Have some annoying malware that I cannot get rid of.

[g-unit1111]

It's driving me nuts - most everything on the system is new, and during the installation of the drivers, this software called "Zygna Games" and "Splashtop Connect" loaded itself on my computer without permission, and I cannot get rid of it! I've tried everything including Spybot, and it just will not go away, and this is a fresh install of Windows 7 at that. When I try to uninstall the software Windows acts like it doesn't exist. When I remove the keys from the registry, it just comes back. When I disable it in Internet Explorer, it just reenables itself. Is there any way to get rid of this thing without reformatting my HD?

 

[ulysses35]

try malawarebytes - seems to be very good at removing malware. Spybot actually comes with a piece of malware during the installation process.

 

[arson94]

Well Zygna Games makes the ever so popular CityVille/FarmVille games for Facebook and Splashtop Connect is browser extension for Facebook. You sure you don't know how these programs were installed? haha, jk. If you look up the uninstall procedures for both they claim they can be removed by the usual 'Programs and Features' or 'Add or Remove Programs' methods.

I guess check and make sure there's nothing in startup folders. Check in the computer's directory:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

and in the user startup directory in your profile:

C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

and user startup directory for all users:

C:\Users\All Users\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup


I still think your best bet is to reinstall real quick while you don't have anything installed or configured just so that any problems down the road can't be traced back to to this incident.

 

[IH8U]

Download Malwarebytes, install it. Then disable auto backup of your C drive. Boot into safe mode, uninstall programs then run malwarebytes. Yhis should remove them.

 

[swifty_morgan]

hit start/run...... type in msconfig in the box. look under start up and services for things you want to stop running on start up.

under services....... there's a box at the bottom. put a check mark in it to NOT show you Microsoft stuff. Really helps.

 

[Onus]

I can't remember what it was, but the Zynga crapware comes attached to something else you may like to have but might need to forgo. I found it on an 880G laptop that my brother in law bought last December. Once I got rid of the other "thing," the Zynga stayed gone.

 

[g-unit1111]

I can't remember what it was, but the Zynga crapware comes attached to something else you may like to have but might need to forgo. I found it on an 880G laptop that my brother in law bought last December. Once I got rid of the other "thing," the Zynga stayed gone.

Yeah it came pre-loaded on the motherboard driver CD, I'm not sure why Gigabyte would include garbage like that with their products, but then again a lot of the motherboards I've bought have had included a lot of junk software with them.

 

[clarkjd]

It came on my Asrock MB also..

 

[Combat Wombat]

Download Malwarebytes, install it. Then disable auto backup of your C drive. Boot into safe mode, uninstall programs then run malwarebytes. Yhis should remove them.

If you have tried using Malwarebytes in safe mode and its a no go, try using combofix too,

 

[Unolocogringo]

Rkill and malwarebytes should fix you up.
Download all 3 versions of Rkill.(They are all the same but some viruses know about it and have measures to stop it.) Rkill ,Explorer,and Iexplorer are the three different file names.
Rkill stops all known malware processes. Takes it a little while so wait for it to finish.
Then run malwarebytes with a full scan.

 

[mightymaxio]

Honestly superantispyware works better than malwarebytes, 9/10 times superantispyware can pick up what malwarebytes cannot.

 

[vigilante212]

Its usually a good idea to run multiple programs to pick up stuff that others miss.

 

[Onus]

This isn't a typical, inadvertent malware infucktion though; this is the bloatware variety of it. Cleaning it off and preventing it from returning isn't difficult, it just means being willing to give up whatever utility installs it.

 

[heatherjade]

It's driving me nuts - most everything on the system is new, and during the installation of the drivers, this software called "Zygna Games" and "Splashtop Connect" loaded itself on my computer without permission, and I cannot get rid of it! I've tried everything including Spybot, and it just will not go away, and this is a fresh install of Windows 7 at that. When I try to uninstall the software Windows acts like it doesn't exist. When I remove the keys from the registry, it just comes back. When I disable it in Internet Explorer, it just reenables itself. Is there any way to get rid of this thing without reformatting my HD?

For people still searching this, like I was, it was attached to SmartView for IE that came with the MB (ASRock for me). You remove that crap software, you remove the splashtop stuff =)

 

[jemm]

If it is a software, then you should be able to uninstall it -- recently Babylon Toolbar installed itself in my system -- it took me hours to get rig of it. Then I got Total Uninstall, and it worked for me.