Help ! adware SearchCounter fntldr.exe

I’m running Win98SE and I used the free version of AVG Anti Virus that can be downloaded from http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php and it found and
Isolated two files “fntldr.exe & soundmx.exe” After that I got the error messages at startup that fntldr.exe could not be found. So I went to Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Information. Under Tools, System Configuration Utility, then pick the Startup tab and scrolled down until I found “run= fntldr.exe” and unchecked the box and clicked Apply. This seams to have worked for me.

 

There is a setting on Internet Explorer that should be off by default, but needs to be manually turned off in order to avoid a lot of headaches like this. You may miss out on a few IE plugins that you really want to use by doing this, but once you've been bitten by one of these buggers almost anything is worth it.

From an open Internet Explorer window choose Tools/Internet Options (or from control panel, Internet Options) select the Advanced Tab at the top, and make sure the following are unchecked:

Enable Install on Demand (Internet Explorer)
Enable Install on Demand (Other)
Enable Third Party browser extensions. (this will neuter the evil adware that takes over Internet Explorer on startup)

I would strongly suggest that anyone who surfs with IE, takes these steps (at least uncheck the top two) to prevent the adware from installing itself in the first place. If you uncheck these and do a restart if needed, at least the crappy stuff that hijacks Internet Explorer will be unable to start up, and it will be much easier to clean your system from this point.

Hope this helps,

TriPack

 

Good stuff to know. Just wondering if this is a MSFt recommendation or from someone else?

 

maybe you also look into www.webroot.com

they offer Spysweeper - running this in tandem with Adaware has kept my systems pretty clean of the past...

Best,
cosmic

 

My experience of Pest Patrol is that it was USELESS. Twice now it has failed to find pests that other software has found. I advise people not to waste their time using their free scan let alone paying for it. I lost a LOT of trading days because this thing did not do what it was supposed to, while othe products did.

 

I found it on another site, but here is an article from Microsoft about the install on demand "feature"

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q222/6/39.ASP


With regards to Window 2000, and Windows XP:

So by Microsoft's own statement enabling these is less secure and thus isn't the default setting for XP/Win2K.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;257021

 

Zonealam drove me crazy but I have installed a free program called Winpatrol from www.winpatrol.com that has blocked changes scumware was attempting to make. On this occasion it was a self installing piece of scumware called sys.exe that was trying to change home and search page. People who write this stuff should be tarred and feathered and placed in public stocks (wooden restraining variety).

 

Here are Microsoft's instructions for disabling third-party extensions. What Microsoft fails to say is that this is the common way that adware installs itself on your system, and the reason why it keeps coming back on every restart of internet explorer:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;298931

So in other words, if you have "Install on Demand" enabled, these adware will install themselves on your system secretly and without your consent, and if you have "third-party extensions" enabled the adware will keep coming back on every restart of Internet Explorer.

 

Hey,

I had the same thing. It is a trogan virsus. Use cwshredder. Free download. It is not installed but ran as a exe. Spybot, pestpatrol, will not work on it.


http://www.softpedia.com/public/cat/10/17/10-17-150.shtml

John

 

THANKS MUCH FOR THIS INFO, TRIPACK!!!!!!!!!