Spyware And Adware Removal What software do you use?

[kc8yff 0]

Just wondering what kind of software you all use for removing spyware and adware. I use Ad-Aware SE Personal and Spyware Doctor. They both do a very good job at cleaning the system up. Not only that, but they are freeware. I run these just before I go to bed and I am really happy with both programs. I reccomend both of these programs to everyone. I am including links for both programs. Take my word for it. The few megabytes of space these programs take up are well worth it.

DOWNLOAD.COM :: Spyware Doctor 3.1
DOWNLOAD.COM :: Ad-Aware SE Personal

[almoo7 0]

Lavasoft's Ad-aware Pro(latest and registered)Spybot Search & DestroySpyware BlasterTrend Micro Internet Security 2005 helps too.

[marijnnn 0]

my security system & why i use it:- windows xp sp2 firewall: it does the job, doesn't have to many functions though, but enough for me. + it's one of the fastest firewalls around: doesn't slow down the traffic like others mostly do-kaspersky antivirus: best virusscanner around. forget *BLEEP* avg or norton. all independent tests (by firms that don't get money by norton, hehe) say kaspersky is the best. fast, light and very very good.pc cillin & panda are other options. panda has a built in firewall that slows down quite a lot but is very good.-firefox. internet explorer sucks, and you know it-spybot s&d. however, i never find a thing-common sense: if you visit a site and get messages saying 'do you want to install dialer.exe?', i click no haha. and i check programs before i install them. for example: bearshare & kazaa install a lot of *BLEEP* programs

[Xevian 0]

I used to use Ad-Aware Personal SE until someone introduced me to using Spybot S&D which worked way better than Ad-Aware!

[marijnnn 0]

i recently discovered an article that stated that adaware had an agreement with builders of spyware! their explanation was that the spyware caused no treath and therefore they did no longer check it.either way: adaware finds things that spybot doesn't , but mostly it's the other way around.

[Xevian 0]

Yup! So now Ad-aware has been corrupted by MONEY!!! I guess money is a very big factor here...

[Teddybaer90 0]

Ad Aware 6.0

[NilsC 0]

It depends on what I'm trying to remove. On a brand new computer I setup a firewall and add Spybot S&D and AdAwareSE and show the user how to use them. Then I make sure they have a working Antivirus software and the computer is good for now. All patches should be installed and automatic update should be turned on with the option for user to chose when to install a new patch turned on.

If I start working on a computer with an infection, spyware / adware or a Trojan on it

For WinXP or WinME, it is advised that you turn off "System Restore" before proceeding with any viral scan. This will reduce the time required to scan a system.

How To Disable System Restore in WinXP:

For WinXP, right click on "My Computer" --> select "Properties" --> select the "System Restore" tab --> check the "Turn off System Restore" option.

How To Disable System Restore in WinME:

For WinME, right click on "My Computer" --> select "Properties" --> select the "Performance" tab --> check the "Disable System Restore" option

Next you will use an antivirus that can be run from a CD I use the "Public AntiVirus CD v. 3.82" that can be downloaded for free here: http://nyquil-kid.dyndns.org/ This includes instruction on how to use and create the CD. You can get the MD5 checksum here and dowload instructions for Spybot S&D and AdAware.

I start with Spybot S&D, then AdAwareSE and after scanning and the computer comes up clean I bot it with an antivirus boot disk to scan for viruses (second time).

Next step after this is to make sure there are no other hidden malware / spyware.

I use About:Buster. This program removes the Home Search Assistant. (no Link)

and there is a great article here for those who would like to learn more about protecting / cleaning the computer: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
From here you can download a custom HOSTS file and some batch files used to to turn HOSTS file editing on and off. Read up on it before you attempt this so you know what you are doing.

I add activeX blocklists to the registry Spyware blocking tool you can read up on it there.

You can get CWShredder here:
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
This tool will find and destroy all traces of the
CoolWebSearch (CWS) hijacker on your system. This
includes:

* Redirections to CoolWebSearch related pages
* Redirections when mistyping URLs
* Redirections when visiting Google
* Enormous IE slowdowns when typing
* IE start page/search page changing on reboot
* Sites in the IE Trusted Zone you didn't add
* Popups in Google and Yahoo when searching
* Errors at startup mentioning WIN.INI or IEDLL.EXE
* Unable to access antispyware tools or sites

HijackThis
Written by Merijn - merijn@spywareinfo.com
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

I use LSP-Fix to fix winsock2 errors (no link)

This program attempts to correct Internet connection problems resulting from buggy or improperly-removed Layered Service Provider (LSP) software. When you start LSP-Fix, it will read the list of LSP modules from the Windows registry and verify that each module is present. If a module is missing, it is placed on the "Remove" list for removal. Advanced users can override suggested removals in the "Advanced" area. When "Finish" is pressed, the undesired entries are removed, and the remaining entries in the registry are renumbered to make them consecutive. The total module counts are then updated. Finally, the program will display a summary of the changes that were made.

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

PrcView is a process viewer utility that displays detailed information about processes running under Windows. For each process it displays memory, threads and module usage. For each DLL  it shows full path and version information. PrcView comes with a command line version that allows you to write scripts to check if a process is running, kill it, etc.

https://www.grc.com/default.htm Scroll down to the three musketeers and read up on how to use them to shut down the messenger service (Not IM) and shut down DCOM and how to turn off "Plug and Pray" (also know as Plug and Play)

This is some of the tools I use when cleaning out computers, there are more but they are for the most part command line utilities and they can render a computer useless if you use them wrong.. They are last resort tools to clean BIOS (almost never successful), Boot sector and FAT table.

Nils

[moonwitch1405241479 0]

Wow Nils, you just provided me with some fun links :)When it comes to spyware and adware, I always felt that prevention was the best solution. Of course I do have Adaware 6.0 (the personal version though), Spybot S&D and from time to time AVG 7 Pro picks up a few things too . Before I became a FireFox addict, I had loads of spyware and it was a daily routine to remove all this nasty stuff from my poor lil puter. With the use of FF, spyware is rather rare, so is adware. Maybe because I stay away from sites that launch these things on your puter? I don't actually know. I do run scans, virus scanning happens daily. The Adaware and Spybot run every other day, or when I have reason to feel that something happened. The worst I at this point get are tracker cookies. I once let my nephew use my puter (unattended) for "his school assignment". When he left, I had about 50 pop ups open already, had 2 virusses going at it, had the gator thing, weather bug, something with a dog in it's icon. This told me that FF WAS part of my solution, since my nephew always uses IE. It took me hours to get everything back to normal, I went through EVERY folder on this machine and looked through all files manually, just in case the scans missed something. In the end I ran scans again, they seemed clean and I did a defrag. Then I rebooted and the issues were solved. :)And in case anyone wonders, yes I nearly choked my nephew next time he asked to use my pc, and no, I don't even allow him close to it again. (so I am protective over my machine LOL)

[ariolander 0]

I payed for it and SpySweeper is excelent software. It finds stuff that my AdAware, Spybot S&D, & Microsoft Antispyware misses. Rather than waiting for a computer to be infected when you freashly install or after a SpySweeper scan (trial version works) install Microsoft Antispyware along with SP1 & 2. I used to have to clean on of my co-workers computers every month because she somehow got a lot of spyware/adware. Since I gave her Microsoft Antispyware and turned its autoupdate on it has been suprisingly effective.But yea software I use to deal with spyware/adware include:Microsoft AntispywareSpySweeperSpybot S&D (immunization)Spy Blaster (immunization)and I used to be an advocate for AdAware before I found SpySweeper and microsoft released its Antispyware software in beta.

[ChronicLoser 0]

hmm...i'm pretty impressed with Microsoft Anti-spyware. I wasn't planning to try it, but seeing all the good comments about it here, i gave it a quick runthrough...and i think it's good enough for me to keep in my computer Personally, I use X-Cleaner (a relatively unknown application...but it works really really well =P), Ad-Aware SE Personal, and SpywareBlaster. THough, recently I haven't been catching a lot of spyware, so I haven't been running these applications/programs quite as much as I use to. I've been keeping away from some of the "bad" sites since I've met my girlfriend =P

[chaosx2x 0]

i use spybot and search , i'm very satisfacted of him.but i'm a little newbie and i don't know if it's a good program but i using it i think that is a good program

[Vagodeoz 0]

I tried Ad-aware and Spyware Doctor.I had awfull results with both :DI did the scan, it showed up the things that were wrong, select all, next, and it removed some things from the system registry that had nothing to do with that. Example, I have Silent Hill 4, used Ad-aware, tried to play it later and it said that I have to reinstall it, same with some applications.

[deivid1405241470 0]

I use 2 programs to remove spyware: Adaware y SpyBot search and destroy, i find them both good, always remove a lot of spyware, well with them i work with hijackthis it's a simple program, scan the registry alomost all areas where spyware resides, like start page, bho (browser helper objects), toolbars, and permited sites (sites put by spyware to continue spaming our pcs).

Another form to avoid spywares is use the inmunize system from spybot search and destroy, it works bocking certain areas of the sistem to prevent evil codes from the spywares.

Another software to block spyware is SpywareBlaster

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/


Greets
Deivid

[PC Astray 0]

Antispywares alone won't be effective. Enabling your firewall, real-time scanning for your antivirus/antispyware/anti-trojan, downloading the latest updates and using programs like Mozilla Firefox would be best. If you insist on using IE, I suggest you disable ActiveX controls or get an IE shell like Maxthon. You can also try using SpywareBlaster to immunize your computer against unwanted programs and a registry monitoring tool like Prevx Home or Spybot - Search & Destroy's built-in TeaTimer, if I'm not wrong.And remember to check if your antivirus has only viruses, trojans and spywares in its database. Some AV vendors only consider viruses as a threat and their antivirus will only do just that so get an anti-trojan/antispyware if that's the case.