Hey guys, first off I would like to thank you for any input and help. It would be much appreciated. I'm not really a techie or computer savvy person but I am running on windows 7.
So to start off, I have been playing video games and wanted to upload a mod onto one of my games but required winrar to unzip one of my files, yes you can see where this is going. So yesterday, I stupidly just searched up winrar and downloaded off of some site which wasn't the main website. I obliviously just accepted all the terms and ta-da! I got hit with the trovi adware.
First off, a toolbar and url page would appear at the top of my desktop and whenever I opened google chrome or internet explorer, my homepage would be trovi. Like any other person would I searched up how to remove this trovi thing. So I read up on a couple of guides and followed what they said.
1. I downloaded the adware cleaner, scanned it, deleted all the infected files.
2. I downloaded junkremover tool and launched it, it did its thing after I pressed any key.
3. I downloaded the anti-malwarebytes, scanned and launched the program and quarantined the infected files.
4. Finally I downloaded hitmanpro, the latest version and launched that and removed the files.
Is this correct? I did research on these products and they said they were safe to use and I also uninstalled/removed them. Was any harm done when using them?
My homepage still remained as trovi and the toolbar on my desktop still was there. So I reset my google chrome homepage, search bar, and reset the whole google chrome. I also reset my internet explorer as well. After doing so, my homepage and all were completely fine. However, the toolbar was still on my desktop so I went to control panel->uninstall programs->(some toolbar file). I deleted this toolbar file along with all the other recent anti-malware programs I downloaded and the toolbar on my desktop disappeared.
Furthermore I have been searching everywhere for the remnants of this adware. I have organized my files in my downloads, control panel programs, and documents in date when downloaded and removed any unfamiliar files that were recently downloaded. I also went through the run command and went to "regedit" and went to edit->find-> "trovi" and also "conduit". Nothing comes up with trovi but when I type in conduit it comes up with: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\iSyncConduit.dll
I do have an iphone that is synched to my computer, could it be that apple uses this conduit and this file is safe?
Even after all this disappearing, I am really paranoid at the moment. I am about to be graduating highschool and lots of information is on my computer. I read that the trovi adware can collect all my personal info and credit card numbers etc. Is this true even if I did not use the trovi search engine at all? Is it safe to use my computer again for these things after all the trovi files have been removed? What other places can the trovi adware be hiding in? Should I check in any subfolders or another place in the "run program"? What concerns me as well was that a lot of people had "search protect" or "conduit" downloads whereas I only had a toolbar download, should this be concerning? And lastly is there any way for me to completely know that this adware has been completely removed from my computer?
Sorry for the lack of knowledge and so many questions. I panicked and wasn't thinking when this happened. I will for sure be 200 times more careful.
So to start off, I have been playing video games and wanted to upload a mod onto one of my games but required winrar to unzip one of my files, yes you can see where this is going. So yesterday, I stupidly just searched up winrar and downloaded off of some site which wasn't the main website. I obliviously just accepted all the terms and ta-da! I got hit with the trovi adware.
First off, a toolbar and url page would appear at the top of my desktop and whenever I opened google chrome or internet explorer, my homepage would be trovi. Like any other person would I searched up how to remove this trovi thing. So I read up on a couple of guides and followed what they said.
1. I downloaded the adware cleaner, scanned it, deleted all the infected files.
2. I downloaded junkremover tool and launched it, it did its thing after I pressed any key.
3. I downloaded the anti-malwarebytes, scanned and launched the program and quarantined the infected files.
4. Finally I downloaded hitmanpro, the latest version and launched that and removed the files.
Is this correct? I did research on these products and they said they were safe to use and I also uninstalled/removed them. Was any harm done when using them?
My homepage still remained as trovi and the toolbar on my desktop still was there. So I reset my google chrome homepage, search bar, and reset the whole google chrome. I also reset my internet explorer as well. After doing so, my homepage and all were completely fine. However, the toolbar was still on my desktop so I went to control panel->uninstall programs->(some toolbar file). I deleted this toolbar file along with all the other recent anti-malware programs I downloaded and the toolbar on my desktop disappeared.
Furthermore I have been searching everywhere for the remnants of this adware. I have organized my files in my downloads, control panel programs, and documents in date when downloaded and removed any unfamiliar files that were recently downloaded. I also went through the run command and went to "regedit" and went to edit->find-> "trovi" and also "conduit". Nothing comes up with trovi but when I type in conduit it comes up with: C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\iSyncConduit.dll
I do have an iphone that is synched to my computer, could it be that apple uses this conduit and this file is safe?
Even after all this disappearing, I am really paranoid at the moment. I am about to be graduating highschool and lots of information is on my computer. I read that the trovi adware can collect all my personal info and credit card numbers etc. Is this true even if I did not use the trovi search engine at all? Is it safe to use my computer again for these things after all the trovi files have been removed? What other places can the trovi adware be hiding in? Should I check in any subfolders or another place in the "run program"? What concerns me as well was that a lot of people had "search protect" or "conduit" downloads whereas I only had a toolbar download, should this be concerning? And lastly is there any way for me to completely know that this adware has been completely removed from my computer?
Sorry for the lack of knowledge and so many questions. I panicked and wasn't thinking when this happened. I will for sure be 200 times more careful.