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What Spyware .

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 5:34 pm
by John1000
What spy ware program is good to use, at the moment I use spybot but havent got much faith in it.
So is there a better one to use that’s free and that can be used by a thicko. :smt017

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 5:35 pm
by Kwackerz
lavasoft adaware works and is free

http://www.lavasoft.de/

Ad-Aware SE personal Free version is what you want.

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 5:47 pm
by John1000
Thanks Kwackerz just downloaded it ,will give it a go and see what its like. :smt006

Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 7:35 pm
by Aladinsaneuk
also use http://www.spybot.info/

and - look at above stickied posts for a few guidelines for getting rid of nastes

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 1:34 pm
by XJR Jason
As Kwaks said

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 8:40 pm
by John1000
Ok just ran AD adware and it brought up 296 things to quarantine which I have done. :smt017
Seems to be rather excessive but I’ve rebooted and all seems to be running ok should I have got rid of everything it reported or should I have gone through them all.

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 8:46 pm
by Kwackerz
It quarantines those items in order for you to evaluate as to whether removing then has affected any programmes. If all your programmes work, then you can delete the quarantined files.

I usually go thru and select all the tracking cookies, etc and delete them first, any that i think are part of new programmes ive installed since the last scan i did, I check out the effects first by having them quarantined prior to deleting the files

hope that makes sense?!

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 9:00 pm
by John1000
Cheers Kwackerz, Will have to go through them and see what they are . Makes sense to take a bit of time when starting out using it . :smt006

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 9:03 pm
by falcomunky
Try this as well, just to be sure...
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/sbdownload.html
Very handy little FREE tool. :smt003

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 9:17 pm
by D-Rider
I use a combination of Spybot and Adaware - they each find things that the other misses.
My Trend Anti-virus also now comes with an anti-spyware scanner - so I guess I'm running a 3-pronged line of defence ..... with my kids online, can't be too careful - they seem to trawl for spyware!

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 9:36 pm
by Gio
John1000 wrote:Ok just ran AD adware and it brought up 296 things to quarantine which I have done. :smt017
Seems to be rather excessive but I’ve rebooted and all seems to be running ok should I have got rid of everything it reported or should I have gone through them all.
Quarantining them doesn't always work with the freeware version. you'd be better off deleting them :smt001

Posted: Fri Feb 02, 2007 9:54 pm
by Kwackerz
If you had a licence you'd be dangerous.. Stop talking bollocks.

If you delete an item straight away, should it be an integrated part of a programme (which some suspect files can be) then you will end up with a corrupted programme which will then not work.

The whole point of quarantining an item is so that you can run a functionality test of your computer's installed programmes BEFORE deleting an important and much needed file that has been picked up by the adware programme!

You should never simply delete suspect files you should do either or both of the following:

a. back up your system


b. check your programmes after quarantining

Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 6:07 pm
by Thumper
I found this good it's never never let me down and I get regular updates and support, doesnt cost that much either.

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad- ... e_plus.php

Alternatively this is another good bit of spy ware.

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

Kwackerz you seem to know your stuff how do you rate registry checkers worth it or not?

Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 6:30 pm
by Kwackerz
Win 98 has an inbuilt one that will check every time you start up. If it finds something amiss it will boot in Dos, etc and you'll have it sorted.

Ive never found a need for one to be honest.

The system should find anything amiss and you'll know about it,
For the entries that are to do with spyware, the spyware removal proggy (ad-aware) will pick it up and get rid.
For virus related registry entries, your AV should pick em up and get rid as part of it's virus removal.

I avoid playing with regedit as far as possible (Apart from renaming Internet Explorer to silly names, etc) similarly I avoid reg editing software. Any tool you use from an exterior vendor will find something amiss. They'd be redundant if they didnt. I leave reg editing to the above 3 methods. System, Anti Spam Software, Anti Virus Software.

Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 7:24 pm
by falcomunky
I use Registry Mechanic 4.
Not free, (unless you know where to go :smt002 ), but its a great reg cleaner!
Theres always summink left over from installed software, (games, utils, etc.), that you uninstall and it does just clutter the system up after a while.
I run mine every week or two.
Adawares quarantine feature works on my free version.
If you check through whatever it finds, then only delete the stuff you know is dodgy, then you will be fine. If your not sure about an entry on the found list; Either quarantine it and wait and see if it affects any programs or leave it alone.