The other day because of some confusion between Norton Internet Security and
AOL, I very mistakenly turned off my Personal Firewall for a minute so I
could get logged on. Well, a spyware or adware virus entered my computer. I
believe that through either Norton or PestPatrol, I got rid of most of the
virus, since my computer seems to be working fine.
But what wouldn't go away was an ad that apparently lies on top of my normal
background. The ad is the usual "Warning! You're in Danger . . ." and at the
bottom of the ad is the phrase "Removal Instruction." Despite running Norton
and PestPatrol several times, the ad remained. So I check out it's Properties
and found that it was saved as AOL picture in the Windows Desktop. I went
into the Desktop file and found an AOL picture that was created at the time
the virus entered my computer. Figuring that was the ad, I deleted it. After
re-booting, the ad was gone, but in its place was blank white screen. I can
still see my icons, and they all seem to work, but the background is a
glowing white, which isn't easy on the eyes and may be something that's
hurting my computer.
The company that caused the ad, I believe, is called SmartSecurity and
claims to be a software that erases images and documents from your C drive so
that no one knows what you're doing.
Has anybody ever seen this before, and more importantly, does anybody know
how to return my screen to normal?
Thanks for any help,
Mark