Myway Search Assitant + Very Slow

Greetings Forum

I have a friend who asked me to take a look at her computer after she tried doing a few things I suggested to her, over the past 2 weeks. I suggested things I learned here from MG's.

She said her computer was terribly slow! Using Quickbooks, has become very tedious & she uses that software on a daily basis. She said that in between transactions, there is a mandatory wait time before she can even input anything next, wait time was about 1-2 minutes, when it used to be 10 seconds or so. She also said that her computer would take about 10 minutes or so, to be ready to use, before the little icon stopped flashing the "Sand Timer/Hourglass" - and have a ready desktop.

I asked her to (she is not very comfortable or knowledgeable with downloading off internet, and not very tech saavy) So with guidance, we proceeded. I asked her to download the normal: Mbam, Sas, Avast, Ccleaner, etc. She told me they were already on her desktop & didn't remember what they were. I then remembered that I did something to her computer about a year or so ago, she just let them be there dormant? Anyway we ran scans & continued. Of course, we updated. I then had her download Ad-aware and Advanced system care. We discussed things as they were found & I provided what I had gleaned. We researched a few files I did not know before deleting. Then I had her go through here applications from Control Panel to see if anything looked familiar & was no longer using. We deleted some items via "Add-Remove Programs".

She said not much improvement, but a little better though. So, I stopped by and did some more stuff last week & cleaned up a little more stuff, including a Physical cleaning of the hardware. I did find something called Myway Search Assistant that could not be removed. I ran all of the scanners & only S&D found the myway. It said it removed it, but there it was still in the list of programs once it populated. I then ran adaware, but did not find it. I found a program from "Myway" I think (?) that was an uninstaller, But that did not remove it either. I ran out of time that day, & returned today. To continue helping her out.

I now just completed the steps of the "Readme" and will attach the logs.

Fyi - I will install an additional 512 mb of Ram to increase to 1 gb. This is a P4 machine at about 2.8 GHz running Windows XP Home Sp2. I will update to SP3, once this mess is cleaned up.

Thanks to this awesome forum. :cool

2nd post to follow with last attachment

 

The final scan log from MGtools is attached.

Thanks Again.

 

Hey Kestrel -

Thanks for the quick reply.

"Myway Search Assistant" is still showing up in the populated list of programs. No option to delete?

Also, I read that "IncrediMail" could be a reason or a piece of software that this Myway could attach it self to that when downloading? I asked my friend if it would be okay to delete/if she still uses it, and she replied that it would be okay to remove it.

SAS log is attached.

 

Hello Guys,

Thanks for the reply & Chaslang: Thanks for your suggestion. :wave

I tried the batch file within MGtools, to try to remove the Myway Search Assistant.
Does it run & complete in split second? Because I saw no menu's just a flash of the command box and then gone and finished.

But sadly alas, Myway Search Assistant is still there!

I was also trying to remove "Musicmatch" from my friends computer and it too won't be deleted.
I keep getting some kind of error I can't make heads or tails of, then a 2nd window pops up that says to shut down files & empty temp folders?
I am in Control Panel > Add Remove Programs. Trying to remove those two applications from the populated list.

I did remove IncrediMail & a smiley/wallpaper program associated with it called Magentic.

Would really like to know if this machine of hers is really infected. Why won't these applications be uninstalled? Don't know if she had a chance to really see if there is any improvement with speed and if the "Slowness" problem is any better?

Please inform if anything needs to be done on my part & if any other logs need to be attached.

Thank you so much!

 

Good Morning Chaslang (and the rest of forum helpers )

I truly appreciate the assistance as I am sure my friend does as well.

I will try the suggested removal tool for MusicMatch and if all appears ok and there is no infection, I presume then that the "Listed" name of the adware, Myway Search Assistant, still remaining is not an issue?

And then we could continue with the final steps of the Readme?

Please advise.

Thanks so much and I have already upgraded the memory for my friend - 1gb total (for now)

PS - What is the difference between (and reasons for?) Total Physical Memory & Available Physical Memory?

Have a great weekend