Please Help Me...I've Been Hijacked

[josephmerrick]

Hello Everyone,

Recently I added some programs: Advanced System Care Pro, Iobit Malware, and BitDefender Anti-Virus (after MSE crashed). Once this was done it ran smoothly and increased everything on my PC. Somehow things went south when Microsoft Security Essentials would not load (that's why I have BitDefender (Paid)) so I uninstalled it, tried to reinstall, but to no avail. Next, my Malwarebytes (paid) said the program was corrupt and missing file destination, or something like that. I uninstalled it and I have reinstalled and there doesn't seem to be any conflict with the other programs. Now for the actual menace that has caused this problem: I have 4shared now as my browser and I am assuming there is a virus and/or malware on my PC that no program can find. I uninstalled the toolbar through Firefox, but I have no idea how to get rid of the browser. I tried using Iobit uninstaller, the program disappeared from the program list but it still remains on my computer. I contacted Microsoft who were no help and I know here people actually know what the hell they are doing. I just need detailed instructions on how to wipe all of this crap off my PC, from all the files it's installed to the registry. I am not good at this sort of thing so if you could explain things like I am a three year old, I'd appreciate it (I don't even know how to get a copy of my log). PC- Toshiba Portege, i5 2.3 ghz, 128gb SSD, 8gb RAM, Win 7 Ultimate.

 

[J_E_D_70]

Could you save off your important files and do a system restore? If MSE crashed you had/have something else going on.

If you don't want to go that far yet, google and burn off a copy of Kaspersky Rescue CD (it's free). Boot to that CD and run the virus scanner. It takes a long time but is very thorough. It cleaned off a trojan that two other scnanners (MSE and AVG) missed.

 

[MC_K7]

I think the problem is that you have too many security products. I recommend you use only one instead. BitDefender is actually one of the best right now so if you have a paid version I would stick to it and get rid of the rest. The problem is that even the installation of Bitdefender might have been corrupted by the other security software so you might have to reinstall it too.

When you have more than 2 anti-virus they can enter in conflict and will slow down your computer and make it less stable. In other words, they'll fight each other for control contributing to make your PC less secure because none of them will be fully functional. This is why I recommend to use only 1.

Since your Windows installation seems pretty messed up already, I wouldn't waste time trying to fix it. Instead I would reformat and reinstall a clean version of Windows. Then you install only Bitdefender. That's the best way to go if you want to get back to optimal performance and security.