Another stupid question time

The Minx · Post by **The Minx** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 3:58 pm

My homepage keeps getting switched to the following every time I restart Firefox:

http://www.searchqu.com/406

I don't know why this is happening, and its' kind of annoying. I think there may be some kind of malware on my computer that does it, though I can't seem to find it. Any advice would be welcome.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 4:41 pm

If you haven't already, install Spybot S&D, run its update, and then do a full scan. It sounds like you have a bad case of spyware.

The Minx · Post by **The Minx** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 11:02 am

Apparently, the Spybot S&D was unable to find the culprit.

I've also had Norton do a complete scan and it can't find anything.

Post by **Dark Silver** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 11:48 am

get rid of norton, do not get macaffee either

get Immunet Anti-Virus. It's free, it stays connected to the definition servers so your always protected by the most current virii definitions.

Plus it does a lot of other cool shit.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 2:39 pm

Another option is Avira AntiVirus - the personal version is free and gives you a "you should upgrade and pay us money lol" window when it updates, but I've never found a better antivirus client.

Besides, with the right knowhow, the nagging is easy to disable.

The Minx · Post by **The Minx** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 9:08 am

OK, I'll go check those out. :)

Batman · Post by **Batman** » Fri Jul 29, 2011 3:48 pm

Find any file starting with searchqu on your rig and kill them. Depending on how you got it, you may also have to get rid of the application that got you into this mess to begin with (happened to me about an hour ago).Get rid of the offending app, get rid of the searchqu files themselves (you might have to kill some stuff in Task manager to make it work) and you should be back up and running again. Worked for me, at any rate.
UPDATE: You seriously need to get rid of the app that got you into this mess. You can apparently get rid of the files themselves all you want, unless you get rid off the app, the fix will only last until the next reboot.

The Minx · Post by **The Minx** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 8:37 pm

I'm still trying to get rid of this thing, the app I loaded was the first thing I got rid of. But the idea of looking up "searchqu" is something I didn't think of. I'll try that next.

But I'm afraid I'll have to go scrub the drive (sigh).

Batman · Post by **Batman** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 4:40 pm

Best of luck to you.

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 10:40 am

Eeep, I should have noticed this thread a while ago. First-off, I highly recommend that you run Combofix (Google Combofix, go to the Bleeping Computer link, scrill down a bit and clip ck the Bleeping Computer link on the tutorial). It's not something I'd recommend using on a regular basis, but it's a very powerful and very frequently updated tool that cuts through a large swathe of malware like a bandsaw through warm cheese. After that, download and install Malwarebytes, update, and run that. Ignore it when it asks if you want to activate the free trial of the professional version, you're just grabbing it for the manual scan itself.

Let me know if you still have problems after those two in addition to what others have advised you. Ironically enough, I'm posting this from work, where this is a good portion of my job to begin with. :)

The Minx · Post by **The Minx** » Wed Aug 17, 2011 3:43 am

Thanks for all the advice and sorry I didn't post here sooner! I downloaded the various programs you recommended, and got rid of the thing. ^.^

But among those things I found was a program called "CyberDefender", and it installed a toolbar in Firefox. I think I must have been looking for one of the others and clicked on a Google Ad which was next to it on the download page or something like that. I later found out that it's a malware program masquerading as a malware protection! >.<

Now I can't get rid of that toolbar, even after I uninstalled it (obviously), and even ComboFix can't seem to get rid of it. I'm such a ditz. T.T

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » Wed Aug 17, 2011 9:46 am

Derp. :/

So neither Combofix nor Malwarebytes kills it? Alright, get Spybot, update and run that, and then I recommend installing Microsoft Security Essentials and give that a shot. Despite being Microsoft, it's actually a very good free antivirus program. You'll need to download the version for your type of Windows (32 or 64-bit, both links are on that page), so if you don't know what kind you have, then post up here with what overall edition of Windows you have and I'll let you know where to find that information.

The Minx · Post by **The Minx** » Thu Aug 18, 2011 12:16 am

White Haven wrote:Derp. :/

:(

White Haven wrote:So neither Combofix nor Malwarebytes kills it? Alright, get Spybot, update and run that, and then I recommend installing Microsoft Security Essentials and give that a shot. Despite being Microsoft, it's actually a very good free antivirus program. You'll need to download the version for your type of Windows (32 or 64-bit, both links are on that page), so if you don't know what kind you have, then post up here with what overall edition of Windows you have and I'll let you know where to find that information.

I've got the 32 bit version.

I tried Spybot earlier, and it didn't work; MSE didn't work either, the toolobar is still there. Would it make sense to try and re-install Firefox, assuming that the offending files are stowing away in the Firefox folder somehow?

LibriumArcana.Games

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