HELP!!!
Somehow my computer got infected with something called "Vista Internet Security 2010" (av.exe) which is "a rogue anti-spyware program that simulates a system scan and reports false scan results just to scare you and make you think that your computer is infected with Trojans, worms and other malware. Once installed, it will display fake [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]security[/COLOR][/COLOR] alerts or notifications and then inform you that you need to pay money to register the program if you want to remove the infections and computer threats, which of course do not even exist."
The whole thing seemed suspicious, and when I searched for Vista Internet Security 2010, I came across several websites describing it as I quoted above. At the recommendation of one of those websites (Remove Vista Internet Security 2010, removal instructions) I went into my Registry Editor and attempted to delete some of the registry files that it said av.exe affects. I could only find a couple (I'm not even sure which ones they are now) and I deleted the default value.
Since then, I can only open a few programs by "Run as Administrator" and every other program I open (Windows Media Player, iTunes, IE, etc) prompts me with this error message:
<header> C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
<body> This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the Set Associations control panel.
Then I went to Control Panel > Default Programs > Associate a file type or protocol with a specific program, but everything seems right.
So - Is this caused by messing up the registries? If so, how can I fix this? If not, how can I fix this?
Somehow my computer got infected with something called "Vista Internet Security 2010" (av.exe) which is "a rogue anti-spyware program that simulates a system scan and reports false scan results just to scare you and make you think that your computer is infected with Trojans, worms and other malware. Once installed, it will display fake [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]security[/COLOR][/COLOR] alerts or notifications and then inform you that you need to pay money to register the program if you want to remove the infections and computer threats, which of course do not even exist."
The whole thing seemed suspicious, and when I searched for Vista Internet Security 2010, I came across several websites describing it as I quoted above. At the recommendation of one of those websites (Remove Vista Internet Security 2010, removal instructions) I went into my Registry Editor and attempted to delete some of the registry files that it said av.exe affects. I could only find a couple (I'm not even sure which ones they are now) and I deleted the default value.
Since then, I can only open a few programs by "Run as Administrator" and every other program I open (Windows Media Player, iTunes, IE, etc) prompts me with this error message:
<header> C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
<body> This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the Set Associations control panel.
Then I went to Control Panel > Default Programs > Associate a file type or protocol with a specific program, but everything seems right.
So - Is this caused by messing up the registries? If so, how can I fix this? If not, how can I fix this?
