Anti-Spyware

[Soul Sojourner]

Well, there's about a million free programs out there. And a million you can pay for.

However, in my experience, I have determined the best of the best to be Spyware Doctor. This is a paid for program, and everybody knows there is always another 'method' as well. Do not[/i] pm me about it, I will not provide you with warez. The program, has been put up against multiple other anti-spyware programs, including many of the top-of-the-line ones as well, such as spysweeper. I have always found the doctor to find spyware the others would always miss, and rarely miss any itself. So this, I highly recommend. And yes, I also highly recommend purchasing it rather than the 'other' method. Also, you can download it, and just use it to 'find' the spyware, you don't need to remove it with the program, you can look at the logs and remove it manually if you know what you're doing.

http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/

They also have free "starter editions" floating around for Spyware Doctor from time to time. You might be able to find a good one if you look.

Now, on to the free stuff right? Okay, okay, I'm getting there.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is the absolute best free anti-spyware program I've been able to find other than starter editions of Spyware Doctor. It is also much lighter and less cpu-intensive (especially useful for older computers) than Spyware Doctor is. Typically, I use Malwarebytes as my main anti-spyware program and run it often, and then I occasionally use a starter edition of Spyware Doctor for a good thorough clean, that's a little more time consuming. Here is a link to Malwarebytes website, they have a free version and a non-free one:
http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Ad-Aware is one of the most popular free anti-spyware programs. I'm not too fond of it, myself. Find it here:
http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Person...ubj=dl&tag=top5

Spyware bot, or Spybot, search and destroy is another popular one, however, I wouldn't put it on my recommend list.
http://spywarebot.com/?hop=advanced99&p=3&...45447&oid=&aid=

Some other ones/tools:
CounterSpy
Ewido
Windows Defender
SpySweeper
Adaware Away
EZPCFix
CWShredder (For Cool Web Search Removal)
HijackThis (Helpful Tool)
HijackThis Analyzer (Use with HijackThis)
Pest Patrol
Trend Micro Scanner
XP Anti-Spy
Security Task Manager (Very Useful Tool)

Die nasty spyware!

[Anheg]

I bought Spyware Doctor today and first scan it found 205 items.

"I like!" - Borat

[Soul Sojourner]

Yes, it's awesome. I've used alot of other ones that are said to be really good and popular, and they never found anything Spyware Doctor didn't... but, they also missed some that Spyware Doctor found. I haven't seen SD miss anything so far. It'd be a first.

[Soul Sojourner]

Small update. I think Spyware Doctor now has a 'free' version out for use. It's version 5.5. I am not completely sure on this, as I got mine through a torrent and it may have been cracked in some way. However, I don't think it was and it never asked me for a serial of any kind.

Here is a link: http://www.download.com/Spyware-Doctor/3000-8022_4-10293212.html

Ever since version 5 came out, I've been more and more disappointed with the way it runs. I do not like how hard it is on your cpu or how the program is set up. However, if you're using it just to scan and remove from time to time, like I do, I recommend keeping it disabled and deactivated at all times, with the security features off, and only reactivating it to update and scan, deactivating it when you're through. It works great for me like that and still does a good job, so I still recommend it as #1. =)

I would also like to mention that PCTools has some other really great tools you might want to have a look at on their site. =D

As always, if anybody else has any information they want to post about SD or anti-spyware in general, feel free to do so.

[Mo]

AVG Free 8.0 now has a spyware scanner included.

[Anheg]

I still pay 30$ a year for Spyware Doctor and it still works perfect for me. I only have to disable it when im playing Civilization 4 because it makes my computer unable to comuicate with a few friends (at least when using Direct IP)

[420]

I recently destroyed Throbble's compy by downloading Gunz from a suspect site which gave me the "This will be installed unless you hit cancel in the next 10 seconds." I had wandered off during the download and got some evil shit called "DeeWoo" installed without my permission. This thing calls itself a "web browser enhancement" or something and causes your browsers to constantly open pop-ups while your computer is on.

I tried the Ad-Aware program posted by HeLL in the original post as well as the free Trend Mirco's HijackThis without any luck.

What I will say is that a full reinstall of Windows is the only real solution when it comes to this SpyWare/MalWare bullshit. After all, half of them are pretending to be anti-spyware aps and the other half just want you to install their product.

I guess my point is: "If you reinstall, fuck them all."

-420

[Soul Sojourner]

I recently destroyed Throbble's compy by downloading Gunz from a suspect site which gave me the "This will be installed unless you hit cancel in the next 10 seconds." I had wandered off during the download and got some evil shit called "DeeWoo" installed without my permission. This thing calls itself a "web browser enhancement" or something and causes your browsers to constantly open pop-ups while your computer is on.

I tried the Ad-Aware program posted by HeLL in the original post as well as the free Trend Mirco's HijackThis without any luck.

What I will say is that a full reinstall of Windows is the only real solution when it comes to this SpyWare/MalWare bullshit. After all, half of them are pretending to be anti-spyware aps and the other half just want you to install their product.

I guess my point is: "If you reinstall, fuck them all."

-420

Ha, before you go through the effort, Spyware Doctor has a free version now, I believe it's the Starter Edition. That can be found here:
http://www.download.com/Spyware-Doctor-Starter-Edition/3000-8022_4-10704508.html

I have the free one on my comp, but I can't remember the specific download location. Anyway, I think that's it. This way you can actually remove Spyware with it without having to register.

Worth a try first.

[Mo]

I recently destroyed Throbble's compy by downloading Gunz from a suspect site which gave me the "This will be installed unless you hit cancel in the next 10 seconds." I had wandered off during the download and got some evil shit called "DeeWoo" installed without my permission. This thing calls itself a "web browser enhancement" or something and causes your browsers to constantly open pop-ups while your computer is on.

I tried the Ad-Aware program posted by HeLL in the original post as well as the free Trend Mirco's HijackThis without any luck.

What I will say is that a full reinstall of Windows is the only real solution when it comes to this SpyWare/MalWare bullshit. After all, half of them are pretending to be anti-spyware aps and the other half just want you to install their product.

I guess my point is: "If you reinstall, fuck them all."

-420

No no, they win if you reinstall!

I find that the gamut of Ad-Aware, AVG Free, Windows Defender, Spy-bot: Search and Destroy normally should save you.  After running all those, use Spy-bot to edit the list of programs that start at boot time, normally the spyware will add themselves there.  Get rid of them from the list and delete the files manually if any of the scans missed them.

You really should be fine after that.  If not you could always go digging in the Registry but that's always a big PITA.

[420]

Reinstall is your friend! Screw installing programs to remove unwanted programs. It takes less time and energy to just start over.

-420

[Soul Sojourner]

Reinstall is your friend! Screw installing programs to remove unwanted programs. It takes less time and energy to just start over.

-420

Not for me, I just run Spyware Doctor once a month or so, usually all I have is spyware cookies, I get rid of them and I'm good. If on a rare occasion I manage to get actual spyware(besides mere cookies), I run it, it finds it and deletes all of it, and I'm good to go. I've tried running various other programs to find stuff it misses, but it typically finds virtually everything.

What you have is Adware anyway, it's a lot better than what you could have gotten.

And what do you mean by: "Screw installing programs to remove unwanted programs."? Typically spyware is only a single file (per spyware). Various programs are out there that contain spyware files and the programs themselves are often considered spyware because of it, but in the case of 'spyware programs' programs don't require you to get new programs to be removed. Programs only need be deleted or uninstalled. Typically a program containing spyware leaves spyware behind, but the program is still gone. You actually don't need any programs to delete spyware, you can do it yourself if you know where to find it. You can find it yourself too, but that's more difficult than just deleting it (but not always).

Anti-Spyware programs are simply more convenient, especially in the case of browser hijackers and locating the spyware in the first place. (spyware cookies are easy if you don't mind removing site preferences such as telling a site to keep you logged in, just clear your cookies folder) I used to use Spyware Doctor simply to create a log of all the spyware it found, so I could track it all down and remove it myself. (since there was no free version at the time, and I hadn't registered it) Now there's a free version and it does it for you, what's not easy about that?

I don't know about you, but a reinstall sounds like a lot more work to me. I'm sure it takes longer to install an OS (specifically windows) than to run a scan.

[420]

The problem was that I kept installing so called anti-spyware programs and none of them could get rid of this evil DeeWoo shit. In the end it took me less time to reinstall Windows XP than it did to download, install and run Adaware and HijackThis.

-420

[Soul Sojourner]

The problem was that I kept installing so called anti-spyware programs and none of them could get rid of this evil DeeWoo shit. In the end it took me less time to reinstall Windows XP than it did to download, install and run Adaware and HijackThis.

-420

HijackThis is more of a tool than an Anti-Spyware program, and Ad-Aware sucks ass but it's about the best free anti-spyware program you could find, until Spyware Doctor made a free version.

[Soul Sojourner]

I updated the topic to contain Malwarebytes which has been for awhile now the main anti-spyware program I use. It is second to Spyware Doctor to me, still. However, because it is much lighter and faster, I use it for normal routine scans, while I occasionally use Spyware Doctor for a good thorough scan.

Malwarebytes has been pretty good, and usually finds most everything, you can find it here:
http://www.malwarebytes.org/

There's a license version and a free one.