phoenix Posted June 19, 2004 Share Posted June 19, 2004 Any suggestions for getting rid of some nasty spyware/adware? We've downloaded Spybot: Search and Destroy and Ad-Adware 6.0, but there's still some lingering and it just changed the homepage to MSN.com. This means war. ::angry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bahamut810 Posted June 19, 2004 Share Posted June 19, 2004 First off...Change your home page! Had a friend who always had MSN as a home page so he didnt notice when they changed his homepage to another page that linked back to MSN and started a little applet for a search bar.Second...Uninstall any software that you dont recognise. Dont worry...you can reisntall anything you loose that you need back.Third...go to start, run, MSCONFIG (in 95/98/ME, cant remember what in XP) then uncheck everything you dont recognise. Leave Scanreg, PCHealth, System Tray, Task Monitor, your Antivirus SW, State MGR, Kernel32, and Scheduleing Agent on.And DL the trial version for Norton Anti-virus and run that sucker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix Posted June 19, 2004 Author Share Posted June 19, 2004 1. I've already done so, and it's stayed that way for surprisingly long. But I'm pretty sure it's going to change it back.3. I have XP.4. We have Norton and update it regularly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archer21 Posted June 19, 2004 Share Posted June 19, 2004 Here ya go, bro. ::cool http://privacycops.com/top.htmlTry looking for anything that matches your problem. If you still can't find anything, try Hijack This! and CWShredder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Green Posted June 19, 2004 Share Posted June 19, 2004 I got rid of mine by monkeying around with the registry (as well as everything else that has been suggested).Keep track of what "extra" things you delete and then scan your registry & hard disk for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bahamut810 Posted June 19, 2004 Share Posted June 19, 2004 Thats the one thing that I *hate* doing is going through the registry. I just leave anti- software to do it for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcat82 Posted June 19, 2004 Share Posted June 19, 2004 Install Fedora Core... ::biggrin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayre el KaBeer Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 Bazooka detects just about everything but doesn't remove it just gives youo the details and let's you delete them manually. Also Norton antivirus 2004 does a good (I can't believe i'm actually praising a symantec product... I feel dirty!) job removing them... I usually use adaware 6.0 for routine maintenance and then the others on my monthly service of the comps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezekiel Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 I think the software I used was PestPatrol, very effective. I found something like 3000 spyware and adware thingies on my computer the first time I used it (mostly GAIN/Gator corp.) though I'd been using the computer since 1999 and I cleaned it last year...(so 4 years worth of planted junk...)It also keeps the things off once its installed. Some particularly nasty junk need to be removed through the Registry though. I remember my brother having trouble with something changing his homepage and I ended up just searching the homepage name on Google ('homepage name' + changed homepage) and followed whatever technical help I could find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcat82 Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 Still, best thing to do is to install Linux... at least to get rid of the spyware.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayre el KaBeer Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 Hate to burst your bubble madcat but it's only a matter of time before someone designs spyware for linux, infact I'm certain RedSherrif does sneak on to linux based pc's aswell since it sits in the webcache. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcat82 Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 Sorry Ayre, but the only reason that spyware works in windows is becouse of the easy file-access... Oh, im sure there will be some around, only problem is that some finish guy (at about the age of 12 or so... I know these guys :-) will have a security solution up on freshmeat in about 6 to 10 hours... Thats what happened the las time there was a security hole.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezekiel Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 Sorry Ayre, but the only reason that spyware works in windows is becouse of the easy file-access... Oh, im sure there will be some around, only problem is that some finish guy (at about the age of 12 or so... I know these guys :-) will have a security solution up on freshmeat in about 6 to 10 hours... Thats what happened the las time there was a security hole.... ?? Security solutions? Spyware and adware aren't worms or viruses. Theoretically you've accepted to have them on your computer by going to some website and allowing cookies. Thing is, if you don't allow cookies half of the web is closed to you. Another way to have it on your computer is through shareware like Realplayer (RealOne) and such stuff. That's how they make money. If it was something illegal then GAIN would be closed down. I don't know if there's drastically less spyware and adware for Linux users but if it's the case its only because there are much more Windows users out there. As Linux gains popularity then people will bother to make more of them Linux compatible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcat82 Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 Im talking about the register changes and other, similar spyware "attacks" and those are taken care of by Linux rather secure filestructure (dont ask me how it is done, Im just a linux newbee :-)...Of course it is not a compleat 100% vaccine against spyware/adware, and that was the reason why I wrote about security solutions (sorry if I where too vague there, my bad).Now, I might be wrong, but the fact remains that Linux is a more secure platform than Windows, not to mention that simple java-programs cannot make changes to the kernel... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knave Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 Linux users (in general) are fundamentally more aware of how their OS works. They're far more likely to be patched against worms and far more likely to have their security set up to avoid most spyware that can affect them. Additionally Linux users don't tend to crawl the internot as root so it's pretty difficult to do go around installing stuff on their browsers. Cookies themselves aren't so much the issue - cookies are just text blobs that sites stick on your browser to keep track of transactions and mark you as a visitor. Sure if someone else read this this, it could be invasion of privacy - but you can flush them whenever you like. They're not Malware in and of themselves.My view is that the only real way to get rid of spyware is to boycott any business that has ever done business with malware fiends. Working with that logic, if a said malware fiend spends money making malware which keeps being stomped almost immediately (as the linux community is wont to do) FOR FREE (rather than for a lot of money that the malware fiend / someone else could be making by removing the product then it's not worth his/her while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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