Today my Dad got a new PC for use in his room. I've been playing around with it (installing IE 7, Flash Player etc.) and a really weird thing keeps happening.

When I first got the Internet working, my first intention was to install Mozilla Firefox. I opened up Internet Explorer 6, went to Google, typed in Mozilla Firefox and the moment the mouse hovered over the link to the website, IE closed and a message appeared:

USE INTERNET EXPLORER YOU DOPE wrote:I DNT HATE MOZILLA BUT USE IE OR ELSE...

Yeah. So I found a way around it by going straight to the Firefox website from the address bar. I installed Firefox, and as soon as I start it up the program crashes and the same message pops up.

This was a problem, but since I could still use Internet Explorer 6/7 I wasn't HUGELY bothered with it. It's only now, that I've tried to access Youtube, that I see the extent of this problem.

When I hit enter to head over to Youtube, Internet Explorer 7 crashed once again with the message:

youtube IS BANNED wrote:youtube is banned you fool,The administrators didn't write this program guess who did??

MUAHAHAHA!!

By this time I'm thinking [insert hundreds of swear words here].

I'm annoyed now, has anyone had this problem before? AVG Free Edition - Control Centre can't even locate the virus - does anyone know of a better virus protection program that I can use?

<Screams inside "HELP ME!">

Edit: Oh yeah, the quotes are copied letter for letter. My grammar isn't that bad.

USB virus - these days virus are spreading through USBs. So one precaution measure would be to disable the auto run feature in the system. How to do this ? follow the simple steps:

Click Start -> Run.
Type RegEdit in the Open text box, then press ENTER.
In the Registry Editor, locate and click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CDRom

Modify the value of the Autorun to 0 (zero) so that CD-ROMs and Audio CDs do not run and start automatically when inserted.
Next navigate to the following registry subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Modify the value of the NoDriveTypeAutoRun entry to 0xb5 value to turn off the AutoRun feature for CD-ROMs by right-click NoDriveTypeAutoRun and then click Modify to type B5 in the Value data box. Select Hexadecimal, and then click OK.
Quit Registry Editor.
Restart your computer.


The above stop auto run from usb devices. Now to kill the villain.


The steps to kill the virus is…

Go to Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del)
in that click on Process Tab
Delete only the svchost.exe of your user name
type c:\heap41a in you address barof your explorer and you can trace this folder
Now give a smile… you have done it….

Get the exact details here : http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses ... heapa.html
This site lists the cause of spread, removal and protection. Its a silly virus and easy to kill.

A silly virus indeed... I always wonder what kind of people make them and why? WHY?

I know. Firefox clearly Owns Internet Explorer.

guru wrote:So one precaution measure would be to disable the auto run feature in the system. How to do this ? follow the simple steps:

Click Start -> Run.
Type RegEdit in the Open text box, then press ENTER.
In the Registry Editor, locate and click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CDRom

Modify the value of the Autorun to 0 (zero) so that CD-ROMs and Audio CDs do not run and start automatically when inserted.
Next navigate to the following registry subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Modify the value of the NoDriveTypeAutoRun entry to 0xb5 value to turn off the AutoRun feature for CD-ROMs by right-click NoDriveTypeAutoRun and then click Modify to type B5 in the Value data box. Select Hexadecimal, and then click OK.
Quit Registry Editor.
Restart your computer.

I like this, it worked like a charm, I don't have any computer viruses but i've often wondered if there was a way to disable the autorun feature when inserting a disc into the cd or dvd drives, i'd never really looked into the steps to disable it but now I don't have to, thanks G.

Heck yes! It's gone! Woohoo! Thanks so much Guru, I owe you one!

<Starts up Youtube in Mozilla Firefox to add insult to the injury>