I got the same SpywareStrike virus today as well. After a long struggle -- and lots of failed attempts, since all the removal instructions out there are for SpyAxe -- I managed to get rid of it. Here's what I did (although, fair warning, I am definitely a novice when it comes to computers):

First thing I did was disconnect from the Internet. I could get SpywareStrike uninstalled and deleted (in Safe Mode, not in Safe Mode, using a variety of methods that people battling SpyAxe had suggested), but it kept installing itself again when I rebooted.

So first thing I did was uninstall it in Control Panel. That deleted the folder in Program Files. You might also delete all your temp files, as there seemed to be another SS installer in mine.

After backing up my registry, I did regedit and searched for anything labeled SpywareStrike. Despite having uninstalled it already, I found a couple of entries and then deleted them.

Then I did what the last guy said: delete the file netwrap.dll from the system32 folder. That was definitely created at the same time I got this stupid thing, so I figured it was worth a try. After I deleted it, I went ahead and searched for that in regedit, too, and came up with another entry or two. I deleted them.

Then I rebooted and -- voila! -- no more problems. As far as I can tell, anyway. It's been a few hours.

Good luck!

I also wanted to ask about how people got it, just out of curiosity. For the last couple of weeks, I've had some sort of adware problem attached to Google. Whenever I would search, the Internet Explorer window would select and deselect itself -- like I was toggling between windows or something, even though I wasn't. Then, every few minutes, random pop-ups would come up. Sometimes they'd be for Lycos or Forbes magazine or other stupid things. Multiple scans with Ad-Aware, Spybot, etc. were no help.

So today, about two weeks later, I get this virus. It's almost like it had been incubating on my computer or something, although that could be way off-base. Like I said, I'm a novice.

Did anybody else have this problem before the virus popped up? It could be totally unrelated, but now that I've gotten rid of SpywareStrike, it doesn't happen anymore.

This post was orignially added to a post in the HJT forum here.



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