I was searching the web for a stock screener and all of a sudden, something loaded onto my desktop and my background is now blue and it says "Warning! Spyware detected on your computer! Install an antivirus or spyware to clean your computer." I used the restore feature to restore my previous settings and now the program itself is gone, but the background is still there and the desktop tab from my display settings window is missing. Please see pic. How do I get my peaceful island background back? see image below:
Try installing and running a spyware or malware cleaner... and CCleaner. Use System Restore to restore to an even earlier time. None of the above may work. It goes to show that (1) System Restore is only minimal backup and doesn't always work they way we hope/expect, and (2) other, REAL backup is a necessity... Like Acronis True Image.
You've got spyware. Download and run smitfraudfix here: http://siri.geekstogo.com/SmitfraudFix.php Even if it's not smitfraud you've got I think it should reset the problems with the desktop tab not appearing. Choose option 2 after running. Also, check out my post here and follow the links to other posts for a full cleanup: http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=90568&perpage=6&pagenumber=5 There seems to be a plague of this type of spyware, I've had about four cases in the last week.
Ahhh shit...My computer is cooked. Now I am getting some kind of a db run time error blue screen that says that it is preventing the computer from damage..Then I press escape and return to windows.. I dont even have the restore cd... I'll try that spyware thing. thanks
I agree you have been attacked, but I'm a bit confused... Is it your desktop background is "missing" or your entire desktop as in all the icons, etc?? As for the "missing" desktop properties, you can try this... 1) Start >>> Run >>> gpedit.msc 2) User Configuration >>> Administrative Templates >>> Control Panel >>> Display ... Admin Templates may take a moment to load if you have never used gpedit before. 3) "Hide Desktop Tab" should be DISABLED or NOT CONFIGURED. 4) Start >>> Run >>> gpudate /force Bottomline, you are likely infected, but "tricks" like this can possibly make things "usable" while you get clean. Osorico
I ran the smifraudfix. The desktop background with the warning message is still there. No desktop tab in display settings yet. My time in the system tray changed to military form and now showing 21:22. How do i change that? I see all the icons on the desktop, but something hijacked my background image and replaced it with an eye blurring blue screen with an eye blinding yellow warning message... It says windows cannot find gpedit.msc..any other solutions osorico? I am gonna try smifraudfix again and if that doesn't work, then I'm going to download avira and spybot to try and solve this as Paul mentioned.. I thought firefox prevents these automatic downloading of malicious software..All these browsers stink.
Perhaps this will help. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922370 or this http://forums.techguy.org/windows-nt-2000-xp/533844-unable-access-desktop-tab-display.html
Thank you Wareco, that first link solved the problem. It was 0, but when I entered 0 in the registry again and clicked ok, then desktop tab came back in the display settings panel. Wierd, but it worked... I got my desktop background back The second link's procedure did not work even after restarting. I'm still wondering if traces of the spyware is still there. I have some more work to do with spybot and avira..
I'll take responsibility as I did not verify what OS you are running. Here's the paragraph from Wikipedia (easier to use than MS for this kind of spec, imo) Group Policy is supported on Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. Windows XP Media Center Edition and Windows XP Professional computers not joined to a domain can also use the Group Policy Object Editor to change the group policy for the individual computer. This local group policy however is much more limited than GPOs for Active Directory. Anyway, you got your desktop tab back. Good! As for spyware I HIGHLY RECOMMEND SuperAntiSpyware, the FREE version is GREAT, for after the fact cleaning ... http://superantispyware.com/ Good luck.