Out of curiosity and desperate hope, can anyone help?

[Eisa]

Or has anyone ever had to deal with the malware Desktop Security 2010? I got that. On my laptop. The one I need for school...which started yesterday. FML. I posted my HijackThis log on a computer forum last Friday. This is taking forever. So I want to try to fix it myself. I tried using RKill and then Malwarebytes, but it didn't get rid of it. When I restarted, it was like...it's baaaaaaaaack.

So yeah. If anyone has any nice, shiny tips on getting rid of it, I would be much obliged.

I don't want to bring it to the help desk at my uni because well...they aren't always so good at helping with problems...and I remember when I got my laptop configured for school wireless, the guy there was an idiot and tried to do it before it finished setting up. >.> Like...yeah DUH of course it froze. You just tried to kill it.

Heh.

[technical.angel]

Did you run MBAM in safe mode or regular mode?

If regular mode, try safe mode.

[Gerrinson]

I've run into similar and spent hours (under orders, not of my own choice) trying to 'remove' it.

Your best option is probably just to format the drive and reinstall. It'll probably take the same or even less time. And you're guaranteed not to have any trojans or other infections that may have been missed by your removal tools.

[Hyndis]

If your computer came with a restore disk, use this.

This will nuke the drive, but it will reinstall to the condition you bought the computer in. Everything will be gone.

The nuke it from orbit approach is quick and effective but not all that great for saving data. This is why all important data should be kept in at least two different locations on different computers.

[Ravenzfire]

Did a google search for "Desktop Security 2010" and it turned up a whole host of links with removal instructions. I'll leave which one you want to use up to you but it seems, at a cursory look, like there are plenty of guides out there.

Good luck! I know how much a pain in the ass those can be too remove.

[Jack]

General malware removal steps copypasta:

1) Boot to safe mode with networking. See http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm for instructions.
2) Download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware free edition from malwarebytes.org. If you are unable to browse to malwarebytes.org using Internet Explorer, try a different browser, or go to Tools > Internet Options > Connections tab. Click LAN Settings at the bottom and make sure that none of the boxes are checked.
3) When installing, leave the Update box checked at the end of installation.
4) Once MBAM has opened, go to the Update tab and double-check by pressing Update again. Make sure you see yesterday's or today's date. If you are unable to update, refer to http://jack.is/tech-support/tech-tips/mbam.php -- if all else fails, run a scan with outdated MBAM as that may get rid of enough to update later.
5) Once you have properly updated MBAM, begin a Quick Scan. The full scan is unnecessarily lengthy and will not find additional malware, only insignificant items such as tracking cookies which can be taken care of later, if you care about it. CCleaner is nice for that.
6) Remove everything that MBAM finds.
7) Reboot to normal mode.
Go to http://gmer.net/
9) Press the "Download EXE" button (scroll below the large GMER image).
10) Once the GMER download is running, it will do an automatic, brief scan. Report here if you see anything in red, or anything referring to the "boot sector" or "suspicious modification". Please don't change anything in GMER unless you're sure of what you're doing as this tool can hose the OS.

If gmer has nothing scary in it you're probably fine. Probably.

[Eisa]

GMER! That's what I want to try.

I had an interesting experience...my computer's been at home and I just left it on because I was afraid turning it off might do something. I came home to a blue screen, and there had been some kind of error. It said to restart, so I did...and the virus didn't come up! So I re-installed Malwarebytes and ran it...came up with 76 infected objects. And restarted to remove, ran Rising Antivirus scan but that came up with nothing, did several searches for Desktop Security stuff and used Data Shredder on them, and am now running Malwarebytes again....[I'm on a school puter right now].

I want to try it in safe mode, though, and make sure I'm not missing anything or that it's hiding. And I want to try GMER.

I don't have a restore disk, though, because I got this laptop used.

So yeah...it MAY be all right now, but I'm not sure yet...and I will post the GMER stuff if it has anything scary on it.

[Geek King]

Another thing to try is to use the command msconfig from the Run... program in your start menu (may be in accesories based on OS).

NOTE: be careful here, because msconfig can screw up your system if you fiddle with the wrong thing.

Go to the 'startup' tab, and only the startup tab, uncheck all checked items, click 'OK', and reboot your computer to safe mode. I have had a lot of luck with this stopping the virus long enough to get malware removers to run properly.