For the last few days, when I power on my computer I get a "common" folder that opens up automatically with two items in it, one called "helper.dll" and the other is "helper.sig". I've run spybot and virus scan and have come up with nothing. A google search shows that it may be some sort of adware. Can anyone tell me how to get rid of this?

Download and run the free utility "Hijack This" and run it. It will not do anything except create a log file of what's currently operating on your computer. I just helped someone recover from a nightmare of spyware crap and at the moment have half a handle on how to look at these things, so if you post your Hijack This logfile, I'll tell you if I think there's anything weird going on.

Andrew

In browsing through some threads on this topic, I found this suggestion that you might try:

And in IE7 click Tools and select Manage Add-ons > Enable or Disable Add-ons
In the screen that follows find the Browser Helper Object (in the type field) and check in the File column if you find one called helper.sig or helper.dll and if present disable that.

Then reboot. If the problem is gone, I think you have nothing to worry about.

Andrew

Could be just a leftover bit of spyware. Did you use regedit and look under hkey local machine, software, microsoft, windows, current version, run? Spyware loves that registry key!

Andrew, I will give your suggestion a try in regards to disabling the file. Or do you think I need to do that hijack thing? Anyway, since I've noticed this thing on my computer, I've had been on a few websites where all the sudden there's like an alarm type sound which, kind of like a countdown of "boop........boop.........boop" and I think it's related to a popup. It's happened the most on KGW.com. I'm wondering if this is related?

The helper thing might be some sort of Microsoft "feature." So I would try disabling it first as described, and if you still get the "boop boop boop" thing you might try running Hijack This (which is a very simple thing to run and will spit out a bunch of gobbly-gook to the average person's eyes - all it does is summarize the state of your machine, not do anything to it).

Andrew

You gotta quit downloading Porn Vitalogy!
That is the quickest way to get those boop....boop...boop sounds.

See if there is a shortcut for the folder in the startup folder.

Run msconfig, click the startup tab and examine what is starting from a fresh boot.

You gotta quit downloading Porn Vitalogy!

This already happened to Trixer. Notice he's been gone a while? He got hit by a bad virus from downloading hard core porn. Not even Bill Gates can save him.

LOL! What the hell did happen to Trixter??

I miss hearing about all the NEOcons.

He's waiting for a low budget eMachine to go on sale at WalMart. In the meantime he's probably at one of the topless places.

I speculated once (tounge-in-cheek) that Herb & Trixter were the same person.

Hmmmmmm.

Im almost positive That I saw Trixter at Jiggles Tavern the other night.
Jiggles- "the place with the most wiggles"

I tried the disable option which did not work. The common folder still popped up with those two items listed. So, I tried deleting them when the popped up, and now the common folder opens up when the computer is turned on but nothing is in the folder. I'm not sure what the fuck is going on. My computer is also slow as shit. Something is not right. I think I've got a virus or something, but I've got a firewall, virus protector, I've scanned for viruses and I've run spybot all with no issues. The only change that's occurred is I recently bought a new Canon digital camera and had to install their software on the computer to upload my pics. Otherwise, nothing has been downloaded or installed.

Open Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del) and see what processes are running. Are you using 100% CPU? If so, figure out what process is eating your CPU and slowing down your computer.

You could also try the Hijack This thing I suggested above and post the results here.

What kind of camera is it exactly? You don't really need Canon software to download pictures from your camera. I've owned four Canon digital cameras now. I actually use a card reader, meaning I yank the memory card out of the camera and download pics without even using the camera. It seems to work better that way. If it turns out Canon software is causing you issues you can get rid of it and download a different way.

Andrew

OR..

-run a SEARCH for files and folders
for the "helper.dll" and "helper.sig" files,
then DELETE them right there...

If they WON'T delete, reboot the PC into your
SAFE MODE and delete them there..

I deleted both of the files but the common folder still popped up. So I went to program files and found the folder and deleted the whole damn common folder, which was empty.

Also, I was made to install the service pack 3 for XP, which took quite a while. Now everything seems to be running normal except one other thing. I keep on getting an error message when I power down the computer that says "not responding" iexplore.exe. My computer won't shut off without hitting the end now button. However, I see this error about 70% of the time, yet I shut down the computer with all programs closed in the same manner 100% of the time. My computer seems to be a yard sale lately.

You've got some trojan.

If it were me, I would move all my data off of it, then either reinstall the OS, or use the system restore disk.

This kind of crap is very tedious to remove, and it's also not always cleaned by the various tools out there.

If that's not an option, really doing what Andrew suggested is the next best choice.

The last one of these buggers I had to deal with was a complete bitch. Just FYI, while digging in the guts of the computer, I ended up finding a text file, saying "You get top marks for getting this far, but it's not over yet."

Wiped the machine after that. Just could not trust it.

So, it's hours reaching a level of trust by trying to remove this damn thing, or hours obtaining a fresh start, loading everything up and restoring settings, or it's continue to not trust the machine going forward and live with that.

One other factor to consider is that restoring the machine from factory media is going to lead to a known, trusted (as much is as possible for a win32 PC) state, where the other two scenarios may not, or worse you won't actually know.

(and that's really the same thing as just not trusting the box, even if you do know exactly why it should not be trusted)

Best to give the damn thing a lobotomy and start fresh.

If you do restore your box, do take a disk image, or invest in one of those backup / imaging programs and take a snapshot before you do anything beyond getting your machine on the net and configured.

Major bummer

The iexplore.exe bug is a classic indicator of these things.

Also, quit using that browser, if you are using it, as of right now. On the untrusted box, it can help to just ban IE through the program access and defaults control. Use another browser, and at least limit the damage.

- FIND the labeled "Common' folder in same SEARCH
and delete it also the same way!!

TIPS:

Go to:
-My Computer
-Then click on LOCAL DISK
-Then go to WINDOWS

..all the items that you see in there?..
..make sure you display them in the LIST MODE
and for DETAILS to their DATE MODIFIED...

LOOK for 'any' files that were JUST dated recently
and use good judgment to DELETE these files right there....

.and also look into your 'system32' folder in that same WINDOWS folder...

open THAT up - and do the same...

Oh for crying out loud, just go find an eight year old, offer them a $20, point at the computer and say "Broke, Fix". Five minutes later problem all better!

Or just call the Internet Help Desk:
http://www.deadtroll.com/index2.html?/video/helldeskcable.html~content

ummmmm...that'll work!

The common folder issue seems to be resolved, but not the iexplore.exe "program not responding" when I shut down. I would find it hard to believe that I've got some sort of virus or worm based on the protections I have in place though.

It's a very safe bet you do --or you have one not completely removed, and that's the cause of the failure.

Many of these programs hook into IE for their startup.

I've had machines supposedly clean, until that damn browser is launched.

Bottom line for me is that I would not trust that machine. I take a hard line stand on that stuff, preferring to keep things in a known state. As long as you don't know why that's happening, then the machine cannot be trusted. (It's difficult to trust a win32 machine anyway, which just makes it all worse for me personally.)

That's me though.

If you want, just don't shut it down! Hibernate it, or sleep it, and ignore the error for a time.

How do I uninstall and then reinstall IE 6?

Ierdaicator. I have had to do this before. BE CAREFUL IF YOU USE THIS PROGRAMME ON A 98 BOX THO ! ! ! There are some programmes which rely on components provided by IE (mainly DLLs) and they will not run properly (if at all) after running Ieradicator.

So in that case, you can always take out your Win CD and put whatever DLLs you need into your :\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory (or :\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32, or elsewhere if need be) and go from there. If it's 98, go into the :\WIN98 directory on the CD and you'll find a bunch of CAB files......so be prepared to do a bit of searching......but it's better than having a non-functioning copy of Win32 running, of course......... ;o)

Yes, it's far bettter (and safer) to do it on a clean install of Win32 than one that's been in use for a while.

(At least that's my experience with it. I haven't dared try it on the XP box yet--supposedly it doesn't work in XP--so I can't comment there.)

Reinstall IE6? I suppose you *could*, but that begs the question of why you would want to. Naaahhh......just download and use Firefox instead. It's more stable, secure and, well, way less obsolete.........

IE 6 is required for me to work from my home computer to tap in over the web, according to our IT folks.

I'm running ad aware right now and so far it's telling me I have 23 infections. Hopefully I'll be able to figure this stuff out on my own without too much trouble.

The whole idea of doing a clean install is too much for me to tackle on my own. I might as well just buy a new system.