Desktop and Popups

[Sorena]

Two parts to this, as the subject title shows.

First: I just staved off (for at least a little bit), a nasty thing calling itself SecurityTools. It was really screwing with my computer. One of the things it messed with was my desktop. It caused the icons not to appear. I figured out if I right click the taskbar I can then click on show desktop and the icons would come back.

Now, however, the thing is gone but the icons still disappear. It happened whenever I restart my computer, or just turn it back on after it being off for a while. Also, it happens when I full-screen a window and then close it or minimize it.

Can anyone tell me what's going on? Is there a way to fix it? I know the computer now has a ton of vulnerability because it wasn't just the SecurityTools that was on here. It's what I get for not being able to pay bills and so not having the money for anti-virus. Also, the free one I used once really screwed things up and so I was bleh about trying it again. But I did and that's how I've fixed what little I could.

And could anyone suggest a good po-up blocker? I never had this problem before all the crap happened last night. I mean, I'd get once once in a blue moon but since I"ve been on in less than an hour I've gotten two.

[Darkshine]

Go to malwarebytes.org download the free version and run it. If there's anything hiding it will probably catch it. Also, google RogueFix and run that. Thing is, it might have messed with your registry or have left traces of it behind and that's a pain to fix. Best thing to do is just reformat

[Sorena]

Thanks. Yeah, someone on the other forum I go to said something about fixing the registry as well.

Hm...I can't exactly reformat. I mean I have all the stories I want to keep kept fairly safe in my e-mail account, but I have a sh*tload of pictures and music and some anime. I bought CDs to put them on but then, when I got home, I realized, I have no clue how to do that. *ultimateheaddesk* Yeah I fail at computers. I wish someone would just teach me because honestly, I'd rather do it myself than have to rely on someone else.

I don't even know how to reformat. This means I'd have to take it to my ex and seeing him is the last thing I want to do. I can talk to him just fine over the net but seeing him make my brain stop working and it aggravates the hell outta me. And I don't have the money to take it to a professional and I don't know the number to the guy my friend is friends with who used to work at a computer fixing place.

Ugh! But I'll go try those sites and things and see if they'll help. ^_^

[Keizuki]

Spybot S&D - should cover most things including some registry stuff.

Any free AV should be useful too. Can't be bothered to list them, so here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_antivirus_software ^^

[OrcishIncubus]

From experience, backing up to CDs was the one of the worst back up solutions I've ever tried and I recommend don't doing it.  Long story short: I lost about 20-30% of my files from backing up to CDs, possibly more.

Buy an external HD, either USB 2.0 or Firewire 800 (whichever your computer supports) and after plugging it in, drag and drop files you want to back up into the HD.  In Windows it's easier to open a window specifically for the HD and then dragging files to that window...

Reformatting, just depends on the OS you're using, I'm sure there are quite a bit of tutorials, printable even, that explain how it's done.  If necessary I can do it, but it's lengthy and I tend to over explain things.