Yesterday I spent more than 12 hours scanning my computer with SuperAntiSpyware, Ad-Aware, and all Norton System Works applications only to resolve nothing. I managed to clean and delete the files that these programs recommended were affecting my computer. I even deleted all cookies, temp files, history, and everything related to Internet.
Now the problem started when my firewall, Norton, kept asking me to decide whether to allow connections from a file 13018015.exe, just as an example, and it recommended that i allow the connection, but i kept blocking it and the alert kept popping back up. i ran superantispyware since this always fixes my problems but after rebooting it appeared again and this time i accepted the connection but it asked again and again like when i blocked it and each time it was a different numbered .exe file, like when i blocked it as well. Thereafter i ran Ad-Aware and it quarantined all files it deemed dangerous, but the prompts kept coming up after i rebooted. I ran all the applications with Norton System Works but ended up with the same results. I found the .exe files in the Temp folder from my Local Settings folder and quickly erased them thinking it would stop the prompts but they continued appearing in the folder and the prompts continued as well.
Today i googled all the process running in my task manager and found one in particular, smgr.exe, that shouldnt be there. I quickly ended the process and the prompts stopped, I even went into safe mode to erase it from my but it appeared again when i rebooted.
Is this a virus or some type of spyware, malware, etc?? and how can i get rid of this permanently?? the prompts are so annoying and i dont want to risk the security of my computer. also, i do not want to reformat, i just want to get rid of this headache. can someone be able to diagnose the problem and help me fix my computer, please. Everytime my firewall promps me to accept or block, the file trying to "connect to a DNS server" is a numbered .exe file and they are always different numbers. Why does it keep replicating itself even after deleting them? And how serious is this problem? Please, someone help me.
Thanking you in advance,
AR
Now the problem started when my firewall, Norton, kept asking me to decide whether to allow connections from a file 13018015.exe, just as an example, and it recommended that i allow the connection, but i kept blocking it and the alert kept popping back up. i ran superantispyware since this always fixes my problems but after rebooting it appeared again and this time i accepted the connection but it asked again and again like when i blocked it and each time it was a different numbered .exe file, like when i blocked it as well. Thereafter i ran Ad-Aware and it quarantined all files it deemed dangerous, but the prompts kept coming up after i rebooted. I ran all the applications with Norton System Works but ended up with the same results. I found the .exe files in the Temp folder from my Local Settings folder and quickly erased them thinking it would stop the prompts but they continued appearing in the folder and the prompts continued as well.
Today i googled all the process running in my task manager and found one in particular, smgr.exe, that shouldnt be there. I quickly ended the process and the prompts stopped, I even went into safe mode to erase it from my but it appeared again when i rebooted.
Is this a virus or some type of spyware, malware, etc?? and how can i get rid of this permanently?? the prompts are so annoying and i dont want to risk the security of my computer. also, i do not want to reformat, i just want to get rid of this headache. can someone be able to diagnose the problem and help me fix my computer, please. Everytime my firewall promps me to accept or block, the file trying to "connect to a DNS server" is a numbered .exe file and they are always different numbers. Why does it keep replicating itself even after deleting them? And how serious is this problem? Please, someone help me.
Thanking you in advance,
AR