I reran Malwarebytes (the 3rd run) as instructed. It reported "The scan completed successfully. No malicious items were detected." I have a copy of the happy details which I can post here if you still want to see them. I rescanned with Spybot and this time it gave me the bright green all-okay check mark and made no mention of virtumonde.sci. I retried the TrendMicro Housecall and it made its way through all the C and D files and I think through the grayware/spyware category when it came to a halt and the dreaded box appeared saying "An error occurred while trying to transfer data from the Internet. Do you want Trend Micro Housecall to try resendingÂ". I did retry several times but the box reappeared repeatedly. At the time, the progress tab on the left showed the program was "updating security check information". Trying to learn what I could, I clicked on the results tab and it showed ADWARE_MEMWATCHER (98 infections) but the program and computer were frozen there and I could only close the browser. I did have AdAware installed on my computer but uninstalled it in July 2008. I uninstalled using the Add/Remove feature, I uninstalled because of a thread in this forum related to compatibility issues between Spybot and AdAware. Anyway, I digress, but IÂm relating these events in the order they appeared. I came back to this forum to report and saw additional instructions about disabling TeaTimer, etc. In trying to find out how to do so, I was in Spybot and clicked on the recovery tab. There I found a backup for virtumonde.sci. The system wouldnÂt allow copy and paste of what it was saving in backup so I copied it manually (and hopefully without error). Browser helper object HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects\(AAAE832A-5FFF-4661-9C8F-369692D1DCB9) The above was listed 4 times for 1/4/09 9:57:00 AM 1/30/09 10:33:44 PM 1/31/09 5:07:20 PM 1/31/09 7:14:07 PM The following was also listed once: Class ID HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\(AAAE832A-5FFF-4661-9C8F-369692D1DCB9) 1/4/09 9:57:01 AM Should I still run the ATF Cleaner? Thanks so much for your help - June

Thanks, Mikie. I tried that and it said components missing. It then gave me the option of going to a restore point which I did and was able to run the virus program. It found the trojans - 3 - and quarantined them. I guess I'm good now...? (A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing - I'm just hoping I didn't cause another problem - lol)

Have you checked their website? usually they will tell you their preferred method of doing that. some companies tell you just to go ahead and lay the new one over the old one it will find your settings and save them and just install the new and remove the old, Some want you to do a full uninstall of old and then put in the new. I suggest you read the material with it and go check their website. I used trend micro but it was years ago so I really do not remember.

I think it's important to remember at this time that the reason FREE AV and anti-malware products exist at all is that they are trying to get their foot in your door to try and sell you the PAID version. To that end, confusing and misleading claims about the offerings of competitors are the order of the day. If the claims about conflicts with Avira are true, I would be more suspicious of Avira than the others. I dropped Avira years ago because they were trying to force their "toolbar" on their users and forcing them to jump thru several hoops to get rid of it. They were also becoming very pushy about getting free users to become paid users. Looks like now I have another reason to cross it off my list entirely for my personal use, though if anyone did try Avira I'd be interested in hearing what they have to say about it.