limewire keeps starting up

[shokjok]

after i shut down limewire and exit from the icon on the system tray, it keeps re-starting. I dont have it starting when I boot my computer and i have it shuting dowm automaticlly instead of to the system tray. i've tried turning on and turning off all the little tick boxes in preferences but nothing helps. it just started doing this 3 days ago. any help would be appreciated.

[BobbyNaini]

I had this exact same problem, and after literally 24 hours of analyzing every inch of my computer, I solved the problem. I suspect that based on your descriptions of the problem (which I had as well), you are infected with a virus. It's unbelievable that none of my AntiVirus packages picked up this infection.

For me, everytime I restarted my computer, Limewire would automatically load up. Even if I closed it, it would just open back up again. On top of this, I could not even access the Task Manager in Windows XP to allow me to force a shutdown of Limewire. I hit CTRL-ALT-DEL and nothing would happen.

Anyways, here are the steps that need to be taken.

1) Uninstall Limewire. You can reinstall it at the end of these steps.

2) Disable System Restore in Windows. This can be done by right clicking on My Computer, selecting Properties, and then clicking on the System Restore tab. Then check the box Turn Off System Restore. Hit Apply, and then OK. If you are prompted to restart Windows, do so.

3) Now we need to fool the virus into allowing us to open the Task Manager. This can be done by copying the Task Manager executable file from the Windows directory. To do this, go to c:\windows\system32, select the file taskmgr.exe, right click on it, and select Copy. Go to the desktop, and click on an empty part of the desktop. Then right click on the desktop, and select Paste.

4) Double click on the taskmgr.exe file on your desktop. This should open the Task Manager. Click on the Performance tab. If you are in fact infected with a virus, you will likely (although not necessarily) see close to 100% CPU usage!! Now click on the Processes tab, followed by clicking twice on the CPU column header. What this does is order the files running on your computer based on the amount of CPU resources they are consuming in real time. If there is a process, other than System Idle Process, that is consuming close to 100% of the CPU, then it is this process (or file) that is infecting your computer. For me, and likely for a lot of you, that file will be winupdates.exe. Don't be tricked. This is not a Microsoft program. It's a virus masking itself as a legitimate file. Please remember the exact name of this process, because you will need it in a later step.

5) Click on this process to highlight it, then click the button End Process. A warning prompt should pop up. Click on Yes.

6) Now that this process is killed, we need to remove any references to it from the Registry. Once again, because this virus is blocking us from opening the Registry Editor, we need to trick the virus by copying the file to the desktop. Follow the same steps as in number 3, except this time, copy the following two files from their respective directories, and paste them on the desktop.

c:\windows\regedit.exe
c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe

7) Open regedit from the desktop. In the left window, click on My Computer so that it is highlighted. Now select Edit from the menu, followed by Find. In the Find box, type the name of the process that you ended from the Task Manager. If you recall, mine was winupdates. Do not include the .exe, just winupdates. Then click Find.

8) For the item that it found in the right window, click it to highlight it if it isn't highlighted already, and then right click on it, and select Delete. If a prompt pops up, select Yes or OK to confirm the delete.

9) Now, hit the F3 button once. This will find the next reference to that bad file. Follow step 8 again to delete the reference. Repeat steps 9 and 8 until the editor indicates that there are no more references to this file. Then exit the editor.

10) Finally, click on cmd.exe which you copied to the desktop. It will open the Command Prompt (which looks like DOS). Type the following commands in order, and hit Enter after each line:

cd c:\
cd program files
rd /s /q winupdates

11) Now restart your computer. Reinstall Limewire.

This should hopefully fix your problem.

Bobby Naini

[shokjok]

thanx. i'll try that and let you know.

[shokjok]

thanx bobby. it worked great.

[BobbyNaini]

I'm glad to hear that! :-)

By the way, I forgot to mention, make sure you reactivate the Windows Restore function as well. I appologize for having fogotten to mention that.

Bobby Naini

[BobbyNaini]

Hi.

Just to add to the steps that I posted earlier, also do the following:

1) Go to the following directory and delete any file with winupdates in the name.

c:\windows\prefetch

2) When you're done with all of my steps, plase make sure to go back into the System Properties by right clicking on My Computer, and unchecking the Turn Off System Restore box under the System Restore tab.

For those of you who can't seem to find taskmgr.exe, cmd.exe, or regedit.exe, I would suggest you do the following if you have not already done so:

Open My Computer. Select Tools from the menu, followed by Folder Options. Click on the View tab. Make sure that there is a check mark next to the following items:

Display the Contents of System Folders
Show Hidden Files and Folder

Now, make sure there are no checkmarks beside the following:
Hide protected Operating System Files.

Also, if you are using the Search function in Windows to locate these files, make sure that you do it in the following way:

1) Click on the Start button in Windows, and then select Search.

2) Select All Files and Folder

3) Enter the file name in the first box.

4) Click on More Advanced Options.

5) Make sure that the following all have checkmarks next to them:
Search System Folders
Search Hidden Files and Folders
Search Subfolders

Then once these are checked, click on Search.

I hope this helps! :-)

Bobby Naini

[alek]

Hello Bobby;

Many thanks for your time spent on this problem. I have just encountered the same one. However, my malware seemed to have deleted the c/windows/system32 folder, and the taskmgr.exe along with it. Any idea how i can resurrect it again so i can follow the rest of your steps?

Many Thanks,
-alek-

[kmag]

This is malware has been identified as
Worm.Win32.VB.an, the "AN Worm", sometimes called the "Zodiak Worm".

I was able to obtain a sample of this malware. I got free trial versions of both Norton Anti-virus and Kaspersky Anti-virus from Downoad.com.

Norton's 6/22/2005 virus definition library misses this malware.

Kaspersky catches it and quarantines it.

http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?qt=kaspersky

Let us all know if you find any other anti-virus scanners that catch this worm. It might be a new variant, because Norton's website claims they've been able to catch this worm since October 2003.

I've submitted a sample to Norton.

TrendMicro's webserver gave me an internal error when I tried submitting it via their web form.

I have the same problem. Dont have a system32 folder

I believe you can find the task manager file in c:\windows\servicepackfiles\ and you keep going until you find the taskmgr.exe.

My problem is, wheni try to open the task manager (that was copied) it says that the administrator has disabled that function...and i think i'm the administrator.

how do i fix this?

-Ian