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removing search.conduit virus malware from your computer running Windows 7

ndrwrld

ndrwrld

TRIBE Member
my windows 7 driven lappy needed a reformat, but i ' acquired ' conduit search on Chrome.

When i open Chrome, it takes me there. i need to click home to take me to my homepage, Google. if i open another tab within the same window, it takes me to my home page which is Google.

it doesn't show up in Chrome extensions or addons...and it doesnt show up in add remove programs.

i've reformatted twice, and uninstalled Chrome twice.
search.conduit.com still shows up.

all removal pages i've seen for this say go to add remove, and set home page, all which ive done.

how can i do a complete back to factory settings, and have this fucking thing show up ?

has this leeched its way into my reformat partition ?
will i need to get a new windows 7 system disc from Microsoft ?
 
alexd

alexd

Administrator
Staff member
I had this as well a few years ago. Its malaware. A browser hijack. If I remember correctly, I had to take the removal steps and also manually take it out of the registry.

Google it (if you can !), there are some fixes out there for it.

I think I acquired it with youtube downloader, or some other 'free' program that I downloaded from cnet.
 
Aaron Bradley

Aaron Bradley

TRIBE Promoter
ndrwrld said:
i've reformatted twice, and uninstalled Chrome twice.
search.conduit.com still shows up.
Click to expand...
are you saying that you are reformatting your PC and you still see it after? What do you mean *reformatting*?

I just want to make sure we're on the same page.
 
praktik

praktik

TRIBE Member
I nuke things far more readily now - since win 7 its easy to keep images around...

But after arcane windows troubleshooting sucked away tons of time I realize sometimes the reinstall/reconfigure is actually the quicker route sometimes, at least you KNOW its gonna work!
 
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ndrwrld

ndrwrld

TRIBE Member
but this didn't. Twice.
the malware shuck its way onto my partition.
and HP wants me to send them $30 so they can send me the discs ( Win 7 and drivers discs ).
 
alexd

alexd

Administrator
Staff member
If you can find out what program it loaded from or was bundled with, contact the author and/or post the name of it here so other can avoid the same situation.

I had an issue like this with CNET and told them about it and I believe they pulled the offending shareware from their file database.
 
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Aaron Bradley

Aaron Bradley

TRIBE Promoter
woooooooooooooo

this is crazy. If you wipe out your drive, there is nothing on there. If you really want to be safe, use a low level formatting utility. Something like JTscan but new. Basically that will write 1/0 on all sectors guaranteeing that there is no residual files left.

If you want, I would format the drive with Linux and then come back to Windoze. You will for sure not have any left over files from the previous Linux version, let alone the windows version before that
 
S

stir-fry

TRIBE Member
He probably has more than one hard-drive and the virus is just replicating itself after the install.

I've used either of these sites in the past for virus removal help:

Geeks to Go! - Free help from tech experts - Tech experts answer your questionsGeeks to Go! – Free help from tech experts
Malwarebytes : Free anti-malware download

Go to their forums and they have a "Malware/Trojan" removal forum where a live Admin will help you clean you machine. Just make sure you read the sticky and do exactly what they tell you to do when you open a thread.
 
Aaron Bradley

Aaron Bradley

TRIBE Promoter
yes, for sure. If he is leaving a partition or other physical disk available (by meaning there is still on OS on it) then yes, it (virus) will traverse through the file system(s)

I would use the methods that leave windows in tact as a last option if YOU REALLY WANT THE VIRUS GONE.
 
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alexd

alexd

Administrator
Staff member
Ya, what is probably happening is the virus is residing on a hidden partition on the drive. I don't know about HP, but most computers sold with pre-installed operating systems have a smaller, sometimes hidden, partition that contains the operating system in case you need to restore the computer to it's factory state.

It is probably lurking in that. Make sure when you run these scans and removal tools you are also selecting the hidden partition for scanning.
 
ndrwrld

ndrwrld

TRIBE Member
it didn't.
it was an opened box and had the recovery partitioned on D drive.
i never got to burning it, and now it bit me.
i can't even boot it up without laughing my ass off at how fucking slow my laptop is now.
oh wait...another failed boot up.

2nd last reinstall ( from D ), it tried repairing bad sectors.
is that bad ?
ch33se

i dont even think i can get it booted up properly to run Malware on the D drive, let alone try and get IE or any browser to visit said sites linked here to diffuse the problem.
if i had another one, i'd strap them to my feet and waterski on them.
 
Last edited:
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X

xtcfreak

TRIBE Member
alexd said:
If your laptop came with a real Windows 7 CD you are laughing. Slap in a new hard drive, install Windows 7, and yer done.
Click to expand...
Google "Windows 7 ISO digital river" , first link. Clean/Legit ISO downloads. Digital River is Microsoft's distribution channel". :)

Jay
 
ndrwrld

ndrwrld

TRIBE Member
so if i use one of those IOS's, i'll still need to do all my HP drivers. will i need to do those one by one manually ?
i dunno if i have the brain power to do those...it easy ?
 
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