arrgghhhhh!!! spyware, please help!

[spacecadet]

my computer seems to be riddled with spyware, yet my microsoft anti spyware program and norton are not detecting it. everytime i click on internet explorer to open my internet home page, it opens with a load of nonsense language then changes to microsofts homepage, no matter how many times i change it, it goes back and now i keep being diverted to adult websites!!!! and my screen is plagued with pop ups!! any ideas, anyone????

[hunkermunker]

Ooh, yes, go and get adaware (just type that into google and go to lavasoft to download it!)

[starlover]

do what i did. throw the computer away!
i can't use mine any more because it's completely infested. even dp can't fix it! (and he is magic with puters!)

[stacijc]

adaware added its own spyware to my pc and it was knackered afterwards....have alook for spybot

[spacecadet]

oh blimey..which one do i use..i think microsofts spyware prog added its own spyware to my comp because it suddenly got worse after downloading their anti-spyware prog!

[starlover]

pmsl u see... my idea is the best!

[Alannah]

I bought spyware doctor and it works pretty well

[lunarx]

MS antispy is crap, IMO. norton anti-virus does not detect spyware...

i second the already made suggestion:
go download adaware - its free. (google for adaware)

spybot - is another good one that is free also.
and you can use it with ad-aware

also, it might be worth trying to determine what sites are bringing the spyware to your computer... (i.e.- kazaa mp3 downloading service is known for piling spyware into PCs)

good luck!!!!

[Aimsmum]

Message withdrawn

[spacecadet]

lunarx, i googled adaware and it came up with loads! eekk!, i stopped dd from downloading music etc because she used to go on winmx.
starlover-im tempted to just unplug it and bin it!!!!!!!!!!

[lunarx]

norton 10 is quite good actually, way better than version 9!!


for ad-aware-

go here & follow the download link

[hub2dee]

Hi spacey - Here for adaware . Here for Spybot .

Neither will detect everything, but neither are themselves spyware packages. You may need to scan and rescan several times, with reboots, with both packages to sort things.

Some scumware / virii can be a grand pain to remove - most easily done with a complete reinstall of Windows or a reformat of the hard drive, but given enough time and patience the above programs, together with an up-to-date virus packages should sort you.

The sensible option, as I've posted on here quite a bit, is to get a Mac. They don't suffer from spyware nor virii to any signficant degree. If you want to spend your time using your computer rather than fixing it, you may want to consider an Apple. Spending hours keeping my boxes going was one of the main reasons for my move from PC to Mac.

Windoze die-hards would, of course think I'm talking tosh.

[SoupDragon]

Yeah, but I have a PC and get no spyware H2D

[SoupDragon]

Should have said that since switching to Firefox rather than IExplorer. Didn't get much before that really.

Anyway, the other spy thingy that was good is the free trial of Spysweeper. Running a combination of all the spy unter type things seems to kill off most things.

[hub2dee]

Congrats Soupy. There are many Windows users who are perfectly happy and run perfectly stable machines.

And there is also, sadly, a very large number of Windows users whose machines are virtually unusable.

The latest XP OS is undoubtedly better than the precedents too, so that always helps.

How many threads on MN have been started by Mac users in a major pickle ? Not many.

I seem to see 'help, spyware' threads fairly regularly.



(Accepting the MN population on Mac is much smaller than on PC).

[Nixz]

i have norton etc etc on my new pc but before that i used AVG free addition for my anti virus and firewall which was great. I also use ad-aware. Go to Download.com and search for ad-aware ther you can download it free. I have used this for 2 years now and know others who have used it well. Its quite straightforward.

[SoupDragon]

I think Firefox has helped.

[spacecadet]

i will swap computers with you hub, ive just run a scan with ad-aware and it says i have 254 lots of spyware!!!!!! however to remove it, i have to manually enter the filename of every single file that has been infected....omg.....im gonna smash it to bits in a min...grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...and the pop ups are still coming..and my home page on internet exploere is now a porn site

[SoupDragon]

I've never had to enter file names in adaware....

Don't panic overly though - a lot of those might be relatively innocent "tracking cookies" rather than the more in your face spyware.

[spacecadet]

soupy yes it says that 184 items are tracking cookies but still alot of adware too..ive just quarentined it all anyway but my web browser is still diverting straight to a porn site and at the top it doesnt say the web page its just a load of goobildigook

[spacecadet]

think i'll go and buy an apple tomorrow

[hub2dee]

spacey - hundreds, even thousands of cookies / dodgy registry entries / spyware alerts are quite common.

You shouldn't need to enter anything manually (although I know in spyware the right mouse click / select all scum / remove all process isn't quite as intuitive as it should be.

If something is asking for file names you probably downloaded a dodgy piece of software. (My link was good though, so maybe download it again ?).

Using another browser instead of IE - like Opera or Firefox will help big time.

(As will running Windows Update, installing all security fixes, using latest browser etc.)

You can also feel a bit more in control of your PC by quickly killing pop ups with ALT - F4 (close window).

With a PC, the security tools - firewall, anti virus, anti-spyware etc. etc. tend to be add-on, user-selectable components, which has historically been one of the downfalls of Windows and has given rise to so many security issues / worms on the Net / compromised boxes etc. Apple's OS X tends to have the paranoid security model (and multi-user structure) of the Unix / Linux world. It's safe, stable and fast.

Mac Minis start from about £340 and can reuse old PC keyboard / screen / mouse ITH.

Don't bother quaranteening things - just go right ahead and delete them. When it is finished, re-scan immediately ! When that re-scan has finsihed, reboot and scan again !

(Or promise yourself you will get a Mac for the sake of your sanity)

[hub2dee]

It'll take you a few days to get used to doing things a bit differently, but I promise you you will be RELIEVED at not twiddling your box every five minutes, and rebooting every time the phone rings, LOL.

[spacecadet]

im really tempted..how i can i explain new pc apperaing to dh??!
have def downloaded lavasoft ad-aware.
just for curiousty, how do you change web browsers, from ie, to firefox, for example?

[Aimsmum]

Message withdrawn

[hub2dee]

Just go to the homepage of the browser company you are interested in, for example, Opera.com

Select your operating system (it may well auto detect it), and then download the file to your desktop. (It will probably be something like opera52win.exe or whatever).

After it's all downloaded, just click it to install and you can then run it at anytime instead of MS IE. One or either of the programs may prompt you to 'make this your default browser' which you can choose to ignore if you wish.

Good luck ! Post if you need help on the Mac, or want to buy a Mac to a given budget etc. (for example, adding memory or wireless card etc. etc. given your particular needs).