Korean Job Discussion Forums

[stvwrd]

I was required for one of my classes last semester to register on the community website for the course (turned out to be rather pointless since everything was in Korean).

When I first went onto the Information Technology website it instantly began downloading this software onto my computer, bypassing both Zone Alarm and Spybot.

Well, I've never been able to totally get it off. The best I can do is get it to stop automatically loading when I start windows, but I know it is still running processes in the background. I can get everything cleaned off (that is, both related programs uninstalled), but it always re-installs itself somehow, even after an immediate re-boot.

Any suggestions? I've scoured the web for information, but it seems the only pages I can find have it listed as a legitimate anti-virus software. I don't care if it does what it says it does, I didn't put it there so I want it gone.

I've written angry emails to the University tech support people to no avail. It really hacks me off that a supposedly fancy pants university like this would have spyware that buries itself so deep into your computer. All the Koreans I ask about it just shrug it off and say I have to have it if I want to use the network. Well, that's not true because I used the network fine for over a month before my system got infected by visiting the website.

[Demophobe]

Well, one thing for sure.....if it's virus software, it just doesn't work. It's on all of my work systems as well...I just live with it...it's not really my system.

[Giant]

It is legimit AV software. All Koreans swear by it because its Korean of course!!

But if you go to Add/Remove Programs cant you remove it there?

[Captain Corea]

It is the #1 anti-spyware software in Korea.

I did some work for the a few months back and it is a solid company. That being said, i'm not a fan of the product though.

[stvwrd]

Add/Remove programs doesn't work. It tells me I don't have permission.

It does seem to be a legit program... but most legit programs allow you to uninstall... I guess when I go home I'll just have to take it somewhere and have it done.

[Bulsajo]

[stvwrd]

That's right....

Good idea about contacting their customer service. Thanks, I shoulda thought of that myself.

I sent them an email, we'll see.

[jazblanc77]

jIf you can't uninstall by conventional means, just go to your 'program files' folder on you c:\, delete the directory for the program and any others in the Windows or root directories. After getting as many of the files as you can get, run a system cleaner like Window Washer or cCleaner to get the rest. To get it completely off your computer, follow up the disk cleaner with a registry tuner like the one in System Mechanic, Tune-up Utilities, or Fixit Utilities, and then run HijackThis to get rid of an BHOs or ActiveX components.

There's no way that it will survive after following these measures.

For the future, install either Spybot or Spysweeper which have a process watch componenet that will prevent such installations. Spywareblaster would also be helpful to prevent harmful BHOs, activeX installs, Flash, and cookies from getting on your computer.

[huck]

Who's the administrator for you home computer if it's not you?

[stvwrd]

jaz, I'm gonna try your method right now. Thanks for the tips.

I already have Spybot and Zonealarm installed, including the spybot registry monitor or whatever it's called. Somehow it sneaked past everything.

To clarify, it doesn't matter how I'm logged in, I still haven't been able to get rid of the thing. Even when I'm logged in as admin, it still comes back after uninstalling.

I haven't heard from Ahnlabs about the email I sent a couple days ago.

I'll update after the next round.

[muggie2dammit]

[stvwrd]

It appears to be gone.

I manually went through and deleted as much as I could, but there were still some permission problems with a few files, as well as the Registry entries and a couple startup files.

Using Tune-up Utilities, I was able to get around that sort of through the back door by manually stopping the resident "Updater" file that I think was causing it to re-install all the time. This did away with my permission problems, since the files weren't in use anymore, and I was able to delete the remaining files. Two boots so far and no lingering effects (the first reboot was a little buggy, but things are running smoothly now).

I also want to add that Tune-Up is just plain COOL. So is Window Washer. I need to tinker around with them a bit more.

Yeah, I'm not gonna be holding my breath waiting for Ahnlabs to write back.

Thanks everyone

[jazblanc77]

Yeah, Tune-Up Utilities is a nice little program. The disk and registry cleaners are what I have sed it for the most but, I am also fond of the theme manager, the start menu customizer, and a bunch of XP tweaks and tips that are built into it.

On the issue of Tune-up Utilities, you can get customised XP themes at http://www.xpthemes.com/ which are well worth a looking into.

Like I said in my previous post, install 'spybot search & destroy' and 'spyware blaster' which can be downloaded from www.majorgeeks.com for free (along with a lot of other really helpful and free programs).

I would also recommend getting Spysweeper but, it is a commercial program so you will have to pay for that one.