Ad-aware is the best spyware remover ive ever used. it got rid of EVERYTHING! My sister had a virus that caused her computer to play a laughing sound effect every once and a while and occasionally it would play a loud guitar chord. I dont know if this was another spyware or why but there was also something that kept her computer from shutting down. the only way to get the computer to turn off and stay off was to unplug it. I tried ad-aware and it got rid of both problems in one foul swoop. It was amazing!

Does anyone else has any other recomondations for virus/spyware/adware removers?

http://download.pestpatrol.com/downloads/c...olcorporate.exe

Supposed to be awesome for wipeing spyware, but does nothing to prevent it from occuring. You need a good sheild or two.......or three...

I use spybot. I love it.

I used to have Spybot and Ad-aware before I had to reformat this computer. Once I got it back, however, I only downloaded Ad-aware, since I think it is much more efficient than Spybot.
I also have Pest Patrol, but I don't use it as much as Ad-aware.

I use norton antivirus

Norton isn't really good. Its too standard.

I use Ad-Aware, its quite effective, it shocks you to think how much spyware there is. I use to have Norton Internet Security, it wasnt as good as the £45 suggested it would be. I slowed my internet right down cos it kept checking every thing. I suppose it was safe, but it was a hinderance..

SoftPerfect Personal Firewall
Avast Antivirus w/resident protection

Mozilla Firefox for browser
using extension of NoScript and Ad-Block
but not the Flash plug-in

Changing to a DSL also was a step up in security from the dialup network
because they use WAN/LAN IP referencing at the DSL modem

i heard that the three best anti-spyware things are Ad-Aware, Spy-Bot and(suprisingly), the Windows anti-spyware thing.

also i tried firefox and it really slowed down my suffing and with a dial-up connection shared between 5 computers it was veeeeeeeeeeery bad! It kept screwing up to, every address i typed in it would take me to google. So i said "screw this" and got opera. It was way better but i still like IE the best, its a familiarity thing i guess...

I first had Spybot but it kept saying it eliminated a browser helper object (bho)which if I rescanned it was still there. Its not bad for the price (free) but it doesn't eliminate nearly as much as commercial products. Then I had AdAware but that's not nearly as user friendly as Spybot was. Then I got Aluria's Spyware Eliminator & I'm very pleased with the product. Very user friendly. Doesn't detect cookies that aren't spyware which the PestPatrol road runner gave me free does. Pest Patrol is a good product but it detects things that aren't a problem. I also go to Panda's free scan to see if detects anything sometimes as a back up.

As far as internet browsers go I heard Opera tends to have less malware getting on it. But the same can be said for Mozilla FireFox or Linux as most of the viruses, trojans, etc. are geared toward Microsoft's IE (Internet Exploer). But they're starting to hit Mozilla FireFox just as much as IE now although MFF's problems are usually fixed faster than Microsoft's IE. Mozilla's FoxPro isn't as common yet. Mozilla FireFox downloads faster on my computer than IE. I've been meaning to try Opera.

Road runner's free EZArmour firewall and antivirus I've never had any problems with. My laptop only crashed a few times when I first got it because a certain person would go to a porn sites in his eagerness to experience the internet before installing the firewall. The first time I was like alright we'll start over. The second time I was Pissed, the third time I had the dumb thing hanging out the window in disgust while we argued for ten minutes. (For someone's sake just exercise some self control for a while.) Anyway they're good products. Alluria gave me a free firewall a couple of months ago. After a few days I turned it off. Multiple firewalls aren't a good idea I'm told by tech support & can really slow you down. However according to roadrunner's tech support and alluria's you can have multiple antispyware with no compatibility problems.

I've got and use:
Norton
AdAware
PestPatrol
Spybot: Search & Destroy


Scan with all but one and another usually picks something up that the others didn't.

I'd probably do the same but my laptop has limited space.

AVG Free (for viruses) and Spybot: Search & Destroy (for spyware) are all I've ever had to use. I never have anything get past those two. I also use BellSouth Pop-Up Catcher (for pop-ups).

I have to put a shoutout in for Hijackthis.

If you are smart and don't delete things like....your system.... when you run it, it is probably the best thing for getting viruses off your computer.

I'll give spybot a shout out as well.

Like Zairik said not much gets past it. And if it does, it finds it, deletes it and then you can "immunize" your system against that particular spyware so it won't be able to latch on again.

Just remember to check for updates often (spybot).
Otherwise it will not be as effective.

Well if someone has some websites they will put up for us to download this stuff at, it would be helpful :)

btw I use norton internet security and it SLOWS my pc down but, once again, Im too poor to go out and spend another 70 bucks on something else ;)

Well there is a link for pest patrol. I imagine that most of the stuff if you just type it into google, you can find pretty easily.

but didn't you state that pest control didn't help prevent spyware? that would be a waste of a download since you'd have to run the thing alot more often.. but thats just my opinion. Perhaps I'll just google some stuff.. lol

Ewido worked fine for me. I deleted Norton's. Download a torrent with a crack or something.

you can get ad-aware at lavasoft.com NOT adaware.com because what you download there is just a bunch of spyware in disguise. It talks a bunch about paying and whatnot but just go to the download site and Adaware SE Personal is free to download. Im sure you could probably get spy-bot at like spybot.com or something(haven't tried), hut i would definitely suggest that you get pretty much all of this stuff at download.com. They have ad aware, spy-bot, spy-sweeper(except now webroot changed the trial/free version so that it will scan you computer but it doesnt actually get rid of anything, which very much sucks), my anti-virus AVG Free-edition, and like a thousand other anti spy-ware whatnot(as well as millions of other interesting and not-so-interesting progams). AND you dont even have to worry about inadvertently downloading the very thing that you're trying to get rid of because its all hosted and verified by CNET. The only thing that you have to be careful of is that since its all free(YAY!) most programs are only trial versions so they have limitations such as a 30 trial period or removed functions.(The preceding program was sponsored by CNET...lol)

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

That has alot of downloads that I would recommend if you think you have some computer issues.

HijackThis, which I'll plug again, is great, but make sure you know what you are doing. The Brute Force Uninstaller works wonderfully for those files that Norton picks up, "uninstalls" then picks up again.

KazaaBegone is great for those of you who had the misfoutune of installing KaZaa just to realize how bad it was.

Man yeah, you got that right. Kazaa has 3 or 4 applications that ride piggy-back upon it's install. So your bound to have something left over if Kazaa's removed. Noticed there are a few other programs out there that "package" other software with it, like a lot of those free screen-savers that you can download.

And HiJackThis was the one you'd mentioned for looking into some of those 'svchost.exe' instances??

Yup, it looks at ALL running processes.

Just make sure you don't delete...err...windows or somthing.

Ad-aware and HiJack This are two programs I'd had to use in the last few days.

Wish it didn't require spending so many hours combatting this stuff... but if wishing only made it so. So we are left having to find these tools and utilize them while still manually having to make changes to the Windows registry.

I'm almost convinced that registries are programmed in the new MS operating systems to simply allow facetious or malicious attacks by the outside networks (including Internet in general).

I employ a variety of programs for my spyware/adware arsenal since the things crashed my old computer twice and I refuse to let them slow down my aging newer computer.

Already mentioned, I use Ad-Aware, Spybot, and PestPatrol (which I enjoy free of charge thanks to Time Warner... which they owe me anyway for shelling out the $75 a month for cable and internet).

However, I'm surprised no one has mentioned SpywareBlaster or CCleaner. SpywareBlaster isn't a spyware remover; it's spyware prevention. Basically it downloads lists of spyware sites and blocks them from your browser so you won't accidently get anything from the sites.

CCleaner is by far my favorite anti-spyware tool (though it's not really anti-spyware in particular, but it certainly helps fighting it too). CCleaner basically removes any web data you accumulate while browsing. This is particularly effective against spyware since it likes to hide in those folders, I've discovered. You can also choose what cookies get to stay and what cookies get trashed so you won't have to abandon the "remember me" functions of websites. It's really a great piece of software... really, if I scan and remove files with it first, Ad-Aware and Spybot won't find anything.

Of course, I also use Mozilla Firefox for browsing too, which definitely helps without a doubt.

I've got Norton Antivirus, the Nortster. Norton is great ^_^ .

Yeah, Norton is great if you don't mind paying for it initially and to keep up the subscriptions.

I am waiting until you have to totally remove Norton products from your computer to see if you still think it is "great". :)

Haha, same goes for AOL. I'd heard that some places classify AOL as malware, becuase it's tough to uninstall.