What kinda bug is this!?!
 

OK...I seem to have picked up a bug on the home system. It afects MS Word. Every time Word is opened, it brings up a document titled "BEST ONLINE SURVEY SITES THAT PAY CASH". It's anoying as hell, and comes up on every new document. A find files search, using that text, located a DAT file named User.dat. Deleting the file, and dumping the trash, did not eliminate it.

I dunno, but I say you get rid of M$ Word and install OpenOffice.

I second that. Seriously...give it a whirl. Edit - Rephrase: What kind of protection do you have on your system?

I think the suggestion of trying OpenOffice is about as annoying and unhelpful as those who suggest Linux when someone posts about a Windows problem.

Anyways .. Bill O'R, I quite frankly don't have a clue as to what the problem could be, I've not much experience with such crap.

But - obviously, a virus scan is in order. Have you done that already?
Which version of word?

Open Office doesn't have the same number of people trying to exploit it and it may help protect against the same thing happening again. Simply a suggestion. :)

MS posted an update not too long ago (April) that had quite a bit to do with Word. After you virus scan, I'd head on over to the Windows update page and install the latest upgrades if you haven't already. If that doesn't work, check out your options for reinstalling the program. Do you have your disks still? I'm sure others will speak up with more experience in this area (I have an entirely unconventional way of handling this shit, myself).

Ummm--have you checked your template (normal.dot)? That sounds like what was affected.

Maybe I'm making an ignorant statement, but the Windows registry used to consist of two files called system.dat and user.dat.

It would scare the hell out of me to delete anything with either of those names.

Have you done the normal spyware scans with Spybot and Adaware? I would also run your virus scanner as well, and all in safe mode to make sure it is gone.

And I also hate when people who suggest OpenOffice and Linux as solutions to problems. If the question is, "What is a good alternative to Microsoft Office?" THEN you could suggest that.

*when added

I agree with the above statement when edited as i have, I also hate when somebody posts about an ie problem and everyone says use firefox (btw i use firefox almost exclusively)

I'd say try Trendmicro Housecall and do a full scan (spyware and viruses)...

I would suggest also going to office update - this is where you can patch your version of Word/Office (in addition to windows update).

Yeah, but Firefox is a good program, IE's not. Microsoft Office on the other hand is a great suite that's never caused me trouble.

I would concur on this -- Word Macro Viruses can cause all sorts of strange things to happen. Unless you ahve highly customized your word setup (ie customized toolbars and stuff) Try doing a search on Normal.DOT and delete it.. Then WHen word r estarts -- it will recreate the normal.dot on it's own, and hopefully virus free.

I'd have to agree here. I was on the OpenOffice bandwagon but have since gone back to M$ office. It's just more powerful and it suits my needs better.


Anywho, it sounds like some sort of spyware so as Raptor226 said, try TrendMicro

I had the IE Hijack happen to my brand new laptop, went to firefox and openoffice, but same here, once I clean it all and updated all virus scans I went back...habit I guess.

I'm going with... You dloaded a script that changed your normal.dot. Basically changed your default template that comes up when you open word.. Its easy to fix... get normal.dot from a friend or other computer.... and replace it. Then..go to the MSwebsite and dload all the OFFICE security updates... while your there get all the windows updates too.. good luck..

Any updates BoR??

I'm curious to see what works in case I ever see that here at work.

I haven't had much time to dink with it. Plus, it's only affecting MS Word, which I haven't had to use at home for a few days. I do, however, see a lot of good suggestions that I intend to try very soon.
Oh, and I use Norton Anti-virus and Sygate personal firewall, plus I've run Spybot and adaware. Nothing was "picked up".

I never understood the mindset behind this type of "advertising". Do these idiots really believe that by grabbing me by the nuts, and refusing to let go, I might say to myself; "Hey, y'know...why not click on some of these links and see if this is something that I really might be interested in"? Not friggin' likely, Jackholes!!!


edit OK...deleting normal.dot did the trick. Mrs. O'Rights is now dancing an Irish jig. You guys rock. Thanks.

Agreed. I remember way back when I first installed WinXP and started getting messenger popups, the only popups I was getting were from companies advertising software to get rid of messenger popups. Absolutely blew my mind.