from you.
I wouldn't trust anything offering "free scan" or "free removal tool download" either as a "free scan" will often install something so it has something to find which leads to "free download" which will be free but the "removal" bit will ask for money to remove what the "free scan" installed and will probably not fix your problem anyway as it will leave you a gift which will be used against you in the future.
Cheerful,positive and upbeat post this is,eh?
It is difficult to give advice as like I said this can be a minefield but I would do this-
1/ Understand that this is advice from a layman and as such it would most definetely be worth waiting for other opinions or advice from qualified people.
2/ Read point 1 again
3/ Download and install Adaware 2007 from
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_free.php (official site)
Spybot S&D from
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html (official site)
Ccleaner from
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4191.html (official site will link your download to here or Filehippo anyway)
4/ Back up anything you can't afford to lose,documents,photos etc to cd/dvd just in case!
5/ Assuming you are using XP, set a System Restore point,then update and run the above programs to get the feel of them and remove any rubbish they find. I think each one has a user forum/tutorial accessible via those links.System restore will give you a measure of protection if something goes pear shaped.
6/ When you are comfortable with the above turn OFF System Restore on all drives.Malware often reinstalls itself if this is left on.
7/ Restart your pc in Safe Mode. Run your Anti Virus (NOT VirusRanger!!!!!!!!!!!!),run Adaware,run Spybot and delete any threats found.
8/ Run a Search for any reference to virusranger and delete.
9/ Now run Ccleaner especially the Registry scan part,this will hopefully remove any registry entries related to VirusRanger.
10/Restart Windows normally and turn System Restore back on.
Hopefully that will fix it if not try asking for help at
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/ Again understand the disclaimer in point 1. Also understand that stuff like this does not always have a happy ending,your computer will not be "destroyed" ,at worse you may need to format and reinstall Windows but seeing as you have backed up all your important stuff in point 4,it is an inconvenience not the end of civilisation as we know it.
Edit: Psyber is correct in saying this is a steep learning curve but it is doable and spyware scans should be something you routinely do.
Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:47 pm
Sorry I can't be more help.
