Removing unwanted desktop icons

All of a sudden 7 unwanted icons appeared on my desktop (they include Bingo, website housing, card games, casino online, printer cartridges, poker and travel) I have no idea where they came from and I can not get rid of them, I can not right click or left click on them or drag them) Any ideas on how to get rid of them?

 

Yup. Get rid of the spyware that put them there and keeps them there.

In Quicklinks (from my signature) you will want both Ad-Aware and Spybot. Download, update, run, let them clean stuff.

Moving this to the spyware removal section.

 

Adaware removed the icons yesterday but today when i restarted the computer, the icons were back! now what?

 

Download Hijackthis v1.99, unzip it to a normal folder (so not a temp folder and not the desktop), scan and create a log file, post the log file here so we can take a look.

 

Spyware is getting more insidious these days. The only way to really getting rid of them is reinstalling Windows in some cases. However, before that option is chosen, you have to remove them from the registry. We all should try to avoid monkeying around with the registry, but desperate times require desperate measures. Lately, I have been going through the registry more than I want to while cleaning out spyware from my customers' computer.

The keys where spyware can hide are the places where they can launch at startup. Also remove any registry entries of these junk files so that Windows does not know they exist. If you cannot get rid of the actual physical files, then you can make it so that Windows does not know they exist. That in effect, pacify them in practical terms. If you have not been modifying the registry before, do some reading and practice on a spare computer. If you like to fix Windows, you have to be fairly familiar with the registry.

 

An added note from my own experience.

Once you get the Registry cleaned up to your liking DELETE ALL OLD and MAKE NEW BACKUPS

The RB000.cab files in the C:\Windows\Sysbckup folder for 98. Just delete them and restart Windows. It will ( or should ) make a new one.

And The Restore points for XP. Gotta shutdown and restart System Restore there. And it will make a new one.

I have upset myself a couple of times by not using my own recommedations. Spent the better part of the day cleaning trash and other unwanted things from the reg. As a test I used a Restore point. YUCK !! had to do it all over AGAIN.

BillyBob

 

removing garbage from the desktop

I have exactly the same problem. I ran both spybot S&D and AdAware. They didn't remove the icon. It might be related to a problem with the internet explorer. When i use IE I get a search bar and a set of tabs (Bingo, gifts,travel games etc.). to avoid that problem i switched to Mozilla, but it might be the same spyware that did this to me.

If anyone found a solution to the desktop icon problem that would be great.

 

Messenger Plus installed?

If you recently installed Messenger Plus and you accepted the defaults during the install you now have LOP on your computer. Please click HERE for more information. If you want to reinstall Messenger Plus without the spyware watch the screens very carefuly and when you see the screen saying something about installing the sponsor make sure to choose I refuse.

 

You're right. Adaware also found lop, I assumed it would be able to remove it, how wrong can one be. I found some very interesting behavior. While running AdAware the lop icons disappear and reappear again immediately. Lop seems to step out of the way when Adaware runs.

I removed lop with the tool from the lop web site
http://lop.com/new_uninstall.exe
It seems weird, but it works

I'll be careful when installinging messenger plus again. thanks

 

Do not forget to redo any backups that may have been made while the problem existed

BillyBob

 

Seven Unwanted desktop Icons

I had the same problem with the seven unwanted icons. I could not remove them. Then, I found an unwanted program in the add/remove programs. called TSA. I also found a tsa.exe file. I removed them both. I still had the icons. I rebooted in diagnostic mode and ran a little program called **** Cleaner http://www.ccleaner.com/ When I rebooted in normal mode, all icons were gone, and this raimns true after sveral reboots.