No spyware-like payload. The "stop" button on Iexplore seems to have changed its shape from the last time I used it, but I get no _actual_ homepage hijack or links or popups. No suspicious behaviour other than the loss of half my bookmarks under firefox and the eventual lockup of my computer. I'm gonna have to reinstall, aren't I...?
Purge, thanks a lot for the program. It's not doing anything for me, though... but I have managed to keep my Task Manager open by simply opening it as soon as the machine boots. Oh well. I'm gonna have to buy many DVDs, but I already started rounding up the software I'll reinstall. Boy, does this really suck. Oh, and if anybody wonders, I finally found out what the thing was. It was this weird virus/spyware combo, some virus that installs spyware that installs another kind of spyware. GK.Downloader, or something like that. Panda removed some of it, but the spyware (something named BetterInet, short for "Better Internet") is unstoppable. I have killed like 30 instances from the registry, but it keeps coming back. I'll get rid of it, though, even if it takes a reinstall. I'm not going that far just yet, but if it isn't dead by next week, I will have finished my backups by then. People who make malware and spyware should all be burnt at the stake.
My closest summation of what that could be is that your security settings are blocking the pics. I had similar experiences back when I used mozilla a lot but quickly figured out what the problem was.
Oh, but I've had it in IE. But then again, I had Windows Millenium. It's not a browser thing, it's about those motherfuckers who make malware. Firefox is cool because it deflects most of it, but... aparently not all anymore. I mean, hell, we should be able to surf using whichever browser we want, even IE, and not get screwed by spyware and malware. People who make malware and spyware should be hanged by the genitals from a truck and dragged through glass, then whipped in the areas that are not completely shredded by the glass, then have their bones crushed by hammering, and then rolled in salt. Then they should be burnt to death.
Alchy I never remembered to use MSConfig - but I did Regedit and HijackThis and the Spybot S&D startup editor. The program doesn't appear on the startup there now, but I'm sure it would have helped a lot. Thanks, man! It seems to no longer be happening (I had to uninstall MSoffice, which stopped working, and then I uninstalled the Antivirus and installed another), as long as I start up and bring up the Taskmanager as soon as the startup is performed. For now, the machine is stable. I have all the stuff I need to reinstall, but I won't unless it's necessary. I wish all Malware authors would suffer a lot, then die.
XerdoPwerko: An unlikely but possible reason for the malware's refusal to die could be that it's taking advantage of Windows' (I assuming you're running XP or 2K) File Protection for protected operating system files. To keep important system files (like Explorer.exe, for example) from being overwritten or deleted, Windows keeps a copy in your %system root%\system32\dllcache\ folder. You most likely won't see said folder while just browsing through system32, but it will show up if you type it into the title bar. Try looking in there to see if the malware executable/file has been placed in \dllcache\, and if so delete it before deleting any other copies on your hard drive. There are also a few other hidden folders that work much in the same way as \dllcache\, but I can't for the life of me remember them.
