|
Posted by Robert McClenon on November 26, 2004, 10:24 pm
If you were Registered and logged in, you could reply and use other advanced thread options
On Thu, 25 Nov 2004 18:11:24 GMT, Robert McClenon
>I don't know if this is the right group. If not, please direct me
>somewhere. I have Windows XP and am running Norton Internet Security
>(Antivirus plus additional features, including extended threats). If
>I run a full virus scan, it detects various adware programs and offers
>to delete them. However, they can't be deleted. I have attempted to
>delete them by dragging their icons to the Norton Protected Recycle
>Bin, and am told that they can't be deleted.
>
>A few days ago I had more of these adware programs that didn't want to
>be deleted. I was able to delete some of them by going to the Control
>Panel Add/Remove Programs and uninstalling them. (Bullseye Network is
>troublesome because it insists on my answering a long series of
>questions about why I want to delete it, and I assume that it is
>sending those back to its supplier, which makes me think it is not
>only adware but commercial spyware.) I now have two remaining adware
>programs that I am still trying to delete. I have tried locating
>entries for them in the Registry and deleting the Registry entries,
>but still can't delete them.
>
>The names of the two adware threats that won't go away are:
>2_0_1browserhelper2.dll and salm.exe. Does anyone have any advice on
>how to get rid of them?
>
> - - Bob McClenon
>
Someone sent me an email reply, and advised me to see whether either
of the adware programs was currently active by opening the Windows
Task Manager and seeing whether either of them was a process that
could be terminated. I followed that advice, and saw that something
called salm.exe was indeed running. I terminated it, and then was
able to drag it to the Recycle Bin. Perhaps 2_0_1browserhelper2.dll
is being opened by another process, but it isn't obvious to me what
process that would be.
For an adware application to load itself automatically on startup
sounds like virus-like behavior. It might be useful for Symantec to
update their removal instructions to state that it may be necessary to
terminate a process first, or to provide what registry keys need to be
deleted in order to prevent the process from loading itself.
I then did a new scan for viruses, and had four remaining adware
threats. One is of course 2_0_1browserhelper2.dll. Another was
salm.exe, but that turns out to be because the scan scans the contents
of the Recycle Bin. The other two are compressed files within files
in the Internet Explorer cache. That is, it appears that web pages
that either my daughter or I were viewing contained concealed adware,
and explains how all of the adware got onto my machine. (My
18-year-old daughter followed links.) I assume that they will go away
if I empty the cache.
Does anyone have any further advice on deleting
2_0_1browserhelper2.dll?
- - Bob McClenon
| 
XML site map