It is nice to be back, Have been gone almost a week, By no choice of mine. I recently got the worst Worm (virus) I have had yet.
This one was a stronger Net.sky worm.
Completely took over my computer, had to disconnect the internet and could only start up the computer in safe mode. Was able to save most data before I had to do a complete hard drive format and reinstall of the factory original programs, then reinstall 5 years worth of programs.. what a nightmare !! reinstall 83 windows updates and 40+ programs.hours and hours.
got the worm from watching movies online.
I have watched movies online for years, never had a problem till now.
Warning.. it can just as easily happen to you!
If you get an immediate indication of computer problems, security warnings everywhere that you cant close, first thing..pull the internet plug immediately, DO NOT RESTART YOUR COMPUTER!! do a system restore to an earlier time, then restart.

here is what is said on some sites about this worm: Worm.NetSky Description
Worm.NetSky is a nasty worm that distributes itself through email. Once installed, Worm.NetSky will add itself to the Windows registry, ensuring that it loads each time you boot Windows. Worm.NetSky is capable to email itself as an attachment to any email addresses that it can locate on your machine. Worm.NetSky will also open up a backdoor on your PC allowing remote attackers to import and install additional malware to your system. This worm is highly dangerous and should be removed with no delay.

In over 10 years of computing, I have always been able to fix it, not this time till I did a recovery, This is the worst one I have ever had. Be safe.
Create a recovery tools disk and a system recovery disk *right now*
THEY MAY BE WORTH THEIR WEIGHT IN GOLD!!!

recently something happened to my PC and some of the Windows programs were deleted.

Is this what happened?

And NO, I was not on a porn site. I was watching regular movies from divxstage when I got it.

sorry that happened to you ... may I suggest a Mac?

when I restarted the computer, many programs and files were gone.
it wouldnt let me start the task manager, wouldnt let me run regedit, or msconfig.
it would let me run an antivirus- but when I tried to remove what it found, it kept telling me that engine couldnt start to remove them.
as soon as the welcome screen came up, it would restart the computer over and over, till I tapped the f8 to get into safe mode.
then when it started up in safe mode it said."your computer is infected with a danger worm netsky"
even in safe mode it would almost let me run nothing.

I know windows too well to convert now, but maybe I should get a mac for a backup!!
Don't worry, if macs ever get so popular.. they will also have people dying to create viruses for them also.

I know ... I hope they don't ... I am in loveeeeeeee with mine and appreciate fewer complications...

Happy new year to you!

Happy new year to you to!!!!

edit= Sorry.. this part was intended for anyone with a PC.

to create the recovery cd & recovery tools cd do the following.

go to start-programs-pc help and tools- recovery cd creator.
the follow the instructions. then go to..
start-programs-pc help and tools- recovery tools cd. again follow the instructions.

in the case of a bad virus, worm or serious crash.. You can put the recovery tools cd in the drive, restart computer, and it will startup from the cd to give repair/recovery options.
Will be a life saver!!
Please do it now!
may save you hundreds of dollars for a shop repair, or days and days of frustrating work to repair it yourself!!!

I always have back-up images of my boot partitions. On this computer I have Ubuntu Linux, Vista and XP twins. I surf with one of the XP OS's keeping the other as a backup and up to date. If something happens, I wipe out this partition and copy the image of the twin over. Gotta back your **** up. This is my area and I learned very early that you can't have enough backups. With all 3 MS OSs I use Kaspersky AV, which isn't very resource-heavy (unlike Norton). With Linux I just do software development and vista is my entertainment (music, games, movies). If I go to an unknown server/site Online and If I download anything, it is with XP and I scan it before moving it anywhere else on the system.

My last girlfriend lost her thesis because she didn't make copies of it. There was a disk crash and she freaked out (for good reason). Flash drives are cheap. I bought an 8 Gb flash drive at Walmart for $20. It's real easy. Just make copies of your work periodically. You can buy up to a 1 terabyte external hard drive from Costco cheap and copy an image of your partition every week, or every night. Storage keeps getting cheaper and cheaper. I have 400 Gb of .mp3s one one disk, and backed up on two others. At work I back up what I've done since the beginning of the day at least twice before the end of the day and in two different locations. Yes, I have hundreds of copies of my work-in-progress in time-stamped folders but it isn't like I'm going to run out of space.

10 years of computing? shame shame :)

I use Avast, Spybot S&D, and ZoneAlarm. I've never had anything worse than a tracking cookie on any of my systems. Whenever I get a new system, I always install the latest version of those three programs before doing anything else.

I have all kinds of protection running and up to date also....
no program can protect 100%
This was instant. can happen to anyone in the blink of an eye.

What do you mean by instant? If you build a computer, install an OS and AV software, turn it on and do nothing else but sit and stare at it it, viruses aren't going to just attack it out of nowhere. I'm just saying that something that you did made your system vulnerable to it. I have used a computer for as long as a year before without AV software and managed to avoid a virus. I checked email and only went to sites that I knew that I could trust. I had a hardware firewall that was built into my router, but no other protection.

Good for you, But not posting this for any kind of debate, just intended as a warning... As the title states.
I haven't had any problem till now, for two years.
That don't mean it can't or won't happen.

That is why it it does matter which virus program they use. The ones that scan from the root are the best, meaning, you could burn it on a disk and have it load before the OS and scans from the DOS.

My other recommendation is to have another Operating system installed on another disk. Hard disks are dirt cheap nowadays, and if you don't have another or version of windows, just put Linux on it (it's free) and you can download a linux-based virus scanner. Once you connect the secondary hard drive with another OS on it, you can have it load first and run a virus scan on the infected hard drive from there.

Ok well here we go again LOL..
Worms are transmitted through internet connections but, they can be LAN transmitted as well, meaning if you were at a hotel and were on their unsecured wifi, their is a strong possibility you got infected from another machine on the network. They use VLANS which will allow you access to the net, but on a separate space than their machines, which is a good thing for them, but it does nothing to protect you against other machines on the LAN you are connected to, other guests.
As for doing a system restore, This "may" work, and i say this "loosely" System restores are usually the first place a viral infection will attack. This means your "restore" will most likely be infected by the original infection.

If you get infected,
1. Disconnect any kind of internet connection, wired or wireless, so that your machine can no longer be infected.
2. Use another machine to download Malwarebytes, and install it without updating it on your infected machine.. Use a CD to install it, dont use a Thumb, Flash drive... You will just infect the thumb drive.
3. Reboot until clean, run in safe mode if you see the same infection come up more then once.

DONT USE: "unless you are a more savy computer person"
Spybot SD, this is because this AV will change your Host file and will cause issues when online if you use the host file for connections. Most people dont know that.. If you have used it, go to your host file and remove the crap it adds.


As for the MAC user..
Yeah their are viruses for the MAC, and they make AV for the MAC for that reason.. Go here and read..
http://antivirus.about.com/od/macintoshresource/tp/macvirusfaqs.htm


Also your Worm... Easy as can be to remove.. Their is even a run once tool to remove it..

http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/global/removal_tool/threat_writeups/FxNetsky.exe.


Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
"Have a question, ask on my Topics site"

reread above, What I had previously written.
Wouldn't let me run any programs.. even in safe more.
All I could do was a complete restore from disc.
And again, It was not the old net.sky worm. was a newer, much stronger version.

So please tell us how a run once program would help.. when you are completely down and it won't let ya run anything??

But as I said, The recovery disc did get rid of it, because I could start directly off of the disc.

Easy killer..
The Worm which will not let you run any programs is due to it modifying the registry in such a way that it takes ownership..
The easiest way is to run the PC in VGA mode, which you can due by pressing F8 on your keyboard during post.
If not, the more complex way is to boot your machine normally, and run all your programs by using the command prompt..
you wont be able to run the command prompt unless you type the path to it in the RUN command box, once you do that you can either right click the shortcut and drag and drop it in the command prompt box, but you will need to quote it out, or you can just type out the path..

a simple solution is to stop visiting those porn websites

that's like telling someone to stop eating