Windows Media player opened by itself a couple times Thursday night, 4/19. I ignored it thinking I was hitting something by accident.
then Groove Music starting popping open, downloading music, opening browser windows and my fight with it began.
Pop open consuming the whole screen, I'd close, it would pop open, attempts at typing in a search bar were almost impossible as it would pop open anytime I'd start typing, search from Cortana same thing, this went on for hours on Thursday night, computer became so slow I was able to type faster than "it". Finally I thought I'd adjusted all the settings to keep it off only to wake in the wee hours of Friday to find it running on my computer by itself again. It was populating itself with music, adding music very rapidly which was baffling and then upon closer inspection I discovered it was downloading MY MUSIC located in drop box, where I keep client files. Immediately I paused drop box sync and, with renewed vigor, began my battle with the hijacker. So again it was blocking anything I attempted to do on the computer but since my computer was running really slow I was able to open a few websites to find out how to remove Groove. Non of that was working, I ran virus scans from Bitdefender, Trend Micro Housecall, and Malware Bites. With each scan it would stop for a bit and then begin again - nothing was getting rid of this thing.
After all scans were completed the hijack continued, did not stop until...
I deleted music folder from desktop (dropbox sync was already paused).
I have had no problems at all since, not 1.
Microsoft customer service rep said exactly this when I told him what the problem was, "Oh, we've had several of these calls, its a spider and its really nothing to be too concerned about." But would not confirm that it was from MS.
When would anyone ever say a hijack is nothing to be concerned about unless they know exactly what it is?
MS tech support charged me $50, removed all my anti virus and activated theirs, scanned and all came up clean. They did not find any malware, not one, and assured me client files were safe. SO, If that's the case then
Why has no malware been found when clearly the hijack was still hijacking after I completed all scans? The only answer I can come up with is that there was no malware doing the hijacking
or, if there was malware it's still on my computer, has to be because MS didn't remove any and neither did I. Gee, would be nice to know for sure.
then Groove Music starting popping open, downloading music, opening browser windows and my fight with it began.
Pop open consuming the whole screen, I'd close, it would pop open, attempts at typing in a search bar were almost impossible as it would pop open anytime I'd start typing, search from Cortana same thing, this went on for hours on Thursday night, computer became so slow I was able to type faster than "it". Finally I thought I'd adjusted all the settings to keep it off only to wake in the wee hours of Friday to find it running on my computer by itself again. It was populating itself with music, adding music very rapidly which was baffling and then upon closer inspection I discovered it was downloading MY MUSIC located in drop box, where I keep client files. Immediately I paused drop box sync and, with renewed vigor, began my battle with the hijacker. So again it was blocking anything I attempted to do on the computer but since my computer was running really slow I was able to open a few websites to find out how to remove Groove. Non of that was working, I ran virus scans from Bitdefender, Trend Micro Housecall, and Malware Bites. With each scan it would stop for a bit and then begin again - nothing was getting rid of this thing.
After all scans were completed the hijack continued, did not stop until...
I deleted music folder from desktop (dropbox sync was already paused).
I have had no problems at all since, not 1.
Microsoft customer service rep said exactly this when I told him what the problem was, "Oh, we've had several of these calls, its a spider and its really nothing to be too concerned about." But would not confirm that it was from MS.
When would anyone ever say a hijack is nothing to be concerned about unless they know exactly what it is?
MS tech support charged me $50, removed all my anti virus and activated theirs, scanned and all came up clean. They did not find any malware, not one, and assured me client files were safe. SO, If that's the case then
Why has no malware been found when clearly the hijack was still hijacking after I completed all scans? The only answer I can come up with is that there was no malware doing the hijacking
or, if there was malware it's still on my computer, has to be because MS didn't remove any and neither did I. Gee, would be nice to know for sure.