weegegirl 2 #1 October 5, 2004 Hey... What's the best program for getting CRAP off your computer?? I've never had a real issue in the 4 years I've had my computer. But the last month I have popups all over the place, random programs on startup, all sorts of crap. What's the best tool out there these days to clean this crap up?? Thanks! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amazon 7 #2 October 5, 2004 http://www.lavasoft.de/ Go for it Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jjiimmyyt 0 #3 October 5, 2004 I use a combination of Hijackthis, spybot search and destroy and spywareblaster. Seems to catch 99% of shit on mine and my customers PCs. "This isn't an iron lung, people. You can actually disconnect and not die." -Dave Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
davedlg 0 #4 October 5, 2004 I usually use hijackthis, spybot search and destroy, and Ad-aware. This usually works, however lately I have had a few computers that were so deeply infected with this crap that I had to reformat and start over. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jjiimmyyt 0 #5 October 5, 2004 There is also the manual option of searching registry etc for entries you don't recognise and googling. Sometimes though you have so much crap a fdisk, reformat and reinstall (if you can recover customer data or its not that important) is quicker and cheaper. However you can usually tell which way you need to go after a little investigation. I used to have a sneaking respect for virus writers, but what with all the viruses, trojans, diallers and hijackers I'm not sure anymore. "This isn't an iron lung, people. You can actually disconnect and not die." -Dave Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
katiebear21 0 #6 October 5, 2004 download spybot, search & destroy (free), then download google pop-up blocker (free). run Search & Destroy about once a month. Katie Get your PMS glass necklace here Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flyingferret 0 #7 October 5, 2004 Exactly what he said. 1. ad-aware - simple, easy to use, although I recommend tweaking some custom opts like scan inside of archives. 2. Spybot S&D - more advanced, catches more hostile sneaky stuff. Still never had a false positive. 3. HijackThis - shows all running processes and some reg keys. You must know something about the os to use it. Never check all and delete.-- All the flaming and trolls of wreck dot with a pretty GUI. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
scottbre 0 #8 October 5, 2004 Using Firefox instead of IE will prevent a lot of that from happening in the future. Good luck with "fixing" it all. "Your mother's full of stupidjuice!" My Art Project Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
davedlg 0 #9 October 5, 2004 Where I work, it's no big deal to reformat since all pertinant data is stored on the server. In fact I am in the middle of a reformat on one of our systems right now. It's a pain in the ass, but way easier than tracking down all the processes and registry entries. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bolas 5 #10 October 5, 2004 [Putting on ACME firesuit] If you're running XP, SP2 stops alot of spyware and popups as well... [Slipping off firesuit and running quickly away] Stupidity if left untreated is self-correcting If ya can't be good, look good, if that fails, make 'em laugh. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
