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Author Topic: Elite Toolbar Scott D. Neff Theatre Dork Posts: 919 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Oct 1999 posted 04-09-2005 03:58 PM                        Has anybody out there had the unfortunate luck to have the Elite Toolbar maliciously installed on your computer? One of my friends has and it's extremely stubborn to all spy-ware, virus and pop-up blockers. It's annoying the crap out of him to the point where he wants to restore his entire computer from scratch. Anybody?  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 04-09-2005 04:20 PM                     Removal tool Personally I would just reinstall from scratch. I'm probably in the minority here, but it's not THAT big of a deal (at least to me) and it ensures that programs you have tried and found sucked are 100% wiped clean from the machine and any possible virus and various quirkiness is gone too.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 04-09-2005 05:35 PM                        If he's on XP, has he installed SP2? Just curious.  |  IP: Logged Mark Lensenmayer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1605 From: Upper Arlington, OH Registered: Sep 1999 posted 04-09-2005 07:01 PM                     I had the unfortunate experience of having to remove ELITE TOOLBAR from one of the computers at my school. It was in the band room, and it was not very well kept up. ELITE TOOLBAR keeps loading almost full screen ads every few seconds. It is the most annoying thing I've ever seen. The Microsoft Anti-Spyware program should be able to take care of it, BUT have it do its work in SAFE MODE. ELITE TOOLBAR is very sneaky. During the boot process, the control file is loaded into RAM, then it is deleted from the disk. Since it is RAM based, deleting the rest of the files just causes the RAM based routines to recreate the deleted files and registry settings. BUT, if you run it in safe mode, you can get to the files before they are loaded into RAM. The Microsoft program runs well in safe mode. Even though it is officially a BETA program, is is actually a very good tool that they bought from another company in complete form. If you are an expert level uses, you can use HIJACK THIS!. BUT, be aware that is is an EXPERT LEVEL tool only. DO NOT EVEN GET THIS IF YOU ARE NOT WELL VERSED IN REGISTRY EDITING.  |  IP: Logged Dean Kollet Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 591 From: Florida State University Registered: Jul 2003 posted 04-09-2005 07:04 PM                     remove using the tool, and cease in the use of Internet Explorer. I'm surprised with all of the anti-popup/spyware software there is....Mozilla just doesn't put out a commercial saying, "this wouldn't be a problem if everyone just switched, and btw it's free"  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 04-09-2005 08:14 PM                        If it is RAM based, couldn't you just force quit the process and then delete the file?  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-09-2005 10:31 PM                     It probably creates a secret RAM disk, sectioning off a piece of memory, tricking the OS into thinking its a hard drive then reinstalling from there. The technique has been around for years. I used to write programs that used it. There's lots of pitfalls to it, though... #1 among them was that, if the computer lost power your data was toast. So, why not use that pitfall against it? Erase it from the drive then, while that data is still hiding in RAM, pull the plug on the computer. RAM goes Bye-Bye. Malware goes to the great Bit Bucket in the sky. (Just spitballing.) I'm with Brad. You should erase and reinstall your system at least once a year. It's really not that hard. It can be time-consuming but it's not hard.  |  IP: Logged Mark Lensenmayer Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1605 From: Upper Arlington, OH Registered: Sep 1999 posted 04-10-2005 08:14 AM                     Joe, The process is very well hidden. The file in memory is just storing the init file. It is moved there upon start and then is moved back to disk upon exit. The big problem with the version of ELITE TOOLBAR I came across is that it works whether or not the browser is open, so a switch to FIREFOX or OPERA do no good. You could be doing word processing or games and the ads would keep coming. Cutting off the internet just popped up 404 boxes. This is by FAR the nastiest one I've ever come across. I have some others in my lab that are hard to get rid of (SEP, ESyndicate) but they are NOWHERE near the problem that ELITE TOOLBAR created.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 04-10-2005 10:56 AM                     I agree with the restoring the system from scratch. No spyware can survive "format c:". System restore discs from companies like Dell can get the operating system reinstalled in a relatively short amount of time. This is also another argument for using an app like Norton Ghost. It creates a mirrored backup of your boot disc (or the contents of the entire machine). You can kill off spyware effectively without having to reinstall all your applications from scratch. Still, I recommend formatting and reinstalling apps at least once every year or so. The Windows registry can get loaded down with crap after awhile. Doing a clean reinstall will speed up lots of comuter systems. The only downside to this is you may have to "reactivate" certain programs like Adobe Photoshop. A low level format will erase the machine ID it creates as part of the activation process.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 04-10-2005 12:07 PM                        So how does one actually GET this Elite toolbar? I'd love to try it out on my Mac.  |  IP: Logged Scott D. Neff Theatre Dork Posts: 919 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Oct 1999 posted 04-10-2005 12:32 PM                        But what if you want to save files from your computer to reinstall on your new computer? Couldn't the spyware be hiding in one of them?!!?!? And I assume he has SP2 installed cause he just got a brand new Dell like 6 months ago... I suppose it would have come with it right?  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 04-10-2005 12:46 PM                        Six months ago might be right around when Dell transitioned to SP2, so it's possible he got SP1a from the factory. A quick and easy way to find out is boot the system and look at the first XP splash screen. If there's a copyright date in the lower-left, it's pre-SP2. If there's no copyright date, it's SP2.  |  IP: Logged Kyle McEachern Expert Film Handler Posts: 165 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Feb 2004 posted 04-10-2005 01:15 PM                 Another quick/easy way of figuring out if SP2 is installed on a system is by booting the system up, and during the boot-time Windows splash screen (Windows logo on a black background with a blue or green progress bar going by), if it says "Home Edition" or "Professional Edition" under "Windows XP", then it's pre-SP2...SP2 still HAS Home/Pro editions, it just doesn't tell you which is which in text on the loading screen (though you can tell anyways, since Home = green progress bar, Pro = blue bar)  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 04-10-2005 06:12 PM                        So how does one actually GET this Elite toolbar? I'd love to try it out on my Mac.  |  IP: Logged Kyle McEachern Expert Film Handler Posts: 165 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Feb 2004 posted 04-10-2005 06:57 PM                 quote: Joe Redifer So how does one actually GET this Elite toolbar? I'd love to try it out on my Mac. Microsoft Virtual PC 7  |  IP: Logged

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