Help undoing virus damage

About a week ago I had the "Vista Antivirus 2010" virus on my computer
I was able to get rid of it pretty quickly with AVG, but since then
have been having an annoying (but not debilitating) problem.

The Vista Antivirus 2010 appears on your computer pretending to be a ne
program downloaded through vista updates, and lets you know that yo
have viruses on your computer. Its main purpose is a financial scam: t
remove the viruses you need to pay for the "full version" of th
program. To stop you from being able to remove it easily, it makes it s
that whenever you open an .exe program on your computer it will ope
instead, and then determins whether the program is a threat or not. Fo
example, I was able to run Firefox, but I had to trick it to let me ru
AVG

However, now that it is gone, I am still having trouble running .ex
files. When I attempt to run one, it prompts me to select the progra
that I want to use to open the file, which is not possible since that i
the program that should open it (does that make sense?). I have had t
redo all of my shortcuts, and still need to "run as administrator" an
then give the program permission to run each time

I know that this is a long explanation. Any suggestions on how I coul
get rid of this issue and run program normally

Thanks

--
nlp

First download the program "malwarebytes" from www.malwarebytes.org
Install, update and run this program (from the safe mode if you have to)
also download the program "FixExe.reg" to run after the cleaning
(Google for a download link)

"nlp" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> About a week ago I had the "Vista Antivirus 2010" virus on my computer.
> I was able to get rid of it pretty quickly with AVG, but since then I
> have been having an annoying (but not debilitating) problem.
>
> The Vista Antivirus 2010 appears on your computer pretending to be a new
> program downloaded through vista updates, and lets you know that you
> have viruses on your computer. Its main purpose is a financial scam: to
> remove the viruses you need to pay for the "full version" of the
> program. To stop you from being able to remove it easily, it makes it so
> that whenever you open an .exe program on your computer it will open
> instead, and then determins whether the program is a threat or not. For
> example, I was able to run Firefox, but I had to trick it to let me run
> AVG.
>
> However, now that it is gone, I am still having trouble running .exe
> files. When I attempt to run one, it prompts me to select the program
> that I want to use to open the file, which is not possible since that is
> the program that should open it (does that make sense?). I have had to
> redo all of my shortcuts, and still need to "run as administrator" and
> then give the program permission to run each time.
>
> I know that this is a long explanation. Any suggestions on how I could
> get rid of this issue and run program normally?
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> --
> nlp

"nlp" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> About a week ago I had the "Vista Antivirus 2010" virus on my computer.
> I was able to get rid of it pretty quickly with AVG, but since then I
> have been having an annoying (but not debilitating) problem.
>
> The Vista Antivirus 2010 appears on your computer pretending to be a new
> program downloaded through vista updates, and lets you know that you
> have viruses on your computer. Its main purpose is a financial scam: to
> remove the viruses you need to pay for the "full version" of the
> program. To stop you from being able to remove it easily, it makes it so
> that whenever you open an .exe program on your computer it will open
> instead, and then determins whether the program is a threat or not. For
> example, I was able to run Firefox, but I had to trick it to let me run
> AVG.
>
> However, now that it is gone, I am still having trouble running .exe
> files. When I attempt to run one, it prompts me to select the program
> that I want to use to open the file, which is not possible since that is
> the program that should open it (does that make sense?). I have had to
> redo all of my shortcuts, and still need to "run as administrator" and
> then give the program permission to run each time.
>
> I know that this is a long explanation. Any suggestions on how I could
> get rid of this issue and run program normally?
>
> Thanks!

Did you try running Malwarebytes in safe mode?
--


"Don't pick a fight with an old man.
If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you."

Thank you for the advice. I downloaded the Malwarebytes program and ra
it (but not in Safe Mode - does that matter?) and removed one infectio
(Hijack.Startmenu). I also downloaded and ran the Fixexe.reg file tha
you recommended from bleepingcomputer.com. However, I am still havin
the same problem.

I have also realized that I cannot run certain programs (which I had no
tried to run previously) from EA Games (Sim City Societies, fo
example). Before I had the virus, these could only be run by selectin
them in program files, since the auto-run did not work for some reason.

Any suggestions for how I can get all of this back to normal? I a
perfectly happy to go through each one and do something manually

Thanks for the help

--
nlp

"nlp" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Thank you for the advice. I downloaded the Malwarebytes program and ran
> it (but not in Safe Mode - does that matter?) and removed one infection
> (Hijack.Startmenu). I also downloaded and ran the Fixexe.reg file that
> you recommended from bleepingcomputer.com. However, I am still having
> the same problem.
>
> I have also realized that I cannot run certain programs (which I had not
> tried to run previously) from EA Games (Sim City Societies, for
> example). Before I had the virus, these could only be run by selecting
> them in program files, since the auto-run did not work for some reason.
>
> Any suggestions for how I can get all of this back to normal? I am
> perfectly happy to go through each one and do something manually.
>
> Thanks for the help.

Running in safe mode will unload many unneeded processes, some of which are
worms, allowing Malwarebytes to remove them. Also if you were infected deep
enough your only solution is a reformat. Start doing your backups now!
--


"Don't pick a fight with an old man.
If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you."

Thanks for your help everyone - I believe that the problem is fixed

For anyone with the issue of Vista Antivirus 2010 lasting damage in th
future, what I did was download the normal version of Spybot and run it
Along with a few bits of miscellaneous adware, it found an issue wit
one of my reg files. I just told it to fix all after the scan, and i
removed the issue. Everything now seems back to normal

--
nlp