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General discussion

Win Fixer

by golden1 Sep 12, 2005 1:45PM PDT

When I go to a forum I belong to Win Fixer pops up. There are 5 pages I have to close to get rid of it. I haven't noticed it on any other site. How can I get rid of it? I cleared my cookies already.

Discussion is locked

9 Posts
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Winfixer = Nasty Spyware
by Stan Chambers Sep 12, 2005 2:10PM PDT

Set your browser to block pop-ups.

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Also
by Stan Chambers Sep 12, 2005 2:13PM PDT

I wouldn't visit a site that's pushing spyware. Just do a Google search for more info.

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Golden, Try This...
by Grif Thomas Forum moderator Sep 13, 2005 2:23AM PDT
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Similar Winfix problem but worse maybe
by evennewerbie Sep 13, 2005 2:34AM PDT

Compared to this evennewerbie, golden1 is an expert - he knows what Winfixer IS, he knows he doesn't want it, is sure he can AFFORD not to have it.

I understand at least my system has become slow and unstable like it was firing on two cylinders. Then seemed like a couple of cybercubscouts looking for a good deed to do happened on me and either installed themselves or asked me to do it warning me I was in dire difficulties, so I did. Winfix is now nearly the first thing I see when I light up (I'm a newbie) the computer. First it told me I had 16,000+ Severe System Threats and risked disaster. After a few days it told me I now have 23,000+ and risk disaster. This has lead me to believe I risk disaster. Most days - or rather most times (it's unstable) - I tell it to remind me later. Like golden1 I have to persist a bit to close Winfix. But then it tells me it's still running in the background.

What would happen if it was NOT still running, would I get 23million Severe System Threats I wonder?

But some days, rather than risk disaster I try to take up its offer help. I get it to do a Total System Scan. It reports 216 invalid items found. Oh dear, how has 23,000+ become 216? - maybe one invalid item is about a hundred severe system threats? Maybe there are 216 threats inside the Total System and 22,787+ outside it? Oh and 3 bad structure items, earlier this afternoon it only had 2. I hope it's still got a lot of good structure items, maybe they will see me OK? Anyway better do something about it, just having it running is not enough apparently, it's not keeping up, maybe I have to have it galloping or tunnelling . Polite scoutcub says certainly Sir, if you'll just please register that will be

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Same Advice As Above...
by Grif Thomas Forum moderator Sep 13, 2005 2:44AM PDT
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Win Fixer
by golden1 Sep 13, 2005 11:42AM PDT

Thanks for the help.

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WinFixer maybe not my only problem
by evennewerbie Sep 18, 2005 9:57PM PDT

Grateful for help. If I'm slow to respond it's because the suggestions are taking me a long time to implement. Firstly I did in meantime just use the ordinary Windows programme disinstalling procedure (Big Words that risk giving false impression I generally know what I'm talking about) for disinstalling Win Fixer. It's begninng to dawn on Evennewerbie that words like 'disinstall' 'delete' 'cancel' 'remove' etc. may be compuspeak translations of the English phrase 'I can't see it any more', but at least most if not all the popups I was getting before seem to have ceased.

As to the suggestions made in this thread I did already have Norton Internet Security and Ad-Aware SE Personal and they seemed to have peacefully coexisted with WinFixer. Norton however in this period has been telling me to disinstall and reinstall NIS, which I did with some help from Symantec. It prompt-led me to what looks like a new routine I hadn't seen before of Security Scan and Virus Checks, it said this would take a few minutes, famous last words it took a couple of hours, which told me my security is OK but my Virus Status is 'Infected' (Boh!??), that no viruses detected in memory but 10 files infected on my disk drives (forgotten viruses Boh!??) their nature is Adware.NetOptimiser, Adware.180Solutions and Adaware.180Search. Following through to the Symantec Security Response site it was just not clear to me yet what I should do about these viruses.

Following advice in this thread I downloaded and installed ?Spybot Search & Destroy? Spyware Removal Tool. I have tried to use it twice. Each time it seemed to start detecting nasties not detected by Norton and then my system totally crashed, won't switch on, won't switch off. I know the music, it happened to me once or twice before. All I can do is try to switch it on and off about fifty or more times, no exaggeration, often unplug and plug it since it won't switch off, and after a worrying day or two, bits of startup gradually make appearances. So I'm not about to try Spybot again till I have cured whatever other problem there seems to be.

I also didn't try the suggestion of removal tool http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.vundo.removal.tool.html
because of a newbie problem - it warns me to worry about shared files, I don't know what these are, what this means, whether I have any, whether important, or how to find out and Windows Guide (which I have only in Italian) leaves me no wiser.

Concerning WinFixer I see now that there are several threads on this and it is widely condemned. I'd just add - repeating previous comment of mine - shouldn't asking your e-mail password set particular alarm bells ringing?

Maybe WinFixer is not my real or not my only problem. Even (apparently?) without it system is slow and unstable. Nearly every shutdown is 'irregular'. Worried about total loss of my files, documents and photos I've tried to copy them onto CD using Nero Burning Rom but each time screen goes blue and tells me 'system occupied' and I have to exit irregularly. (Could that be just because I try to copy too much?). I do scan, defrag, and 'remove' (see above) temp files quite often. The C disk seems to be only (?) just over 1/4 full (8GB/20.7) but I'm wondering if this excludes a lot of hidden stuff - the abovementioned Virus Scan went through nearly 57,000 files which seemed to include every deleted file and past internet search in the several year history of this computer I'm wondering if I need to get one of these eraser programs? Sorry if this is long - actually it's a pretty tight condensate of what I've been through.

evennerwerbie

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Here's how I fixed mine. . .
by Coryphaeus Sep 18, 2005 10:25PM PDT
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Win Fixer
by golden1 Oct 17, 2005 10:50AM PDT

Thanks for the info!

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