programs closing

[mercury]

hi there, think weve got a virus of some sort, all our programs inc internet explorer are just randomly closing, sometimes without a msg, anyone have any ideas?

[thelewisgang]

have you done a virus check?  I had a similar problem a few weeks ago and was getting flashes of everything appearing on the screen and it kept closing down without any messages or warnings.  I had a free anti virus software but ditched that and installed McAfee and since then everything has been fine. 

[mercury]

well am trying to do a virus check, i heard pc pitstop is good, but everytime i type the word in, the browser closes!! so annoying.

[Ralph]

Viruses are getting cleverer and cleverer in that they detect when you are trying to do something to remove them and prevent you doing it. Hence your browser closing when you try to visit a virus scan site.

Try to get to the McAfee Stinger site which is at http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/ and download their Stinger (or s-t-i-n-g-e-r as it is now for the reasons I gave above) tool.

If the virus closes your browser when you try that, try this: click Start.....Run... and paste http://download.nai.com/products/mcafee-avert/s-t-i-n-g- e-r.exe into the box and click OK.

If that doesn't work, you'll have to download the program on a different PC and take it to the infected one on a CD or floppy.