ZVallabha

We have a malware infection ("XP Defender" popups) in one user account, and it seems to be getting worse and spreading. We downloaded and ran Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and SpyDoctor from within the Admin account and it found and removed a number of threats, but the popups continued inside of the user account. All functionality in the user account seems to be lost and we are not able to run any software programs inside of it, so we cannot do an online scan nor run an anti-malware program. The infection seems to have spread now somewhat to the admin account because, while internet is still working, .exe downloads seem not to open. When we run Malwarebytes though in Admin it doesn't detect any threats. What is the next step? Is there still a way to clean the computer? I was going to delete the infected user account, but now that may not be effective anymore.... Thanks.

To further clarify my second question: this is actually for my in-laws' computer. They frequently surf popular South Asian sites on the web, some of which seem to contain malware, as they've had malware problems a couple of times in the past. So I was thinking the best prevention would be to have the surf using only IE8 with security and privacy settings set to maximum and downloads disabled. Then they could use Firefox just in case they need to download something that they / we trust. Firefox doesn't seem to have the same high-security options, so IE8 seemed best to me. Is this a good idea? Or is Firefox actually an equally or more secure browser than IE by nature?

Hi, in reference to this article on prevention: http://miekiemoes.blogspot.com/2008/02/how...nt-malware.html 1. Antivirus Scanner I didn't see CA Internet Security on the recommended list. Is it an acceptable antivirus scanner, or would you recommend we purchase a different one? We previously had Norton. Our computer currently has malware on one of its user accounts, and I wonder if CA Security didn't do a good enough job of blocking it. Also, with CA Security fulling running, the Windows Security Center reports that Virus Protection is turned OFF. But I called CA about this and they say we can ignore it, it is a minor bug in their programming, and they are working on fixing it. Should I worry about this? 2. Secure Surfing Does Firefox have as good security features as IE8? Also, what about Mozilla Thunderbird -- would it be better to only use IE8 with security settings turned to high? Or does it not matter, so long as we follow the prevention tips you outline? Thanks!