Computer help

[-*Forever*-]

Okay, yesterday when I restarted the computer, this toolbar came up called SearchBar. I did ctrl alt delete, but it wasn't on the list. There's no option to close it and the smallest you can get it is like in the picture attatched.

So how do I get rid of it???

[PZelda]

OMG, I had that same thing on my mom's friend's laptop when I was visiting in Devils Lake last weekend!

Robyrob will be able to explain it better, but what I did was I downloaded HijackThis, went to this forum (http://forums.spywareinfo.com/index.php?showforum=18), Malware Removal. I had already registered there, so all I had to do was run HijackThis and save my log. I then copied/pasted my HT log in a new thread and waited til somebody came along to tell me what to remove.

SearchBar is nasty, indeed...The laptop also had a MySearchNow browser hijacker, and I couldn't go ANYWHERE in IE. ohno:

[PZelda]

Wait wait - I forgot to ask. Do you have Adaware and/or Spybot on your computer? (they're both free through www.download.com). If you don't, get them both, update the definitions in both programs and run them. Remove everything that you see after it finishes its scan. I usually run Adaware first, then Spybot second. If you're STILL having trouble, refer to my 1st post. :)

[robyrob]

I would start with AdAware and Spybot, the links to all of them are in my signature,

make sure ALL of your browser windows are closed! - this means no Internet Explorer, no Windows Explorer, no Mozilla, no Opera, no Firefox - and reboot and run them both a 2nd time)

you may want to try download the CoolWebShredder too - it is a specific Search-Hijacker removal tool

if these fail to remove it, download HijackThis, and read over these instructions: http://www.merijn.org/htlogtutorial.html and go to the Spyware Info Forums (http://www.spywareinfo.com/forums/) as Allison suggested