Help remove an unwanted program

Question

I believe I downloaded a program that is causing me problems now. I cannot change my homepage anymore because an advertisement for antispyware and trojan protection etc. keeps popping up and I'm receiving other such popups. I think I have tracked down the program in my files in the hard drive however when I go to delete the program it starts to delete it for a couple of seconds and then says I cannot delete the program because it is being used by another program or person and I must close all of those programs first. How can I delete this unwanted file? I tried logging off the internet and besides that I don't know what other program it is using. Thanks for any help someone can give. I am not the most technically savvy person so try to make it simple if possible. Thanks again.

Bugbatter · Answer

We could help you better if you could give us some more details about the advertisement and the name of the program. What is your operating system? Have you run any anti-virus or anti-spyware scans?

bradskarin · Answer

My operating system is Win xp and I think the program is labeled Video ActiveX Object under my program files folder, however I'm not 100% sure this is the problem, I think it is. I keep getting popups (indicating I have a trojan and need some added security...) even when I am not using the internet and also there is a flashing yellow triangle warning sign on my toobar. When I click on it it connects me to http://www.pestcapture.com/?advid=177  Also, My homepage automatically sends me to http://assureprotection.com/ even though the setting for my homepage is set for msn.com I have McAfee antivirus and antihacker and I ran a scan and there were no viruses. I'm not sure about anti-spyware. If there is a trusted sight you recomend, and I can download without adding to the problem, I'm willing to do that. I just want this thing fixed. I backed up my C: drive a few months ago on an external harddrive so if I have to clear the whole thing and start over I can do that too, but if there is another way I would like to try that first. Hope this helps, if you need anymore information just let me know. Thanks again.

Bugbatter · Answer

Thank you for the additional information. You didn't need to post the live links. A description would have been enough.
Try this first:

Download RogueRemover from the link below.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/rogueremover.php

Unzip to a convenient location such as C:\RogueRemover.
Navigate to the folder you unzipped the files to and double click on the file named RogueRemover.exe.
Finally, select Scan and the program will walk you through the remaining steps.

If that does not resolve the problem, please post a HijackThis log here:
http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board?board.id=si_hijack

Instructions for posting a log are posted at the top of the HijackThis board.

Virus & Spyware

Help remove an unwanted program

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