I think I may have a Trojan horse or a worm, how can I tell and what do I do?

Hi and thanks for clicking...Lately my computer has been slow as hell and I have run virus scans and stuff...
I have AVG 7.5 [for anti-virus] and Ad-Aware 2007 [for spyware] I have run both numerous times, AVG does not detect anything and Ad-Aware does not detect anything MAJOR, just some cookies that are adding up.... One thing that is bugging me is that whenever I open Internet Explorer, It keeps "Not Reponding" ... those with Windows share this pain with me... [and yes I have de-fragged...but it analyzes the disks, scans and de-frags...but then says "Your computer could be improved, analyzes again and repeats over and over]
Here is my Computer Criteria:
Toshiba Satellite Notebook with Windows Vista Home Premium...On it I have AIM 5.9 and 6.0, Yahoo Messenger, Skype, AVG and Ad-Aware, iTunes, the whole Microsoft Office bundle and some Ativa software for my wireless stuff...
So any ideas? Do I have a worm or a trojan horse? How can I get rid of it if Ad-Aware is not detecting it?

Windows gets slower and slower over time. The best way to get the speed back is to start over with a fresh install. I had a similar notebook which I installed software on that took 45 mins to install. After defragging and various registry cleaner, it took 40 mins to install. After formatting and reinstalling Windows, it took just 12 mins to install.

Ok, first of all, don't use internet explorer, that's a great way to get your system hijacked!

AVG etc won't catch anything that it doesn't know to look for, so you may have a problem that it cannot detect. There are some other tools you could try that may help you identify the problem. Try getting a copy of Sysinternals ProcessExplorer and a copy of HijackThis. ProcessExplorer shows you what processes are running (sort of like ctrl+alt+del) but it also shows you WHERE on the HD they are running from, which is important. For example, if you see svchost.exe running from anywhere other than C:/windows/system32, then it's probably related to malware.

Make note of any processes that look suspicious. Anything you don't recognize, google it and see what people are saying about it.

HijackThis is sort of an advanced tool, but it's very useful for spotting suspicious registry entries. Install it and run a scan. Not everything you see will be bad, so be careful before you delete anything. But don't worry because HijackThis makes backups of every key you delete, and it can be restored.

Now, these are more for diagnosis, to really get rid of a virus the best way to be certain is to run a system restore. If that is not possible or for some reason does not fix the problem, you'll have to identify exactly what the virus is and consult the internet for removal instructions.

Also, once you get everything fixed, I suggest you d/l a copy of spybot S&D, which comes with something called TeaTimer, which will protect you against most kinds of malware in the future.

Good luck!

Hello,

It sounds like you are infected with a trojan. So I think you are having a hard time because trojan's are not exactly viruses. So most anti-virus programs will not remove them, because they do not see them as viruses.

A couple of month's back I suffered a nasty trojan infection. It completely screwed my computer up. Every time I would get on the internet I would get blasted with pop-up after pop-up.

It got so bad, I thought I would have to get a new computer. So out of frustration I called Geek Squad. They wanted $200 to Look at my computer, and that didn't include fixing it. No Way!

It wasn't until I was searching google for a trojan remover that I came across the solution to my problem.

I found a website that gave honest reviews of the best spyware removal programs. So I checked into it, and the best product, AdwareAlert is also capable of removing Trojans.

I quickly downloaded AdwareAlert and scanned my computer.

It found all the trojan worms, and spyware infections that none of my other programs could find and delete.

I have been running AdwareAlert now for the last couple of months, and it has been doing an awesome job at keeping my computer spyware free.

I never have pop-ups anymore, and my computer is running like a dream.

You can Visit the website I found in google below.

http://www.honest-spyware-review.com

Hope this was helpful,
-Debra