OT: Does anyone know a good free anti-spyware/adware program?

[lars573]

Really my copy of Ad-aware got ride of my search, either that or I turned it off. Still things like that are hard to get rid of. Just ran ad aware and Mysearch had showed up again but adaware found and deleted it. Can't say as to why you are having problems, how's your general PC health because I've found that an unhealthy PC can impede ad-awares effectiveness.

[DisruptorX]

If you are using IE, deleting it would save you a great deal of time and effort in the future.

[Quokka]

Here is a great site for all spyware/malware problems

Just register and follow the instructions that the Helpers give you.

Spyware removal at Spywareinfo.com

Sorry if this is not allowed, it was for a good cause.

[Colovion]

Spy sweeper

http://www.webroot.com/php/tryme.php...000&vcode=DT02

[MuseRulez]

I hate spyware : It makes me wanna go all on those b* who spread it. I had trouble with Mysearch too. Try to turn Mysearch off in IE then you'll be able to delete it.

[ah_dut]

Colovion is correct, spy sweeper is good and free, get the trial version of window washer as well it's pretty good. And to get less crap and pop ups, in general, try mozilla firefox instead of IE and don't ever delete IE, windows throws a tantrum and you need it iirC TO INSTALL updates which are important

[Sethik]

You could also start using a next generation browser. IE and Netscape have terrible protection and don't block anything. I use Mozzila Firefox. The browser is amazing. It has popup blockers, a download manager, blocks spyware and adware, google is built right into the browser, etc. I can go on for a long time about how great this browser is. I recommend it to everyone: It rocks.

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/start/



Not that I'm affilated with Mozzilla in anyway ...

[Condottiere]

I finally got round to trying out these programs. Thanks all for your help.

Really my copy of Ad-aware got ride of my search, either that or I turned it off. Still things like that are hard to get rid of. Just ran ad aware and Mysearch had showed up again but adaware found and deleted it. Can't say as to why you are having problems, how's your general PC health because I've found that an unhealthy PC can impede ad-awares effectiveness.

I don't know why Ad-aware can't detect this type of adware/spyware - my PC is virus free. I've had to use Spy Sweeper and Spyware Doctor to get rid of My Way/MySearch and a bunch of other things that Spybot and Ad-aware couldn't find.

Do Tripod/Lycos affiliated sites have a built in search bar that appears in the IE browser whenever one accesses its pages? or is this just my problem.

Here's the site in question, a WAB wargaming site: http://www.angelfire.com/games/vince.../BeginPage.htm

I the past I've had to deal with pop-ups, now I have a search bar appearing on the left where My Favorites is located. It seems that this only happens with Tripod/Lycos sites. I've run all four of my anti-spyware/adware programs and nothing comes up apart from harmless cookies.

[Lonewarrior]

Get pop up blocker, popus if u click on them contain spyware and u will be infected without knowing, but I recomned you get programs like Norton anti virus that come equiped with ad blocking and spyware prevention.

[Red Harvest]

Try CWShredder. It is pretty good at cleaning up this sort of search site hijack thing. Another tool is Hijackthis.exe. It is handy for spotting unwanted processes that load at startup.

I had an infection of one of these search sites similar to yours last year. I had to do quite a bit of digging and manually hunted down files and killed them in safe mode. The blasted thing was preventing me from setting my home page, etc. It took a couple of tries, because if one of the 3 or 4 components was missed, it reloaded all of the rest.

Who cares about piracy? Death to trojan and virus writers. Bring back draw and quartering. Heck, I would donate $500 to the legal defense of anyone who snuffed one of the SOB's.

[EatYerGreens]

If anyone can find a decent jack-of-all program which isn't also master of none, then I'd be glad to hear about it. Until then....

I went and registered my copy of AdAware 6.0, so I'm sticking with it. New update files seem to crop up at the rate of 2 or 3 a week.

Since it specifically looks for Adware, I also use Spybot S&D. Each finds objects which the other one does not, so they complement each other.

IE-resident Spybot seems to be finding and blocking "DoubleClick", "AvenueA.Inc" and "Adviva" at just about every forum I go into lately, including this one. They make fresh attempts on every thread-list, entering a thread and every sub-page of a thread. They also seem to crop up on an increasing number of non-forum type websites.

Adware and spyware are very specific categories but I use a third program which also finds and blocks things which the pair of them sometimes miss - Pestpatrol.

The list of categories it can deal with is so long that I can't do it justice here. You need to check this program for yourself and you'll note that not all the categories are set to be searched for in the default settings.

As well as the ability to run HDD scans and zap any files which your other s/w has left behind, there is also a memory checker (as in search for memory-resident nasties) and 'Cookie Patrol'. If a cookie lands on your system and is on PP's ***t-list, it gets deleted immediately.

I installed the MSN toolbar into IE and it's telling me how many pop-ups it has blocked (the count seems to carry over from one IE session to the next). With the aformentioned three progs doing their thing, I wasn't having any problems with pop-ups anyway, so I can't say whether this function actually serves a practical purpose. Still, it's nice to know how much crud I've avoided and which sites are dishing them out.

Naturally, I have virus-scan and Mcafee claims to also deal with spyware but I've yet to see it detect anything of this kind - I reckon SS&D inoculation is stopping them getting through in the first place.

The thing to watch for is that each company's dat file is only incremented in accordance with samples their users send to them. There could be a lot of duplication but, equally, some might have gaps which another is able to fill and vice versa. Not all users will have the same combination of programs, after all. I'd recommend using a combination of two or three rather than relying on a single program to handle everything.

Time to go and get my dat file updates....

[Tomcat]

I agree with EYG. I use PestPatrol, Adaware, Spy Sweeper and Spybot Search and Destroy once a week. Maybe it is overdoing things but they usually seem to identify some different nasties between them.

There is no one program that will do-it-all for you. You need a combination of products coupled with a good Anti-Virus program. I use F-Secure AV but that has some problems running with the latest version of ZoneAlarm so I am still using ZoneAlarm v4.5 rather than the latest v5.

I also like the fact that Spybot now tells you when a particular site wants to download a cookie like DoubleClick or whatever. I just wish you could tell Spybot to always block these cookies by default as opposed to being asked at every download attempt which can get very time consuming!

Tomcat

[ah_dut]

For me at least half of these problems can be evaded by using mozilla firefox. It has far fewer security holes

[EatYerGreens]

I also like the fact that Spybot now tells you when a particular site wants to download a cookie like DoubleClick or whatever. I just wish you could tell Spybot to always block these cookies by default as opposed to being asked at every download attempt which can get very time consuming!

Tomcat

You can do that. Go to the Spybot-resident icon, in the right hand end of your taskbar, right click on it, hover cursor over "Resident IE" until the pop-out menu appears. Make sure "Use resident in IE sessions" is checked and also click the line at the top to "block all bad pages silently". No more clicking on dialogue boxes.

Actually I still leave this feature switched on as I like to see exactly what is being blocked, as well as where and when they are being sent in my direction. With Pest Patrol, you get the 'plop' sound and, if curious as to what was blocked you can look at the Cookie Patrol log. As mentioned before, PP finds things which SS&D misses and vice versa. After finishing an online session, an AdAware scan sometimes find things both of them missed.


I've seen their blurb about AdAware SE but wasn't sure what the benefits of it were and haven't downloaded it yet. If I'm paid up on AA6.0, would I be suddenly back to demo-only functionality on SE?

Interesting to note McAfee claim spyware/adware functionality but these things are getting through their firewall (latest updates and all) and none of them show up on V-scans. Maybe because SS&D, PP and AA6 are getting there first!


Btw, I also have the DSO exploit thing showing up but checked those links and they basically say you're okay if you've been to Windows update. I've got everything short of switching to SP2 and am already wary of that given the mixed reports about compatability with TW games.

[Condottiere]

Get pop up blocker, popus if u click on them contain spyware and u will be infected without knowing, but I recomned you get programs like Norton anti virus that come equiped with ad blocking and spyware prevention.

I already have Norton 2004 Professional Edition as well as ZoneAlarm. Do you know of a way of closing pop-ups without having to click on the "close" symbol? I heard somewhere - may not be true - that clicking on the "x" can sometimes install programs on one's machine.

[Condottiere]

I believe I've finally rid myself of the MySearch/My Way - the thing is I don't know how it actually worked. I first ran Spyware Doctor and when it finished scanning, Spy Sweeper. Both detected a number of cookies, but no spyware. I then decided to run Spybot-S&D and Ad-Aware 6.0 simultaneously. For awhile it looked like everything was going to freeze up, but in the end spybot stopped running followed by Adaware. The former didn't find anything significant, but the latter had 3 entries for "My Way". This was strange, because previously this program never found any spyware programs. Now when I go go tripod/lycos sites, I still get the occasional pop-up, but no Searchbar appears on the left of my screen. Could running a number of anti-spware/anti-adware programs as opposed to one at a time, be a better option?

[Phatose]

Well, at the advice of several in this thread, I'm starting using Firefox.
Don't think I'm ever going to go back. This is great. Thanks dudes.

[Ludens]

Thanks, Tomcat. That link explains it.

[Morindin]

I believe I've finally rid myself of the MySearch/My Way - the thing is I don't know how it actually worked. I first ran Spyware Doctor and when it finished scanning, Spy Sweeper. Both detected a number of cookies, but no spyware. I then decided to run Spybot-S&D and Ad-Aware 6.0 simultaneously. For awhile it looked like everything was going to freeze up, but in the end spybot stopped running followed by Adaware. The former didn't find anything significant, but the latter had 3 entries for "My Way". This was strange, because previously this program never found any spyware programs. Now when I go go tripod/lycos sites, I still get the occasional pop-up, but no Searchbar appears on the left of my screen. Could running a number of anti-spware/anti-adware programs as opposed to one at a time, be a better option?

From my experiance - no. Adaware provided it's updated usually finds everything spyware S&D finds + more.

Someone has already mentioned there is a newer version of Adaware available that you should download.

http://www.howtouniverse.com/CI/removehotbar.html

There is a link on that article on removing hotbar, mysearch, and other such nasties.