Free Spyware/Adware removers

[RedAlert]

Do you know of any good, reliable, and free adware and spyware removers that I can use? I just got infected with a bunch of this S***T.

[Dak]

Sorry its in a wierd format, its part of a 'canned' response. All these programs are free.

 

anti-slyware programs: Download and install all of the following: Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware SE and Spywareblaster and Spyware Guard.

 

Make sure that you update these programs regulaly.

 

A part of the Spybot S&D program (called tea-timer) will ask your permission before allowing changes to the registry. Use common sense -- if you have just changed some settings or installed a program, it is probably safe to click 'allow'; if the change comes out of the blue, or if you dont recognise the program making the entry, then click 'block'.

 

These four programs between them perform pretty-much the same function as an anti-virus program, but with one key difference -- whereas anti-virus programs are targeted at viruses, these programs are targeted at adware, spyware, diallers, browser-hijackers etc. Ad-Aware SE and Spybot S&D are both scanning programs. Spybot-S&D also offers active protection of your computers registry. Spyware Guard scans programs just before they run, and prevents any programs which it recognises as slyware from running. And finnally, Spywareblaster prevents your web-browser from accessing certain sites which are known sites which slyware redirects your web browser to, and prevents the downloading of slyware active-x components. Updating is inportant so that the anti-slyware programs have the latest lists of how to recognise slyware

 

alternatively, you could install microsoft antispyware beta, which performs all of the above functions, but will not be remaining free for much longer (i dont think).

 

whichever option you take, make sure to update the definitions by clicking on the update button of the program(s), and then scan (either with ad-aware se AND spybot S&D, or with m$ antispyware beta). have the program(s) remove everything that they find, and then reboot.

 

Whats actually up with your pc?

[RedAlert]

Sorry its in a wierd format' date=' its part of a 'canned' response. All these programs are free.

 

[u']anti-slyware programs:[/u] Download and install all of the following: Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware SE and Spywareblaster and Spyware Guard.

 

Make sure that you update these programs regulaly.

 

A part of the Spybot S&D program (called tea-timer) will ask your permission before allowing changes to the registry. Use common sense -- if you have just changed some settings or installed a program, it is probably safe to click 'allow'; if the change comes out of the blue, or if you dont recognise the program making the entry, then click 'block'.

 

These four programs between them perform pretty-much the same function as an anti-virus program, but with one key difference -- whereas anti-virus programs are targeted at viruses, these programs are targeted at adware, spyware, diallers, browser-hijackers etc. Ad-Aware SE and Spybot S&D are both scanning programs. Spybot-S&D also offers active protection of your computers registry. Spyware Guard scans programs just before they run, and prevents any programs which it recognises as slyware from running. And finnally, Spywareblaster prevents your web-browser from accessing certain sites which are known sites which slyware redirects your web browser to, and prevents the downloading of slyware active-x components. Updating is inportant so that the anti-slyware programs have the latest lists of how to recognise slyware

 

alternatively, you could install microsoft antispyware beta, which performs all of the above functions, but will not be remaining free for much longer (i dont think).

 

whichever option you take, make sure to update the definitions by clicking on the update button of the program(s), and then scan (either with ad-aware se AND spybot S&D, or with m$ antispyware beta). have the program(s) remove everything that they find, and then reboot.

 

Whats actually up with your pc?

 

Oh thanks a lot for all those ideas and suggestions. I am going to try them out. As for your last question, "Whats actually up with your pc?" .....well, I was trying to get Internet Explorer again (I had removed it earlier) but I couldn't find where to download it on the Microsoft Website. So I downloaded it from a different place. Turns out that the Internet Explorer came with a whole bunch of ad-ware (internet optimizer, mediaaccess, Power Scan, Slotch Bar, etc.)....I don't know about spyware, but there were probably some of that too.

 

So I needed something to scan my entire computer and eliminate all these warez, but I didn't know quite what to do since I am not really a computer expert.

 

Thanks for your help, I get all those programs and we will see how it goes.

[Dak]

None of those sound too bad or too hard to shift.

 

how did you 'remove' internet explorer, by the way?

 

would you mind telling me where you downloaded the internet explorer file from please, if you can remember? if you put the the web address of the download site in your responce, could you put a space in the middle so that it doesnt become a link please.

 

The 'internet explorer' program which you installed may possibly try and reinstall all the crap after you remove it, so if the stuff is still there after adaware and spybot finish and you have rebooted, the 'internet explorer' program may have to be killed (iv always wanted to do that )

[RedAlert]

None of those sound too bad or too hard to shift.

 

how did you 'remove' internet explorer' date=' by the way?

 

would you mind telling me where you downloaded the internet explorer file from please, if you can remember? if you put the the web address of the download site in your responce, could you put a space in the middle so that it doesnt become a link please.

 

The 'internet explorer' program which you installed may possibly try and reinstall all the crap after you remove it, so if the stuff is still there after adaware and spybot finish and you have rebooted, the 'internet explorer' program may have to be killed (iv always wanted to do that )[/quote']

 

Deleted the files in My Computer. I can't remember where I downloaded it from...this was quite a while ago. All I know is that Internet Explorer did come back, it works fine..but there is a whole bunch of stuff with it.

[Dak]

Deleted the files in My Computer.

DEATH TO INTERNET EXPLODER!!!

 

Did adaware/spybot sort the crap out?

 

Id advise visiting the microsoft update site to make sure that IE is the latest version; also, do you have an antivirus and firewall installed? (jus tryin to prevent you getting infected again)

[ydoaPs]

screw IE. use firefox.

[Dak]

unfortunately, as long as microshaft persist with their annoying insistance that 'you must have internet explorer version x.y or above' to use their windows update site, then you either have to

 

have and occasionally use IE,

 

manually keep a list of the installed updates, and manually look through their catalogue of updates for ones which you do not yet have, and then download and install them one at a time using a non-ie browser,

 

or accept the security holes in your operating system, which increases the chanses that you will get infected with malware.

 

so, pile of wank that it unarguably is, the penguine-meister does still unfortunately need ie.

[Pangloss]

Sadly even the Mozilla products are no longer immune to pop-ups and spyware. I'm seeing more pop-ups every day in Mozilla. But yeah, it's still a lot better than IE, even with IE's new anti-popup feature.

 

I've been beta-testing Microsoft's Anti-Spyware program and I'm pretty happy with it so far. The only thing it's missed that Spybot picked up are really just the normal tracking cookies that you don't typically want to stop anyway.

 

One annoyance with the MS product is the way it appears to ask you if you really want to install this or that. It's done in a pretty reasonable way (quick, small, fairly easy to understand window) but it's still kinda annoying. It doesn't pop in for all new software, though, just stuff that's suspicious. It appeared for me recently when I installed Tor and Privoxy, for example. You can disable that feature, though.

[Dak]

From what iv heard and personal experience, both m$ beta and the spybot-adware-spywareguard-spywareblaster tetrad are pretty-much as good as each other, although some things will only be spotted by m$ antispyware, and some things will only be spotted by ad-aware/spybot.

 

Spybot has a similar function to the 'annoying' m$ antispyware one, asking for your permission for registry entries/changes, which is a cunning way of preventing infection if you know how to use it.

 

re the mozilla infections: theres even one now that gets passed the first line of FF's defense, and then 'hops' sideways to IE, where it gets past ie's last line of defense* -- so if you have both firefox and internet exploder installed there was little you could do to prevent infection from that specific malware (although i believe the update to v1.0.3 was in order to combat this)

 

and for the record, ie can be made to be roughly as secure as ff... but it takes alot of tweaking.

 

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*not entirely sure how it does this -- i believe its something to do with the sun java used in ff and the m$ virtual machine java used in ie having different 'sandbox' measures, and by getting passed from ff to ie the java trojan somehow manages to completely break out the sandbox(s), whereupon it downloads malware onto your pc.

[Newtonian]

i dont have internet exploder yet...im still using explorer.Is exploder more prone to attack from spyware? if so why upgrade.