View Single Post
Old 03-23-2008, 07:47 PM   #5 (permalink)
Martian
Young Crumudgeon
 
Martian's Avatar
 
Location: Canada
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cynthetiq
also, a virus caught by an adaware program? that's not normal.
It's not as abnormal as you'd think. The algorithms that antispyware programs and antivirus programs use are very similar; there are even AS programs that use heuristics now, although I don't know if Spybot S&D has crossed that particular bridge yet. The line between various types of malware is getting fuzzier.

On to solving the problem.

First of all, don't panic. It does nothing to solve your problem.

Google tells me that prxchk is a utility for use with proxy servers. Whether it's actually malware or not is something I don't know, as I've never really investigated, although preliminary research seems to suggest that it's benign. You've managed to put it on your blacklist for registry changes in Spybot S&D, whether intentionally or by accident; to solve the problem, all you need to do is take it off the list. Follow the instructions in the link provided by Silent_Jay, replacing 'RealUpgrade' with 'prxchk' and report back if that doesn't solve your problem.

Note: backing up data is a very good idea in general and in this situation in particular. You may safely back up any mp3 files, txt files and jpg, bmp or png image files, as none of those are capable of carrying malicious code. Microsoft office file formats (.doc, etc) are susceptible to macro viruses, but they're pretty rare. No programs should be backed up (installers or other exes) as they're all potential vectors to spread a worm. The general rule of thumb is that data files are okay, program files are not, although that's not hard and fast. Several Microsoft file formats in particular are vulnerable to various types of malware. I'm also a big fan of keeping a liveboot cd handy (Knoppix, Ubuntu etc) for catastrophic failures. These will require you to learn the basics of navigating within Linux, but it's not that difficult and can potentially be a lifesaver in the event of a full OS crash.
__________________
I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame
Martian is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360