For some time now my mom's Laptop, an HP Probook 4520s has had serious issues with adware and spyware-like programs. They seem to install themselves in the background automatically and are usually things like pseudo-diagnostic tools that try to trick you into purchasing some kind of product to fix computer issues, programs that generate obtrusive pop up ads, and a host of other similar things that are generally annoying and hurt overall performance
I have tried doing a number of fixes, including deep scanning for virus' and malware using Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes in safe mode, running registry cleaners and generally just uninstalling any of these programs that install themselves manually. They always come back (usually different programs) regardless of how many times MSE or Malwarbytes finds malicious software and removes them
Then, just yesterday, someone using my Mom's AOL email address started emailing spam mail to everyone in her address book. When she tried accessing AOL through Firefox she got a "Forbidden - you don't have permission to access /cgr/login on this server" message. Oddly enough this didn't occur when she tried it on Chrome but it's obviously a security issue
The only solution I can think of at this point is to simply reformat the main hard drive and reinstall Windows 7 32bit, but I was hoping someone could potentially tell me of another solution since having to back up and reinstall everything would be a huge pain
HP Probook 4520s
Windows 7 32bit Home Premium
i3 2.53 GHz CPU
4GB RAM
I have tried doing a number of fixes, including deep scanning for virus' and malware using Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes in safe mode, running registry cleaners and generally just uninstalling any of these programs that install themselves manually. They always come back (usually different programs) regardless of how many times MSE or Malwarbytes finds malicious software and removes them
Then, just yesterday, someone using my Mom's AOL email address started emailing spam mail to everyone in her address book. When she tried accessing AOL through Firefox she got a "Forbidden - you don't have permission to access /cgr/login on this server" message. Oddly enough this didn't occur when she tried it on Chrome but it's obviously a security issue
The only solution I can think of at this point is to simply reformat the main hard drive and reinstall Windows 7 32bit, but I was hoping someone could potentially tell me of another solution since having to back up and reinstall everything would be a huge pain
HP Probook 4520s
Windows 7 32bit Home Premium
i3 2.53 GHz CPU
4GB RAM