Stupid Icons won't go away

[MarineCorps]

I know what they are. What do you think was the first thing I dealt with on this machine? http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=55343

What i want to know is do they hightlight when you clcik on them?

 

[Strider]

I know what they are. What do you think was the first thing I dealt with on this machine? http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=55343

What i want to know is do they hightlight when you clcik on them?

Yeah, they highlight (checking out the link right after this post).

Edit: Looked at the link, and I have the exact same program (Lavasofts Ad aware), and it was one of the things I tried before I made the thread. No luck, they aren't any type of spyware, or it isn't picking them up as them.

Edit2: I'm running it again and I'll post a screenshot of the results also.

 

[MarineCorps]

Yeah, they highlight (checking out the link right after this post).

Hmm so much for the ghost theory. Going by the scrrenshot I say you have XP. You could always do a system restore. As I am puzzled. As it's always been easy to delete them in the past.

 

[MarineCorps]

Yeah, they highlight (checking out the link right after this post).

Edit: Looked at the link, and I have the exact same program (Lavasofts Ad aware), and it was one of the things I tried before I made the thread. No luck, they aren't any type of spyware, or it isn't picking them up as them.

Edit2: I'm running it again and I'll post a screenshot of the results also.

Adaware won't pick them up. As they are nothing more then shells. Shortcuts really. You have to delete them manually. Which you can't do for some odd reason

 

[Strider]

Hmm so much for the ghost theory. Going by the scrrenshot I say you have XP. You could always do a system restore. As I am puzzled. As it's always been easy to delete them in the past.

If I'm thinking correctly, I've gotten the same icons in the past, but I was able to delete them then (might be another set of icons though).

Why these won't allow me to delete them I have no idea.

 

[LLXerxes]

For some strange reason when I started my computer up today I had some new icons on my desktop. I didn't install anything new, and I have no idea how they got there. Normally this wouldn't be a big problem, as I can just delete them, but for some strange reason they just won't delete. I right-click on them and no menu appears, I select them and hit the delete key and nothing happens.

It's something with just these couple of Icons, because the other ones (the ones I want on my computer) I can still delete fine.

Anyone have any idea what's going on?

Also, incase it helps. Heres a screenshot of some of them:

OMG, I have the same problem
It's a Trojan. THere's no way to delete them, no way to move them, anything...
I dunno what it is, but it appeared after quitting a game for me (Strongold). I've had them one time before when instaled MSNMessenger plus 3.41, but I could move3 and delete those.
All they do are they're links to certain websites on Internet explorer, and half of them don't even work!
THis Trojan also reset my FF homepage to something random like http://www.fjaieghaeiohyajjfiatuearngaie.com or something. And it screwed up my start bar items...
stupid icons!

stupid start menu icons!

 

[Gogf]

Well, it's probably some sort of spyware. I suggest first scanning your computer with Spybot: Search and Destroy, and then trying Adaware. Might help.

 

[LLXerxes]

Well, it's probably some sort of spyware. I suggest first scanning your computer with Spybot: Search and Destroy, and then trying Adaware. Might help.

I did spyware, and deleted all files. nothing happened.

 

[MarineCorps]

Well, it's probably some sort of spyware. I suggest first scanning your computer with Spybot: Search and Destroy, and then trying Adaware. Might help.

<sigh>

Adaware won't pick them up. As they are nothing more then shells. Shortcuts really. You have to delete them manually. Which you can't do for some odd reason

Neither spybot nor adaware could pick it up. It since they are nothing more then shortcuts they are not much of a threat.

 

[Raw is War?]

The family PC downstairs has them icons also, they seem to load up at the start. They pobabaly come with some spyware or summat like that like others have said. I also haven't been able to delete them. Check taskmanager for any odd exe's running, like IEXPLORER.exe, when you don't actually have internet explorer running.

 

[Zakharov]

If these icons are caused by a trojan horse then spyware programs won't pick it up. You need to run a full virus check. Try this free scan from Trend Micro:

Trend Micro Housecall

Click on scan your pc now, then select all of your hard drives.

As for your trouble with deleting the links, have you tried removing them from the source, ie. in My Computer.
Go to c:\documents and settings\~your user name~\desktop
(or replace c:\ with the drive letter of your windows installation).
You may have to do this in safe mode.

 

[rbis4rbb]

Oh my gosh the same thing happned to me. The house call program won't work for me, so I was wondering how to remove them. And I don't know how they got there, for I was on holiday and came back to find them there.

 

[GenMarshall]

Im lucky I dont have to deal with these Icons.

Though I am unable to get rid of "CoolWWWSearch.[Some stupid name]" via spybot though. If I want to get rid of it, I would have to pay for a program to eliminate them :shakehead.

 

[rbis4rbb]

They're gone now. I ran a norton scan, it should be noted, though only for 3 seconds.

 

[LLXerxes]

They're gone now. I ran a norton scan, it should be noted, though only for 3 seconds.

this thing shut down my norton, so I can't start it up...

 

[MarineCorps]

Im lucky I dont have to deal with these Icons.

Though I am unable to get rid of "CoolWWWSearch.[Some stupid name]" via spybot though. If I want to get rid of it, I would have to pay for a program to eliminate them :shakehead.

You should try cool web search shredder or something like that.

 

[Nixnutz]

LLXerxes:

The program you want is CWShredder and it is available free from intermute.com/products/cwshredder.html. It will come with a 30 trial of SpySubtract, which is a half-decent pay-for program.

CWShredder will get most of the CoolWebSearch variants. However, this is extremely tenacious adware/spyware. Worse is that there are hundreds of variants.

My suggestion is to first clear all cookies and temporary internet files, run Spybot in Safe Mode, restart in safe mode and run Adaware, then run CWShredder, also in Safe Mode. Do this for all user profiles as CoolWebSearch hides registry keys in the user profile...HKeyCurrentUser. So, if you run this stuff with an administrator log on you won't be deleting what you need to delete.

If you are still not rid of it, download HiJackThis from MajorGeeks or Snapfiles and go to the spywareinfo.com forums for help.

After you get the machine cleaned up, download and install SpywareBlaster. It will help keep some of this stuff from installing.

The other stuff that was being dealt with in this thread was indeed a trojan. Gotta watch the downloadable game site, guys. They are notorious for bundling spyware and adware with the games. And as you saw, a pain in the pooka to delete.

 

[LLXerxes]

Well, they're gone now... somehow. But the stuff on the start bar doesn't work and Adobe Album Still doesn't work...

 

[raen]

I had that icons installing messenger plus too, my advise is to never install that. I did the following:

gone to program files and deleted messenger plus manually, its a folder if i remember. and saw some directories of programs i didnt knew -> I deleted them. Look in documents and settings too, some will put in hidden folders too.
and at same time use hijackthis to remove them from register. Maybe you will need to go to safe mode and disconnect system restore.

 

[Strider]

Well, I went into safe mode in both of my profiles (admin and my normal one), and ran every virus/spybot/adware/etc. scanner I had in both of them. Whatever was causing them, there gone now.

The programs I ran were the following:

Lavasoft Ad-Aware
Nortan Anti-Virus
Spybot- Search & Destroy
Spysubtract
CWWShredder