Remove Rogue Desktop Icons Created By Spyware.

If you have used a Windows machine for a while, whether it's Windows XP, Windows 2000, or Windows 98, you're sure to have noticed desktop icons appearing from out of nowhere. How can icons mysteriously emerge on your Windows desktop?

1. When you buy a computer, many vendors place icons to selected products and services on your desktop, such as links to high-speed Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or add-on services vendors think you may need.

2. As you install software on your Windows machine, icons may appear, either to start the application or link to the manufacturer's website. Installing just one program could add three or more icons to your desktop!

3. It's easy to accidentally drag a Favorite, bookmark, text file, or other icon to your desktop, creating an icon.

Normally, it's easy to delete Windows desktop icons. Just place your mouse pointer on the offending icon, then right-click it and choose "Delete", clicking "Yes" to confirm if prompted.

However, what if the rogue icons are for adult websites, unfamiliar search engines, or other websites you don't recall visiting? You may try removing these icons but get an error, or after removal they still reappear again and again and again!

If so, then more than likely spyware, adware, or other malware has infected your machine. It may have been through file trading software, an inadvertent "yes" click when a popup window asked you to install software, 'freeware' that included adware, or other means. To remove the rogue icons, you need to remove the malware creating these icons.

Removing spyware and adware can be a time-consuming process, fraught with potential disaster as it is possible to accidentally remove files that render your operating system unusable. However, the following software products can help with this process as long as you read the instructions carefully, make backups, and get expert advice if you're not completely sure about removing what they ask you to do:

* Ad-Aware: http://www.lavasoft.com/

* Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/

* Pest Patrol: http://www.pestpatrol.com/

* Spybot Search and Destroy: http://safer-networking.org/

* Spy Sweeper: http://www.webroot.com/

So, how can you prevent these icons from appearing in the first place? Practice safe computing.

* Backup your machine. If it does get infected to the point of being unusable, at least you won't lose all your important files.

* Install security-related operating system updates so spyware and adware cannot enter your system through well-known exploits.

* Download or buy a virus scanner, and keep it updated! Virus scanners cannot detect all spyware, but it doesn't hurt to have one. Check online or visit your local computer software store.

* Purchase a hardware or software firewall, and keep it updated! Firewalls help protect your computer from common exploits that spyware or adware can use to infect your machine.

* Consider using a different web browser. Though it is not perfect, Mozilla Firefox is currently less susceptible to spyware than Internet Explorer, mainly because it lacks certain technology (such as ActiveX) that is often exploited by malware writers. Note that depending on your web use, certain websites may not work correctly with other web browsers.

By practicing safe computing and using spyware-removal software, you can help remove rogue desktop icons from your desktop and keep others from appearing.

Andrew Malek is the owner of the MalekTips computer and technology help site. Visit his anti-spyware page for more advice on removing adware, spyware, and other malware.

Free Spyware Removal.It's Not As Easy As It Sounds.

Nobody wants to pay to remove spyware. At the very least, I don't. The blasted stuff shouldn't be on my computer anyway, so what ever would make me want to shell out cash to get rid of something that I shouldn't have in the first place?

Spyware removal tools come in many different forms, and from many different places. Lavasoft's Ad-Aware is from Sweden, and Spybot: Search and Destroy is from Germany, I think. (Their error messages come up in German, so I have to assume..)

Purchasing adware removal software can even be dangerous, so to speak. If you're buying it from a pop-up then more than likely you're just lining the pockets of the person that infected your machine in the first place. I've had many infested machines have icons for spyware removers magically appear on the desktop. Of course, if you want to actually clean anything, you have to shell out some dough.

If you're going to go it alone, for free, then there are a few tools you'll need. The first is Ad-Aware, as mentioned above. Spybot: S&D is a second excellent choice. The third, and much more advanced (and therefore difficult to use) spyware remover is HijackThis. Almost all scanners will miss various adware items, simply because there is so much produced nowadays so quickly. It's impossible to keep up.

Once you have the aforementioned software downloaded, installed, and updated then you're going to want to boot to safe mode. Why not scan now immediately? Cause the adware is still running. You can't delete a file that's in use. That said, safe mode is less effective than it used to be, but it still may work.

To get to safe mode: Reboot the machine, press F8 repeatedly once it restarts until a menu comes up that has "safe mode" listed. Select it, and press enter. Windows will load nothing but the essentials.

As soon as safe mode is loaded then go ahead and do a full system scan with Ad-Aware and Spybot or whatever you happen to have. Following that, reboot and see how your computer runs. If it still has issues, then HijackThis will be neccesary. In order to use this tool, you'll need to have a pretty good grasp on what should and shouldn't be loading in startup, as well as a grasp of what Browser Help Objects you need. (Technically, none, but some software you have installed may use them)

You can get HijackThis help, but if it eludes you then you really should have an experienced user have at it.

Kevin Souter is a full time computer repair technician, and runs sites in his spare time dispensing his knowledge on free spyware removal and computer repair.

Keeping Worms Out of Your Network.

No auntie Sookie, not earth worms, computer virus worms that can get to you computer and slowly dig deep into your files and eat them away. Put that eggnog down and I'll tell you some more about these new worms.

This worm is a self-replicating (makes a copy of itself, aunt sookie!) program that reproduces itself over a network. It can be hidden in an email attachment from an unknown sender, a movie download from a suspicious website, or an application sent from someone you don't know.
Once on your computer it then can replace a single file, like a winsock.dll or many files and send copies of itself along with email or newsgroup messages that you can post.

The following are ways to keep these type of worms out of your network:

a) Never, I said never (for emphasis) connect an unpatched, non updated computer or other Internet related device to the Internet. How do you update and patch a computer without connecting to the Internet? Get a cd from Microsoft with the latest and greatest patches and updates, then connect the device and then check for updates while connected to make sure you have protection.

b) Always, I said always (yes I am being redundant) use a firewall between your network of computers and the Internet. Even if your network of computers is 1 or 2 computers, it is still a network and needs a firewall to protect it, really protect it. A single computer connected to the Internet is now part of a world wide network thru it's Internet connection and is therefore vulnerable without protection. Get a firewall, a real firewall.

c) Educate and train anyone who uses your computer(s) network. Many times an infection is invited by careless users who download infected email, visit infected sites, or bring infected machines (laptop's, pda's) into a network from outside.

d) Patch and update, patch and update, patch and update (redundant, oh yeah). Yes it's a pain, and it requires time to do and verify that it's actually patched and updated. However it's definitely simpler and cheaper than trying to fix an infestation, or explain to everyone why the network is down or their computers won't work because a worm is eating through everything they have worked hard to save and protect.

e) Make sure up-to-date anti-virus software is on every machine, everything connected to the Internet. Anti-virus packages aid in protection and detection against worms.

f) Establish security rules for your network and educate everyone who touches the network. They must be enforced, daily.

g) Frequently check your network for vulnerabilities. Visit vulnerability website's, take advantage of free scanning tools on the Internet to test your machines. New vulnerabilities and new exploits are released constantly, and you can't protect against what you have no idea what is coming your way.

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Daviyd Peterson: 10-year consultant, instructor, trainer
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