[dantheman]

Lately, Intenet Explorer has displayed a message like that in the topic heading for certain sites. The message doesn't seem to be related to my AV program (AVG), and it happens only in IE.

A quick look online showed that there might be a virus afoot, possibly spyware. I have SpyBot, so I tried to run it. But SpyBot won't run - you click on the icon, it spins its wheels, and that's that. So I uninstalled it and reinstalled it.

Now, the SpyBot icon appears in the taskbar (lower right, near the clock), but clicking on it doesn't do anything. If you hover your mouse over it, you see a message about its stats, and if you right click on the icon, you get the option to run it. But again, clicking doesn't do anything. I think it's probably running in the background, but I want to run a scan on the system, so I'm not sure what's what.

Can anyone recommend a spyware detector?

[SkipMagic]

Try Malware Bytes or Ad-Aware.

[dantheman]

I already had Ad-Aware, so I just ran it, and it found 33 objects. Removed them, but maybe I need to reboot, because the message is still there:

Quote

Internet Explorer Warning - visiting this web site may harm your computer!

Most likely causes:
The website contains exploits that can launch a malicious code on your computer
Suspicious network activity detected
There might be an active spyware running on your computer

What you can try:


Purchase Antivirus System PRO for secure Internet surfing (Recommended).


Check your computer for viruses and malware.


More information

Clicking on More information brings you to a page for purchasing Antivirus System PRO by Magic Software Inc. No idea what that is.

I'll reboot..

[SkipMagic]

Yeah, definitely a virus. Here's a page on how to remove it; however, since it just calls for you to run Malware Bytes, go ahead and do that once your computer has rebooted.

[dantheman]

This problem may be more serious than I thought. I downloaded and ran Malware Bytes, but when I click on it to run it, nothing happens. For a split second, you get the hourglass, but that's it - this is the same thing that happens when I run SpyBot.

Do I need to reboot after downloading it? (I did run the setup on it..)

[SkipMagic]

If you have one piece of malware on your system it's not unusual to have a few others you don't know about--or just assume belong to the first one. Do you know how to get into safe mode? Reboot your computer, and right as it's coming back up (before it gets to any Windows screen), hit F8 on your computer every second until you get a black-and-white screen giving you the option of starting up in safe mode.

Once you're in, try running the Malwarebytes software again.

[dantheman]

Can do. Everything else in the PC seems to be working fine, too - although a tad slow...

[dantheman]

Okay, I am in Safe Mode now. I clicked the Malwarebytes icon on the desktop, and again nothing happened. I tried the SpyBot icon, too, and same result.

Then I opened Windows Explorer|My Computer and right clicked on the C: drive, choosing Scan with Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. Nothing happened.

(BTW, it's Comodo I have, not AVG. Got rid of the latter on the PC and forgot.)

I'm now opening Comodo via Explorer (it didn't initialize in Safe Mode, but maybe that's normal?). Seems to be taking a while to initialize, though. I think it's hung up.

Wait, now it says "The Defense+ is not functioning properly! Please run the diagnostics utlity to fix," but when I do (and it comes up with errors), another message says "The diagnostics utility could not fix some of the problems. Would you like to create a diagnostics report?"

I created the report, and it says there's an incompatible program in the system: ZoneAlarm. But I can't find it anywhere.