iexplore.exe error help

[Tuomas]

just after new years' I was infected with several vundos. Probably because I have a habit of going through pop-ups just to see how many I can open without an alert. It took me several weeks of fighting round the computer, the system, the registry, the startup. In the end I was manually able to move all but one of them, none could be removed by adaware which was messed up because of these infections. Spybot couldn't delete them, and AntiVir wouldn't find them.

The last one I removed by installing my HD to my friends computer. In the beginning I was able to remove the vundos by starting up with no programs running and then disabling every possible onethat were running the vundo. The last one wouldn't, there was something it was attached to that needed to be running all the time. But as then the HD was secondary on my friends computer, nothing was running the programs and I was able to delete it with AVG. Nowadays I use AVG myself. Reason: My friend had the same infections, and AVG took care of the ones AntiVir couldn't.

I'm not afraid of viruses. If I had to format my HD, it'd mean a lot of downloading mp3sbut that's basically all I have. And I've been infected several times. With a little effort you can usually fix it, and everytime you learn something new.

[Fleshstalker]

I tried a system restore, but it did nothing. I did however get the AVG, which is really good since it increased the speed of my PC slightly. It didn't detect the iexplore.exe, but it did find over 1,500 threats. I'm guess it cleaned those. And I still get that end task when I turn off my PC.

I even set the both iexplore.exe to low priority on the processes menu, thus I believe using my PC Usage to just 5%

I guess I can live with it, but someone tell me something, I need this answered as I've mentioned like three times but no one has answered it. Will it effect my PC if I keep having to end the task when I turn off my PC every time?

[Nikolas]

I can say that not everything I visit is safe, but then again, why worry? I do back-up regularly, and I have plenty of the same idea software: Ad-aware, spybot, Superantispyware, AVG, a firewall... I do get the regular adware, which are almost not annoying even, had a trojan yesterday and that's about it.

About 1 1/2 year ago I had a serious virus, which killed all executable programs. That was serious. I did know how to battle it but chose to go the format way. I find it healthy. There's so much rubbish in every computer connected to the Internet. Too bad that  I can't afford a second one right now, to use as a DAW, in order to keep destroying the current one! Would be the perfect solution really. But money and space are two issues which can't be battled.

Flesh: Formating once a year or so, is not so bad, as long as you have the software to bring them back on, and you can back-up. Backing up could mean a few CDs, or DVDs, as well, and it's worth the effort. A clean hard disk and a light CPU is something considerable.

[Fleshstalker]

How do I reformat? I did copy some back up data. I just don't know how to go about doing this without messing up my PC.

[Nikolas]

But if you format, you will mess your computer. You'll delete everything. Absolutely everything. Otherwise it won't work. The bad stuff will stay in...

You do need to have the windows xp disk and all drivers (for your soundcard, or monitor, or graphics card, etc). When I formated, I didn't need any drivers actually, everything was fully compatible to XP so it was fine. After the windows was in, I was ready to start installing the rest of my software.

Anyways, you insert the Windows CD in the CD, make the computer boot from the CD (through the bios if it's not set to check first the CD) and then you... follow instructions pretty much.

But do wait for someone more knowledgable than me. Please.

[Oliwerko]

Wait a few minutes, I have this perfectly trained, I can reinstall in just a few hours, give me a few minutes and I will prepare a step-by-step for you...

OK, I totally agree with Nicolas, reformat from time to time is very good for the health of your PC. I do it as he said, once a year (sometimes twice) or so if everything goes fine. If your PC is slow, you have plenty of programs you do not use and rubbish in registry, possible viruses and/or spyware, there is nothing better to do. To the point:

I have it like this: All hardware drivers downloaded in one folder so you dont worry about it after format. "My documents" folder backed up. All program and utilities install files in one folder, backed up. Do this on a back-up HDD. If you do not have one, obtain one, you wont regret. Burn everything I can. Films, games, everything except documents like pictures/music/TV series - too big, too many, updated daily. Then - CHECK EVERYTHING THREE TIMES!!! Be absolutely sure that you wont miss anything from that HDD, I mean, everything will be gone. So check and check and check. I lost my adventure games folder once when I was not careful.

Then, the format comes. Have your OS CD ready (I have XP prof. SP2 so I will write what I do, but it is all the same on all XPs I guess...)

1. Be sure to have everything backed up and hardware drivers ready and all things I mentioned above. Prepare your OS CD.
2. Restart, go to BIOS (press DEL a few times immediately after startup)
3. Under standard BIOS settings (dont remember exact name, it is the first one) find "Boot sequence" and change first device to CD ROM.
4. Insert your OS CD to the optical drive
5. Exit and SAVE changes
6. Wait until setup boots
7. Agree to terms, and when on the partition select screen, delete all partitions on the HDD. Confirm.
8. Create a new partition - the default space entered is the maximum one I guess - no need to change it
9. Select NTFS file system (XP does NOT work under FAT32 well, if at all, I dont know, just be sure to select NTFS)
10. Format the disk - should take a while
11. Install the OS on that partition
12. The PC reboots itself after that and the installation continues - simple settings, nothing you could mess up
13. It reboots itself again
14. Youre there! Thats it. Remove the OS CD. Reboot again and go to BIOS, set first boot device to HDD0 (NOT HDD1, HDD0 is the first one)
15. Install all hardware drivers
16. Copy everything back
17. Install antivirus software and then everything else

Thats how I do it. If I am under dangerous conditions (virus) I plug out the backup HDD after backing up the files just to be sure. You know, thats my paranoia 

Oh, one more thing - try to have your "My Documents" folder somewhere else than the default location (C:/Documents and settings/Username/My Documents). I once had a virus which infected System32 folder and this My Documents folder. But I keep all my documents in C:/My Documents, so the virus did nothing to me! I just had to do the above process easily and calmly, nothing to worry about.

Please - anyone who finds a mistake in the above (shouldnt be, but I may have something wrong) correct me.

[Tuomas]

I guess I can live with it, but someone tell me something, I need this answered as I've mentioned like three times but no one has answered it. Will it effect my PC if I keep having to end the task when I turn off my PC every time?

As far as I know, it won't. It'll just be annoying and troublesome.

[CodeJunkie]

I guess I can live with it, but someone tell me something, I need this answered as I've mentioned like three times but no one has answered it. Will it effect my PC if I keep having to end the task when I turn off my PC every time?

Nope, if you don't mind:

• All the sites you visit being monitored and screenshots of your activity being sent to strangers.
• Having this malware opening a backdoor at any time and have a virus destroy your files before you get a chance to back them up.
• Having your passwords (eg. online banking) compromised.
• Infecting your friends with malware and viruses.
• Spamming people's mailboxes with porno.
• Joining in a denial of service attack organised by criminals.

Or it could do nothing at all.

[Tuomas]

But that would all be a following of the actions of it just as the closing issue, not effects of the issue itself. So the virus might bring more effects than just the manual task ending, but not the task ending itself.

[Khris]

Before reformatting the whole PC, be sure to run hijack this.
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/programs.php#hijackthis
Then paste the log here: http://www.hijackthis.de/en
It will tell you exactly what threats are on your PC and how to get rid of them.

If you still want to wipe the PC, don't create just one partition! That's just wrong. Create at least two, use about 10 Gig for the first (C), and create a second one (D) using the rest of the free space. 10 Gig is enough for XP and all service packs if you keep it free of your own files and installations (e.g. Office).
Always install apps to d:\Program Files and move the My Documents folder to d: (via the properties of it's icon).

That way, should you ever have to reinstall XP again, you just need to backup a few files on the D partition (like e.g. IE's favorites) and can format C afterwards with all your stuff remaining untouched on D. No need for tedious burning of thousands of files.

[Oliwerko]

Before reformatting the whole PC, be sure to run hijack this.
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/programs.php#hijackthis
Then paste the log here: http://www.hijackthis.de/en
It will tell you exactly what threats are on your PC and how to get rid of them.

If you still want to wipe the PC, don't create just one partition! That's just wrong. Create at least two, use about 10 Gig for the first (C), and create a second one (D) using the rest of the free space. 10 Gig is enough for XP and all service packs if you keep it free of your own files and installations (e.g. Office).
Always install apps to d:\Program Files and move the My Documents folder to d: (via the properties of it's icon).

That way, should you ever have to reinstall XP again, you just need to backup a few files on the D partition (like e.g. IE's favorites) and can format C afterwards with all your stuff remaining untouched on D. No need for tedious burning of thousands of files.

Well, I dont know why, but I do not like partitions. I do not believe an infected HDD anymore and always wipe it totally. Currently, I have XP (Only XP) and some files that wouldnt hurt to lose on 80GB Seagate. On 500GB Seagate, I have everything else. Its like with the partitions, but I do not have 2 partitions, but 2 HDDs instead. Works for me perfectly. If I need to reformat, I only reformat the small drive and thats it. Clean OS, clean registers, nothing to worry about. All viruses I have had infected only my system disk, not the other one.

[Fleshstalker]

So ummm.. yea, I decided to live with this virus, for now... I don't do any online banking or buy things off the intaweb. But I will eventually buy a register cleaner later on next next to see if that corrects the problem.

If it somehow doesn't, I might have to do a clean OS install - only if I decide to do some buying online using a debit card (hate credit cards). And I probably won't do it myself, hire someone like may from Best Buy (if they do that).

[Oliwerko]

I would ask a friend, I am sure everyone has some PC-stuff skilled friends 

[LimpingFish]

I've been a PC user for almost a decade, and I've never backed up a HD. I've never had a serious virus infection. I've never had my system compromised. I run a minimal security setup.

Go me!

I do not go to unsafe sites. The best, and I mean the truly BEST antivirus technique is not going anywhere unsafe. Oh, and I am permanently under firewall just to be sure 

I'd add opening unsolicited emails to that list, as 9 out of 10 viruses are spread through email. But, other than those points, you really shouldn't have to do anything else to ensure a safe system.

[Oliwerko]

I've been a PC user for almost a decade, and I've never backed up a HD. I've never had a serious virus infection. I've never had my system compromised. I run a minimal security setup.

Go me!

I'd add opening unsolicited emails to that list, as 9 out of 10 viruses are spread through email. But, other than those points, you really shouldn't have to do anything else to ensure a safe system.

Lucky you!
I can say only one thing - you are lucky - and very very brave. (If you have things you do not want to lose)

On that email thing - this probablity is lowered when you just dont open any random spam emails. I only get a few ones a week from trusted persons. Of course this does not eliminate the danger completely, but it restricts it definitely.

[Nikolas]

The problem goes with some idiots sending e-mails with a subejct "Job for you!"

It looks and reads SO MUCH like spam, but it actually isn't and is a genouine offer for a gig or something... and I do get random e-mails from people I don't know... Some are also marked as "spam".

Thing is that smart email, at least, does not open any file, nor pics, nor signatures, but just the txt and attaches everything else. so by opening an e-mail there is no danger (at least this is what I know). Certainly the "viagraonlinecheap70$" subject is spam, no doubt there!

[Fleshstalker]

Alright, I went to Geek Squad at Best Buy and they told me my only option is a fresh OS install. Registery scan won't do any according to them. They said it would cost me $200 for them to do it for me and they copy all my files that aren't affected by any viruses. Sounds ok I guess but a little expensive. I might take their offer later on as I'll save some money for it. For now, I'll be fine as I don't buy online or anything involving money transactions. I'd do it myself, but it's too much of a hassel. I might even get a new PC down the line too. Who knows.

[CodeJunkie]

Alright, I went to Geek Squad at Best Buy and they told me my only option is a fresh OS install.

I'm not so sure, but it does happen to be the most lucrative option.  I wouldn't pay $200 unless you're certain it's a virus going round wrecking your files and you are unable to salvage them or know anyone that can help.  I'm sure a lot of people here have helped their friends for no more than some cups of coffee and a favour or two.  Here are some cheaper ways:

• You have either spyware, an elusive virus (if AVG isn't catching it) or just an annoying Internet Explorer bug.  If you haven't already, download Spybot and Ad-Aware from the links above, click update and then do a full scan, it's simple enough.  Same goes with all other scanners, AVG too - update them first or you're wasting your time.
  If that still doesn't fix you, do what KhrisMUC said with HijackThis (it takes seconds to scan).


• If you can't stand trying to fix the problem them buy some CDs/DVDs or even another harddisk (which you can keep after) out of that $200, copy everything worth keeping onto it and reformat.  Then copy your files back over.  Spyware tends to stay in your system folders, so personal files are usually safe.  If it's a virus, it might come back and infect your computer, in which case you might have to reformat again and try or even buy other scanners.  I don't think it's the most likely result though.
  
  To reformat your harddisk just put your Windows CD in and reboot.

Of course it's your money, but unless your time is really precious or you really don't like playing with scanners then it isn't worth $200 and being parted from your PC.

[Oliwerko]

Dont you have any friends that can do this for free? I am sure everyone does! I think anything is better than paying $200 for reformatting your HDD!

[Fleshstalker]

I have no friends who know how to do this for me. I'll try spybot rght now.

Well, I did the scan, but still it pops up. Though I noticed that if I restart the PC, the iexplore.exe end task won't show, but when I turn off the PC, it does show. No big deal I guess.