This is my first experience with a malicious software or spyware. I have been sufferring from the Chinese search engine 3721 since last Friday. For one week, my computer had been very slow. My Ad-Aware SE personal could not get rid of all the malicious cookies in my system. My Norton Anti-virus had to scan my system every several hours when I was on the Internet. My Internet Explorer has pop-up windows for cellular phone rings, e-bay shopping ads, and even adult movies!! What a headache. What a shame. What a psoriasis!
I had to resort to our computer engineer. He worked on my laptop for a whole Tuesday and never went to regedit for any cleaning work. The adult movie ads kept on abusing my eyes. Then, I resorted to Jacques. He did go to regedit for cleaning but failed. Well, I uninstalled ad-sense and tried to relocate this free personal software on google. All the efforts to down an Ad-Aware SE Personal led me to Dr. Spyware or something called a name like this. I tried this Dr. Sth. It could not clean what it detected unless I pay a 40-dollar registration fee. Well, well. I have to resort back to our computer engineer again. I told him what I had done in regedit and found that some values 3721 had could not be destroyed. He installed Registry First Aid on my laptop this morning. It still doesn't work!!
Last night, I tried Jacques' suggestion to see if Google tool can hijack the 3721 pops. It failed. When I switched on the laptop this morning, the first pop-up window was Norton. It suggested me to scan my system. As usual, the virus it found, Adware.DesktopMedia, was a low risk virus. Yet, this is the pest that has been annoying me since last Friday when I tried to see if I can play DVD with one movie software.
My final resort was to install Firefox. When I tried to install Google tool, I found that Google is providing a pack of free software. These software are handy small wares Internet citizens use everyday. As Jacques had suggested me to uninstall IE, I have to find a subsitute to browse Internet windows. Firefox with Google is a good combination. My laptop did not have any pop up after Firefox has run three hours. If tomorrow morning, my Norton Anti-Virus did not pop up to suggest me for another scan. This time I finally get rid of 3721. What a bless. I accuse this E-bay harbored commercial spy ware. This is all the fault of profit-driven commercial competition. Money is the origin of every sin.
