Multiple alarming things, need help analyzing my hijackthis log

[Erichtho]

Hi

I've been a bit suspicious about my comp quite a while now. First off, a user on this computer downloaded and opened a few weird .EXE files. These seemed to be game patches but one of the lot got the eye of my AVG anti-virus which said it was a trojan. The name of the exe was also suspicious: "Cracktro.exe"... If I do have a virus now it's quite seemless, I don't feel I'm lacking performance anyways.

Secondly, I noticed that the gibberish-named folders located straight under C/ were duplicating (not long ago there was one where now there was three). My quick research showed me that these were probably files for windows update and that they could be deleted. I accidently moved one of these folders into another (damn my cheap mouse!) and after that only one folder could be deleted as the one inside the other one could not even be accessed/opened anymore ("C:\gibberish is not accessible. / Access is denied."). All in all, the contents of two folders were deleted but one was left into some kind of mess.

I've now introduced myself to techspot and hijackthis, now bringing to you my "Crusty.exe" log...

PS I've noticed that AVG isn't a very highly approved anti-virus program. Is there really a significant difference in quality between AVG and one of the highly recommended programs like Avast or Avira? And would it be good to install Windows Defender as well (with a quite thorough anti-virus already installed...)? For spyware I have so far used Malwarebytes.

I'll appreciate any help. Thanks!

 

[raybay]

AVG 7.5 was very good... among the best for its time. But then they apparently wanted to make money with 8.0 and 8.5 without doing the daily, even hourly, research and updates needed. Running an AntiVirus program is very expensive... but as Symantec, McAfee, Computer Associates, Panda, and a few others have found, it can be an extremely lucrative business whether you remove all the infestations or not.

Avast, Avira, Nod32, Kaspersky, and perhaps a few others are all better in thier current versions than AVG is now. They find more of the evils much sooner... days, even weeks sooner. AVG eventually catches up. Then the cycle begins again.

If you spend a lot of time online, and working with a lot of different sites... genealogy, family history, photo imaging, music, a vaiety of images, or many others, then the difference between AVG and the others mentioned above is striking. Your system will not be as safe with AVG.

Windows Defender is good, because if finds and destroys items Microsoft has learned are dangerous to Windpws XP, Vista, and Windows 7... But it is not much good by itself.

You still need one good antivirus program and two or more good AntiSpyware programs.

 

[Tmagic650]

Go here 8-Step Virus & Malware Removal Instructions Take your time and post the logs required... Replace AVG with free AVAST or ADvir Antivirus

 

[Bobbye]

Eric, you are being directed as follows by the browser hijack:

{4AA9C5E4-99FF-490E-97E7-22CEACA04186} Name: JustForMonkeys.Bananas

Desc. Passivecow.com adware - http://vil.mcafeesecurity.com/vil/content/v_138105.htm

a Superlogy adware variant: http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2006-011418-4802-99

You will need help removing the malware. You will also need to run additional preliminary programs and post the logs.

The problem is that there are no trained malware helpers on TechSpot temporarily. If you would like assistance with this, please go to Tech-101.

Paste the info you have here into a thread and follow the recommendations given for the additional programs.