Spyware?

[Jedo the Jedi]

Our computer has been bombarded by spyware or something like that. Supposedly, when playing free games and such, companies are allowed to latch onto my computer and they bog it down. I was wondering what the best software I could download to protect against this would be. We did get Spybot, but you guys might know of something better. Any suggestions would be extremely helpful.
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[Samadhi]

Ad aware gets stuff that it misses.

[Bicho the Inhaler]

I've also found Ad-aware to be pretty good. http://www.lavasoft.com/

[Jedo the Jedi]

I'm told that we got that too, Samadhi. If that's all, I guess we're doing well. Thanks for the link, Bicho, and the help, Sam!
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Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[wordcross]

And just as a rule of thumb, when downloading free programs from the internet, always at least skim the end-user license agreement. Look for anything that talks about 3rd-party vendors, tandem programs, or advertisements. They're required by law to tell you if you're downloading/installing anything besides the software you're intending to use.
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Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

[Dragon Phoenix]

At the moment I think it is only available in Dutch, but HITMAN PRO is the best ever. It is a macro programme that lets your computer apply Ad-Aware Se, Spysweeper, Spywareblaster, Stinger, Spybot S&D and CWShredder in sequence. Adn with this translated manual you can probably use it anyway.

[extro...]

I recently (about two weeks ago) had a nast spyware and browswer hijacking infection. Really bad - constant popups, not just when my browser is open. Cleaning it up was a major task. Besides spybot and ad-aware, I had to use hijackthis, which has to be used carefully. I also did a lot of process killing and quich deletion of precoesses before the mystery processes magically rappeared and made the mystery files undeleteable. And some manual editing of the registry. And booting in safe mode to delete other files.

I also very much recommend Process Explorer from sysinternals.com. This is like task manager, but better. Lets you see what processes are running on your machine. You should try to become familiar with what they are and have some idea whether they belong there or not.

Also StartupList from http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html - lets you see what programs are set to start up automatically when your system boots. Besides spyware, there's often a lot of crap you don't need there.

[Chuck]

You can also reformat your hard drive. That gets rid of spyware and viruses for sure. Save all of your data, pictures, and sound files on floppy disks, CDs, or something; or email it to yourself. Don't save anything executable since it might be infected. Reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows. Then reinstall your software from the original CDs. If you downloaded any software you need to download fresh copies since the originals might have been infected. Don't reinstall any software until you need it. That way, if the adware returns then it probably came with the most recently installed piece of software. You might have to reformat again but at least you'll know what software to avoid. Recover your saved data and stuff as needed from whereever you saved it.

[Samadhi]

I actually used to do that on a regular basis when I had a 40GB HD. With my 120 GB it's not as feasible.