How do I get to this file path?

I have something that keeps on putting itself in the startup folder, but I have no clue on how to get there to delete it. Adaware, spybot, and norton cant find anything, but its taking up around 20 mb of memory!
C:\DOCUME~1\BRANDO~1\APPLIC~1\THIRDB~1\peakarmy.exe
I've never seen this type of file path before, what mean? I've tried searching my computer for peakarmy.exe, but nothing shows up. And for some reason when I bring up task manager, it does not show anything under the usernam category, its just blank!
I can block it using wintasks, but I would rather get rid of it for good instead of just blocking it.

goto your C: drive
then Documents and Settings
then Your user name (Brandon ?)
then Application Data
then Thunderbird

it should be in there.

The ~1 means its cutting the name of that folder short, to the 8 digit DOS format.
Thats why its hard for you to read.

~John

Except I don't have anything called application in my Brandon folder. And I don't have thunderbird either. I just searched my computer for both of those also, and they don't exist. Maybe it is hidden or something?

edit: I changed my folder options to show hidden files and found the aplications data. I found the peakarmy.exe now too. It deleted fine, now we get to find out what happens when we restart. Thanks you.

Application Data is a hidden folder. You'll need to open "My Computer", click on tools then "folder options". You'll see an option that permits you to see hidden folders. Select that.

The folder, according to your listed path, isn't Thunderbird. You show it as THIRDB~1, so it will be the folder under Application Data that starts with "thirdb".

If you have spyware, a lot of that crap is EXTREMELY persistant and cannot be removed with AdAware or such programs, nor by simply deleting files. The purple gorilla comes to mind...(if you don't know what that is, don't worry...you do not need one! )

Usually, it takes some finesse and registry editing to get rid of these, some of the most vile of malicious software. I usually just reghost my drive...trying to edit the registry is still difficult as you have to do much of it quickly before the program spawns itself again. Spyware sucks...Did I already mention I miss 1990 internet?

JM-99

Google and Teoma searchs turn up no results for Peakarmy.exe

Do you have a directory starting with THIR* under your BRANDO? user directory? A google search of that directory name may help to determine what is it.

Some of the spyware stuff will have a process name that doesn't match the name of the file that launched it.

spybot and adaware will both run from a flash drive, or shared directory.
Install and update on a clean system, then copy the install directories to the problem system, using flash drive, CD, etc., if you're having problems getting them install and run on the munged computer.
Anything copied from a CD will be "read only" unless it was zipped first.
(right click and remove the read only attribute, after copying to the HD)
Boot to safe mode, and then scan.
Booting to safe mode may prevent the baddies from starting up, making cleanup easier.
To get to safe mode, power off.. when restart, start tapping F8 till you see the menu prompting to to choose safe, normal, etc.

HijackThis can be helpful, but isn't fully automated. You kinda have to know what the various items are. Google can help you to determine what is legitimate. Just google the files/programs listed as starting up.

There is an online HijackThis Log File Analyzer that can help.

Microsoft Antispyware does a decent job. The live protection hammers the machine here that I have it installed on. (Athlon 1800+, 256 Meg), so I use it only to scan.

Trend Micro has a useful online scanner, which scans for both Viri, and malware. HouseCall

Trend Cleanup is a stand alone virus scanner similar to McAfee's Stinger

Arovax Shield can help to prevent malware infections.

Also don't forget the obvious Add/Remove programs applet in control panel.

I was able to finaly delete the files. It was under that file path that I mentioned before, I just had to reveal all of the stuff that windows was hiding from me. SInce wintasks blocked the process from running, I had no problems deleting the file. Luckly I did not have to go into safe mode to delete them or anything like that. They have not come back yet, but you never know.

jumpmaster : I am worring the same thing. I am worried that there is another program secreted somewhere else that will reinstall spyware after I delete it, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I have a question about the search function. Is there a way to make it search hidden files also? Or now that my settings show hidden files will it automatically search them also?

I use zone alarm firewall all the time, so I'm not sure how it got on my computer. I went into safe mode and noticed that they were not running. Zone alarm was one of the reasons that I noticed that something was wrong, because a unheard of program was trying to access the internet.

I tried running trend micro online scanner, but it seemed to stall or something. I left it for about an half hour or so, and nothing changed. I have a broadband connection so I figured that it would have done something by then so I stopped it.

Thanks for all that you guys have done to help me.

Download a-squared free here. It a malware search and removal tool. The purchased version will run real-time in the background, but the freeware version doesn't. That's okay. What you need is the scanning and removal feature. They frequently update their data files, so it stays pretty current. It's a well respected and useful tool.