xp antivirus 2008 virus

[bespurcell]

My brother has this on his computer. Does anyone know how to remove it free?

[Mikz86TA]

What is the .exe thats running?

[bespurcell]

I'm not sure. My bother lives 2 hours away and knows less about computers than I do. His wife says she went to the add/remove section and couldn't find it. That's all the info I have on it.

[bespurcell]

How would you find out what .exe is running?

[chvyblzr]

Hi bespurcel here is something that might fix your brothers problem with Norton 2008. hope that works take care

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/norton2008.nsf/docid/2007082908475279?Open&docid=2005033108162039&nsf=tsgeninfo.nsf&view=docid

[bespurcell]

I don't think he has Norton.

[1low_s10]

if It were me if ya know the folder its in go to that folder and delete the whole folder!

[chvyblzr]

Here is a better taskmanger for window xp

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

[bespurcell]

Is that just to identify what .exe it is?

[C4Tom]

um... xp anitvirus 2008 virus... isn't that an oxymoron?

It is an advertising trojan that pops up fake virus alerts to get you to buy the product offered. He will need an adaware type program to rid his computer of it.

Pass this link to him:
http://www.2-spyware.com/remove-xpantivirus.html

[bespurcell]

Thanks everyone.

[Mikz86TA]

Hard to say what he has. ControlAltDelete brings up TaskManager. Under the processes tab is all the running executible programs. Some are listed as SYSTEM, NETWORK, his user name, etc. Id start with all the ones in his user name. Write them down and use Google to search it. (taskmgr.exe , explorer.exe , etc) There should come up some info in his search about what each of those represent. He should recognize some as being from a program he has lioke MusicMatch, an Anti-Virus program, iExplorer is the internet program, explorer is the desktop program and so forth. Sometimes the .exe thats a dummy or virus will be found. So if he does find one, then he can now search for ways to remove it. That is where I usually start. Most of the time its under the username.
I use BleepingComputer.com to get help on removal.
Alot of viruses and trojans can attach to an existing folder. So dont start deleting stuff. Also some are spread over a few areas, so you may not find it all and a simple delete wont fix the issue. Most of the time you need a program to get rid of the attached worms and sh*t . And you usually need to be running in SafeMode. The help at BleepingComp will walk him through the steps and provide links to the freeware to get rid of it.

[bespurcell]

Thanks. I'll pass that along.