Spyware/Adware
 

I'm not the smartest with computers. Does anyone have a link to a free spyware/adware remover that I can download?

I googled it, but all I can find are links to pages where the download and scan are free, but I have to pay to remove the stuff.

If anyone has one that will scan and remove all of the junk on my computer for free, that would be great.

Re: Spyware/Adware
 

Get Lavasoft's AdAware Personal.

Post deleted by Mat Sklansky
 

Re: Spyware/Adware
 

Surprisingly, Micro$oft's Antispyware is very good, and in my opinion, superior to Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D. MS Antispyware, when run after both the other programs, finds stuff they missed, and it also serves as somewhat of a "spyware firewall".

Guess it's so good because M$ bought it from another company and hasn't had a chance to screw it up yet. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Re: Spyware/Adware
 

Ad-aware and Spybot are excellent programs (especially since they are free), but they are far from complete in finding spyware and adware as Eric Howes' highly regarded tests show:

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/asw-test-guide.htm

You may want to investigate downloading trial versions of more comperhensive software since you may run Ad-aware and Spybot and still have lots of spyware and trojans on your system. Just yesterday I ran Ewido after running Ad-aware and Spybot and it picked up other spy malware. It's a tough world out there.

Re: Spyware/Adware
 

while I use and like Microsoft's program, it is leaving me with a problem.

Every time it runs it finds these two and when I chose to remove it says successful.
But, every day I run into them again.
In fact, I ran it, cleaned them up, and immediately ran the program again and theywere still there.

I don't think it actually removes these two instances.
E2GIVE and Prutect

I gotta look into how to properly get rid of them

Re: Spyware/Adware
 

[ QUOTE ]
Surprisingly, Micro$oft's Antispyware is very good, and in my opinion, superior to Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D. MS Antispyware, when run after both the other programs, finds stuff they missed, and it also serves as somewhat of a "spyware firewall".

Guess it's so good because M$ bought it from another company and hasn't had a chance to screw it up yet. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

I tried it, and it caused me no end of grief. It kept popping up messages at unexpected intervals, continuously telling me about problems that it had supposedly fixed previously, and generally just getting in my way while I was trying to do something else. I ended up uninstalling it and sticking with SpyBot S&D and AdAware, both of which have been stellar for me.

The measure of anti-spyware isn't always how many problems it finds; a lot of products find "problems" that aren't really there, just so they can claim to be more thorough than Brand X. Just because M$ says it found spyware doesn't mean it's telling you the truth.

-Mike

Re: Spyware/Adware
 

[ QUOTE ]
while I use and like Microsoft's program, it is leaving me with a problem.

Every time it runs it finds these two and when I chose to remove it says successful.
But, every day I run into them again.
In fact, I ran it, cleaned them up, and immediately ran the program again and theywere still there.

I don't think it actually removes these two instances.
E2GIVE and Prutect

I gotta look into how to properly get rid of them

[/ QUOTE ]

Prutect is a part of E2Give. It's function seems to be to keep E2G from being deleted. The simplest way to get rid of these is to go to add/remove programs. It should be listed as "E2Give browser add-on".

If that doesn't work, then you'll need to find a techie site.

Re: Spyware/Adware
 

Try running Anti-spyware in Safe Mode.

Here is some additional information from Symantec's Norton's site. They are of course referring to their own product when they say run a scan. A product called Hijackthis may also help you remove the sucker.

Which brings up the question ... Which Anti-virus package are your running/ It should have caught it. If it didn't you may want to consider an upgrade to a better product with more comprehensive features.

Re: Spyware/Adware
 

They tried using the M$ software here at work a few weeks ago and it actually uninstalled IE completely off of one of the machines. While "solving" the problem of future malware, I just don't see how this could be a profitable move by M$ [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]