Search Desktop

[Howard]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

My wife's computer got real slow. She says it happened the same time as
Windows XP told her to add a Search Desktop feature. Is this a real
Windows program? If so, what is the best way to remove it and everything
it has indexed?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Windows does not have a search desktop feature. And any desktop search
utilities I am aware of require you to actively seek them out to install
them. I am afraid that your wife has been scammed. If you were to give us
the NAME of the desktop search program, we may be able to assist you.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"

<howard@brazee.net> wrote in message
news:FtsSe.7335$z2.1543@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> My wife's computer got real slow. She says it happened the same time as
> Windows XP told her to add a Search Desktop feature. Is this a real
> Windows program? If so, what is the best way to remove it and everything
> it has indexed?

 

[Rock]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

howard@brazee.net wrote:
> My wife's computer got real slow. She says it happened the same time as
> Windows XP told her to add a Search Desktop feature. Is this a real
> Windows program? If so, what is the best way to remove it and everything
> it has indexed?

It would help if you gave the name of the program. No, XP doesn't have
anything like that and it wouldn't have been Windows XP that told her to
add it. Check in Add/Remove programs for an entry for it and remove it.
Also do a thorough scan for malware in safe mode using a variety of
programs.

THE PARASITE FIGHT
Finding, Removing & Protecting Yourself From Scumware
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm

Richard Harper’s Guide to Cleaning Pests
http://rgharper.mvps.org/cleanit.htm

http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/slowcom.htm

--
Rock
MS MVP Windows - Shell/User

 

[Howard]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

On 3-Sep-2005, "Richard Urban [MVP]" <richardurbanREMOVETHIS@hotmail.com>
wrote:

> Windows does not have a search desktop feature. And any desktop search
> utilities I am aware of require you to actively seek them out to install
> them. I am afraid that your wife has been scammed. If you were to give us
> the NAME of the desktop search program, we may be able to assist you.

That's what I thought when I checked for an obvious candidate to uninstall.
She has run Spybot since then and it didn't see anything. Maybe I can
find another tool that can tell me the name of the program.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Only download files from the program developers web sites. Get them from a
third party website and you have no idea that they are the latest version
and that they have not been tampered with.

Download, install and update the following from the developers websites
before running the programs on your computer.

Ad-AwareSE (Free) version1.06 from:
http://www.lavasoft.de/support/download/

SpyBot Search and Destroy version 1.4 (Free)from:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

Ewido Security Suite Trial from:
http://www.ewido.net/en/download/

AVG Antivirus (Free) from :
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1


--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"

<howard@brazee.net> wrote in message
news:qotSe.7352$z2.473@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...
>
> On 3-Sep-2005, "Richard Urban [MVP]" <richardurbanREMOVETHIS@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Windows does not have a search desktop feature. And any desktop search
>> utilities I am aware of require you to actively seek them out to install
>> them. I am afraid that your wife has been scammed. If you were to give us
>> the NAME of the desktop search program, we may be able to assist you.
>
> That's what I thought when I checked for an obvious candidate to
> uninstall.
> She has run Spybot since then and it didn't see anything. Maybe I can
> find another tool that can tell me the name of the program.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Download, install, update and run all of the following.

Ad-Aware
http://www.pcbutts1.com/downloads/aawsepersonal.exe

Spybot search and destroy
http://www.pcbutts1.com/downloads/spybotsd14.exe

Ewido Security Suite Trial version
http://www.pcbutts1.com/downloads/ewidosetup.exe

Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (Beta1)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=321CD7A2-6A57-4C57-A8BD-DBF62EDA9671&displaylang=en

If none of the above fixes the issue then download Hijack this, run it, save
a copy of the log file and cut and paste it back here to this group so that
I can analyze it. Ignore anyone especially the troll Leythos, who will tag
along a nonsense post to this message, who tells you to post it elsewhere. I
need to see it not them.


HijackThis
http://www.pcbutts1.com/downloads/HijackThis.zip


The authors of the above programs, with the exception of Microsoft has given
the owner of pcbutts1.com express written permission to redistribute their
software.

--


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NEW Embedded system W/Linux. We now sell DVR cards.
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<howard@brazee.net> wrote in message
news:qotSe.7352$z2.473@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...
>
> On 3-Sep-2005, "Richard Urban [MVP]" <richardurbanREMOVETHIS@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Windows does not have a search desktop feature. And any desktop search
>> utilities I am aware of require you to actively seek them out to install
>> them. I am afraid that your wife has been scammed. If you were to give us
>> the NAME of the desktop search program, we may be able to assist you.
>
> That's what I thought when I checked for an obvious candidate to
> uninstall.
> She has run Spybot since then and it didn't see anything. Maybe I can
> find another tool that can tell me the name of the program.

 

[Rock]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

howard@brazee.net wrote:

> On 3-Sep-2005, "Richard Urban [MVP]" <richardurbanREMOVETHIS@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>>Windows does not have a search desktop feature. And any desktop search
>>utilities I am aware of require you to actively seek them out to install
>>them. I am afraid that your wife has been scammed. If you were to give us
>>the NAME of the desktop search program, we may be able to assist you.
>
>
> That's what I thought when I checked for an obvious candidate to uninstall.
> She has run Spybot since then and it didn't see anything. Maybe I can
> find another tool that can tell me the name of the program.

Howard please don't post HijackThis logs here. There are specialty
forums for that where the experts can look at your log.

Forums to Interpret HijackThis Logs:

http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/
http://forum.aumha.org/viewforum.php?f=30
http://forums.tomcoyote.org/
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/

--
Rock
MS MVP Windows - Shell/User

 

[Howard]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

On 3-Sep-2005, "Richard Urban [MVP]" <richardurbanREMOVETHIS@hotmail.com>
wrote:

> Windows does not have a search desktop feature. And any desktop search
> utilities I am aware of require you to actively seek them out to install
> them. I am afraid that your wife has been scammed. If you were to give us
> the NAME of the desktop search program, we may be able to assist you.

Whatever put it in did a good job of looking like Windows, complete with
logo. When we click the thing on the task bar, it opens a Windows type
window. I opened the task manager and killed the following processes:

WindowsSearchIndixer.exe
WindowsSearchFilter.exe
WindowsSearch.exe

I then ran SpyBot again. It is up to date, and did not find anything except
a Gator, which it deleted.

Her computer appears to be working better with these killed, but I expect
them to return when she re-boots. Now to discover what program created it,
where the indexed files are, and how to uninstall it.

 

[Rock]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

howard@brazee.net wrote:

> On 3-Sep-2005, "Richard Urban [MVP]" <richardurbanREMOVETHIS@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>>Windows does not have a search desktop feature. And any desktop search
>>utilities I am aware of require you to actively seek them out to install
>>them. I am afraid that your wife has been scammed. If you were to give us
>>the NAME of the desktop search program, we may be able to assist you.
>
>
> Whatever put it in did a good job of looking like Windows, complete with
> logo. When we click the thing on the task bar, it opens a Windows type
> window. I opened the task manager and killed the following processes:
>
> WindowsSearchIndixer.exe
> WindowsSearchFilter.exe
> WindowsSearch.exe
>
> I then ran SpyBot again. It is up to date, and did not find anything except
> a Gator, which it deleted.
>
> Her computer appears to be working better with these killed, but I expect
> them to return when she re-boots. Now to discover what program created it,
> where the indexed files are, and how to uninstall it.

Howard you need more than just spybotS&D - it doesn't catch everything.
It takes a combination of these programs run in safe mode.

--
Rock
MS MVP Windows - Shell/User

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Rock wrote:
>
> > Her computer appears to be working better with these killed, but I expect
> > them to return when she re-boots. Now to discover what program created it,
> > where the indexed files are, and how to uninstall it.
>
> Howard you need more than just spybotS&D - it doesn't catch everything.
> It takes a combination of these programs run in safe mode.

agreed.

 

[Howard]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

On 4-Sep-2005, Plato <|@|.|> wrote:

> > Howard you need more than just spybotS&D - it doesn't catch everything.
> > It takes a combination of these programs run in safe mode.
>
> agreed.

Well, Microsoft's Beta anti-spyware didn't eliminate it. Whomever created
this did a real professional job, as I never would have suspected it was
spyware. The Search Desktop on the task bar has the Microsoft logo and
when I right click it it pulls up a window. It's only screw up is that it
is not at all obvious how to use it when we get try using it (maybe we don't
need to use it for it to use us).

 

[Nightowl]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

howard@brazee.net wrote on Mon, 5 Sep 2005:

>Well, Microsoft's Beta anti-spyware didn't eliminate it. Whomever created
>this did a real professional job, as I never would have suspected it was
>spyware. The Search Desktop on the task bar has the Microsoft logo and
>when I right click it it pulls up a window. It's only screw up is that it
>is not at all obvious how to use it when we get try using it (maybe we don't
>need to use it for it to use us).


Howard, I'm just wondering: it's not this,is it?
http://desktop.msn.com/tour_desktop/pc.aspx

--
Nightowl