I think I might really be stuck here. My laptop is infested with Personal Security malware courtesy of my kid. I have tried running Hijack this, OTL, etc and they won't run because it appears that admin access has been claimed by the malware. Well, Hijack this runs but won't write to a log file(says write access denied) and the program won't finish completely.
When I try and reboot in safe mode, it won't let me. It appears the malware shuts down safe mode as it comes up and reboots the computer in regular mode. I have an Acer Aspire 5516 and one choice pressing f8 that did work was "repair computer" but there is very limited things one can do in this mode it appears. There is one choice to go back to the factory defaults from when the computer was brand new, but I have not tried that as I have read trying to back to past setups might make things worse.
I have read about this all day and nothing I have tried is allowed as admin access is gone I think. I really need this thing off the laptop but am at a standstill. I can't even run the programs I read are recommended through the USB drive I am using to transfer the downloaded programs to the laptop.
When I try and reboot in safe mode, it won't let me. It appears the malware shuts down safe mode as it comes up and reboots the computer in regular mode. I have an Acer Aspire 5516 and one choice pressing f8 that did work was "repair computer" but there is very limited things one can do in this mode it appears. There is one choice to go back to the factory defaults from when the computer was brand new, but I have not tried that as I have read trying to back to past setups might make things worse.
I have read about this all day and nothing I have tried is allowed as admin access is gone I think. I really need this thing off the laptop but am at a standstill. I can't even run the programs I read are recommended through the USB drive I am using to transfer the downloaded programs to the laptop.