Windows XP and IE on Crack

Hi Guys!

I am trying to help my boss fix his personal PC - and man does he have loads of junk on here! Anyways - I am attempting to uninstall and clean off most unneccessary programs and spyware - and it is running relatively smoothly again. The main problem still remains though - whenever you try to open IE it flickers and then closes - no error message whatsoever. Any programs that try to access the internet (such as MSN Messenger etc) seem to be "blocked" as they also cannot find the Network. I suspect there is something running in the background causing these and other issues.

Is there a good program here I can download to disc and run on that PC to try and diagnose what the problem could be?

Does any of this sound familiar to anyone?

thanks and Regards,
Jeff

 

I also noticed that there is a "Search Assistant" that shows up on the main Windows Toolbar all the time - and there is a "BackWeb" exe running in Processes of Task Manager...

 

download a program called Spybot Search and Destroy, and Ad-aware, then run both and update both of them. Then do a scan on both of them and they will get rid of those programs which may be causing it.

 

Hiya Glove Have you run spyware tools like CW Shredder and Stinger ? Might be one of those pesky critters. Wouldn't hurt to D/L HiJack This and run it then check out the results for baddies (BHOS, Hijackers and the like) then post your HiJackThis test results in the fabulous Spyware Forum here at Club Geek
EDIT: Also what Neo said is very good advice.

 

Adaware and Spybot
are very handy tools. Also SpyWare Blaster will help keep it from happening again. Oh yeah, be sure to use the "IMMUNIZE" button on Spybot to innoculate your system from more blackhats.

 

stinger really only checks for major worms and trojans. this sounds more like spyware or adware to me. Stinger is a great program though.