Help, My Laptop Has Been Hit With Some Nasty Spyware Thingy!

[Pepper]

Sure, the recovery disks, or recovery partition, will get it back to factory settings, if that's actually what you want. Factory settings is my biggest gripe with big-vendor computers and is only slightly less annoying than a malware infection.

First thing I do with a new computer is delete the partition and install a clean OS without all that bloat crapware they preload. If I really want google toolbar, or a desktop search app or a particular media player, I'll install the one I want, thanks a lot.

 

[charper1]

I too would save factory reset as the LAST RESORT.

 

[jayn_j]

I too would save factory reset as the LAST RESORT.

The OP said that he had just started sorting out a NEW computer. I posted my suggestion based on that. This piece of malware is especially nasty, and frankly he stated he isn't at your level of savvy. I really believe in this particular instance, he is better off.

 

[Drone35]

I run McAfee antivirus plus and run Windows Defender and Adaware on all my computers seems to keep it clean!

 

[DerekE]

So this brings up the question, what do we all use to protect our computers?

Personally, I used Spybot, Adaware, and AntiVir XP. I haven't had a problem in 6 years (knocking on head...I mean wood )

Macintosh, Firefox, and not surfing bad sites does nicely.