Anti-spyware programs

[NorthViking]

Here are some of the most popular and best anti-spyware progs.

AdAware - www.lavasoft.us (http://www.lavasoft.us/)

Spybot S&D - www.safer-networking.org (http://www.safer-networking.org/)

Spysweeper - www.spysweeper.com (http://www.spysweeper.com/)

HijackThis - http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html (Useful when your homepage or search page keeps changing) (Warning, do not delete anything if you aren't experienced. Deleting wrong things can mess up the computer !)

CWShredder - http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
(Direct link - http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/cwshredder.zip)

Spywareblaster - http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html (this program will prevent
spywares from beeing installed, very neat prog)

Remember to keep the programs updated.

Info what spyware is http://www.spychecker.com/spyware.html

[eCK0]

w00t! Now my fortress shall be impenetrable.!

[essexman]

NORTON INTERNET SECURITY PRO 2004. very good if your willing to pay ;)

[Bulzy]

thanks NV very handy

w00t! Now my fortress shall be impenetrable.!
Cheers to that man

[hunterrocmp]

Anyone ever heard of one of those darkwars punks placing some type of trojan into a system? I have used Spybot,adware,google tool bar,Nortons, AVG, pest patrol, hijackthis and several others to remove it wiht no luck. It opens my IE when I log on an goes to that person's site and get them another hit. I changed the content setting in IE to block the site but it still opens a window.

[eCK0]

Heh, don't know what you're talking about and don't know how to fix it, but it sounds kinda funny ;)

[hunterrocmp]

Heh, don't know what you're talking about and don't know how to fix it, but it sounds kinda funny ;)


I am working on having the last laugh. I created a profile on that site and people are rolling over on him already.

[Don_Hahn]

thx ! ! !

[nempo]

" NORTON INTERNET SECURITY PRO 2004. very good if your willing to pay "

Ya, it is very good...i like AD best

[TheOneSmokey]

Adaware SE came outa few days ago :D When i ran adaware 6 i got 9 things, then I ran adaware SE and got 342! god prog, newer adaware cant be abd for you :D

[silent_dr3am]

w00t! Now my fortress shall be impenetrable.!


actualy no-

i run ad-aware se pro, and spy bot s&d 1.3 and use hijack this, but still none of these have been able to touch a hijack that i have. basicaly it adds a search bar, changes my home page, displays a pop up and displays its serch when a url is not found... but ad and sb cant touch it, neither in safe mode or normal :redembarr

ad ware can be ver tenious

[apharmd]

in response to the first post, spysweeper is a great program, but the address you have listed is incorrect. the address for the real program is http://www.webroot.com The site which you have listed just smells of some company cashing in on the success of the true program, and more than likely putting spy/adware on your computer by downloading their "adware remover."

Personally, i only run spysweeper now. I didn't think i would buy this prgram, as i thought adaware and spybot search and destroy were both working great. But i d/led the trial version after i had a nasty problem those two programs could not fix, and spysweeper fixed. But it's definately a worthy investment of $30.

[TriForce190]

Yupzz... i use webroot spy sweeper myself... and am lovin it, yo:P:D

But why infest monney in spy ware or antivirussus if ya can download em :grinangel

[TheOneSmokey]

NAV 2005 here :) Also got TeaTimer and Adaware SE pro :D

[carboNCOpy]

i have a few programs for quite a few things, i make stuff happen if needed. nuclearwerewolf@yahoo.com(yahooIM) or surgeonuclear@hotmail.com(msn). IM me. and i will do some trades with ya. the first prog is a hookup

[Dr.MAD]

ZoneAlarm doest kill the spyware, but at least it alerts you when some Spyware programme on your PC wants to connect to the net (and give out personal info). From there you can tell the firewall to block the programme.

http://www.download.com/3000-2092-10039884.html?part=zonealarm&subj=dlpage&tag=button

BE WARNED: using Zone Alarm with Norton Anti Virus can create very annoying conflicts. I recommend NOT using both. Better is to get another Anti Virus (like the one I use: www.avast.com )

[skud farkus]

Here are some of the most popular and best anti-spyware progs.

AdAware - www.lavasoft.us (http://www.lavasoft.us/)

Spybot S&D - www.safer-networking.org (http://www.safer-networking.org/)

Spysweeper - www.spysweeper.com (http://www.spysweeper.com/)

HijackThis - http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html (Useful when your homepage or search page keeps changing) (Warning, do not delete anything if you aren't experienced. Deleting wrong things can mess up the computer !)

CWShredder - http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
(Direct link - http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/cwshredder.zip)

Spywareblaster - http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html (this program will prevent
spywares from beeing installed, very neat prog)

Remember to keep the programs updated.

Info what spyware is http://www.spychecker.com/spyware.html

alright I have a question for you, Iam still a computer novice how do I know wich programs I can delete when I use spybot search and destroy? I run ad aware6 like twice a day. my brother came over for me like 3 months ago and found like 150 things on my comp and freed up like almost a gig and a half of space now its starting all over again I went from having almost 3gigs of free space to having like less than half a gig of free space and the only thing I installed was battlefield 1942 and I know its not that big of a game. it shouldnt have taken up that much room even with the new patch installed

[silent_dr3am]

ad/spy ware doesnt generaly take up large amounts of hdd space. Anything that spy s&d detects can be and should be deleted............

[biagrin]

ive started using spyware doctor from pc tools. is this one ok cos it seems to bring up a lot of things that other programs dont.

[brendan]

I have realy bad adware that ad-aware se cannot remove because its a constantly running process and cannot be deleted.Ive even rebooted and told windows not to open the process on rebooting but the adware disobeys system commands. Thats not adware thats a malicious virus.
Damm!

[Mugatu03]

For anti spyware, I would certainly recommend ad-aware 6.1. I love this program, it cleared up my computer very nicely. As far as virus software though, this is not that type of program. Use Norton, if you want to get rid of viruses.

[the_icon]

Micro$oft have just released an anti-spyware software free download. Still in Beta but appears as good as other software available. Not claiming to me an m$ advocate but giving it a chance while it's free.

[Rocol]

If it is Microsoft .. it will probably have it's own ' built in ' Spyware :eek: :D

[fdjc4]

UMM any chance of a link then please?
I use most of the above but i find S&D not as good as Adaware SE 1.05. However i DO recommend that EVERY windows user downloads spywareblaster as without it i was getting loads of the stuff and now i get virtually none :):P

[lokesh]

Ad-aware is a good prog. but I will say that Mcafee Antispyware is better.

[lokesh]

But hey!! Ad-aware can remove some special adware with the VX2 cleaner plug-in

[lokesh]

Spysweeper eats a lot of computer resources.HENCE IT SUCKS!!

[Dirty Ca$h]

If you guys want a Good Antispyware Program And Free!
Download Giant Antispyware ( Beta )
Click on Protect Your Pc again Spyware In my Signature.

Microsoft Bought Giant Antispyware.

When Something wants to install on your Pc, It's Warns You, Just like ZoneAlarm. And with one push on the button you remove it. and it finds much more spyware then ad-aware and Spybot.

I would recommend this Program to everyone.

[fdjc4]

Is this the new Microsoft Anitspyware program you are talking about?
if it is its the best god damn thing MS have came out with in quite a WHILE! i suggest EVERY windows owner gets this and IF MS allows it to be free, which at moment it is (but as usual probably not for long) it is a very useful piece of software for windows people
to find more click here (http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx)

[Dirty Ca$h]

Yes That's the program i talked about. It's really Good.
I had it before microsoft bought it.

[Patrickoo]

Yeah.
Microsoft Antispyware Beta1 is very goog damn anti spyware.
And look...its beta !!
What full version will be ?? :o
Must be awesome ;)

[essexman]

1 problem when it is a final. u might have to pay for it :(
just wait MS will do an AV next. then they will of covered everything

[fdjc4]

ok that NEEDS to happen, how many viruses wordwide have been made for microsoft OS's?

[Patrickoo]

That many of them !!!!
Day to day theres some new kind of viruses and new antivirus updates ;)
But for antispy..like i said....the Giant is very good.

[fdjc4]

yea, but takes a lotta system resources here :|
means i gotta get more RAM, but everyone GET IT!!!

[CCE]

For me I preferd Panda Platinum 2005 Internet Security and Spyware Doctor installed.
I'd tryed NIS 2005 it's sucks there are still some virus and trojan slip in + spy ads but with panda supperb it get ditect evrything in my HD even programz you accidentaly download it get ditected and remove automaticly that is the only disadvantages.

You want to get tight, intruder proof try it! :hmm:

[LEGIT Inc]

I have spyware and NONE of these pathetic programs worked..... I recommend than no1 download these coz they put more spyware on your computer than they take off

North Viking :gun2:

[NorthViking]

I have spyware and NONE of these pathetic programs worked..... I recommend than no1 download these coz they put more spyware on your computer than they take off

North Viking :gun2:
Oh you say that, strange that they are very popular around the net. If it didn't help you, you did it wrong, i.e. never updated or you have other issues on computer, like viruses.

And if now you got some spyware that the programs that I listed can't fix then it's barely my fault. Show some appreciation instead of just complaining, how mature :rolleyes:

And btw you tell me better programs then ;)

[lokesh]

I have spyware and NONE of these pathetic programs worked..... I recommend than no1 download these coz they put more spyware on your computer than they take off
Dude,have u tried running any anti-spyware ? I bet there are 1000's of spyware on ur PC.
These softwares are essential,so download em, M8!

[DarK_AssassiN]

The Microsoft one deletes Internet Explorer. lol. That'll get rid of most of your spyware problems. ;)

[Luke7k]

I use Ad-Aware mainly for removing spyware which has got onto my system. Spybot seems pretty good a stopping the spyware getting onto the computer in the first place.

As for Internet Explorer, I don't want to jump on the "Anti-Microsoft" band wagen but it has to be said, Since I've been using FireFox I have had less Spyware and trakcing cookies on my PC.

[hackster]

has anyone heard of Sunbelt software CounterSpy, Im currently using A-Aware 6 Pro, Pestpatrol, Spyware Blocklist, Spyware Search and Destroy, Bazooka, Hijack This and MS-AntiSpyware

Should i use Spyware Blaster and CounterSpy also?

[Random]

To be honest I do one scan a week and all Ad Aware finds is 51 tracking cookies literally every week, and tracking cooking aren't that serious, I haven't had a bad spyware infestation in ages.

To the person above, you should use as many as you think you need, I'm fine with just using one spyware program and Norton Anti-Virus 2004.

[[10^6]gamer]

I don't know how about you but i'm using spyware software (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/privacyexpert/),which can delete malware,but Norton don't:)And support of Acronis company (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/forum/) is much better than others;)

[[10^6]gamer]

That's ^^^^ my humble opinion;)

[kwontum]

i put every anti spyware program i can find on my pc. If its not good -uninstall it. If i have a serious problem i just google search the name and i get instructions how to get rid of it. Lol i had a really bad problem once and i couldnt get rid of it, then I went to add/remove programs and i deleted it from there...

[RiotActing]

The BEST Spyware utility, I use it in conjunction with Ad-aware and havnt had any problems since... plus its free.... oh yeah ITS FREEE!!!

http://www.spybot.info/en/index.html

(sorry if this was posted earlier, I didnt read WHOLE thread)

[RiotActing]

To be honest I do one scan a week and all Ad Aware finds is 51 tracking cookies literally every week, and tracking cooking aren't that serious, I haven't had a bad spyware infestation in ages.

To the person above, you should use as many as you think you need, I'm fine with just using one spyware program and Norton Anti-Virus 2004.

51 cookies a week??? Whoa... stop surfing the porn dude :)... ever heard of empornium I can refer ya if you would like?

Also read above... use SpyBot too!!!

[Random]

I now use Microsoft's official spyware scanner its great! Since using it cookies found by Ad Aware has decreased to 50! Lol!

[lokesh]

How great is SpySweeper 4 ?

[wallyjw]

I use "NoAdware (http://wallyjw.noadware.hop.clickbank.net)" And I think it seems to me to be working wonderfully!

[fdjc4]

that looks kinda...well it looks untrustworthy

[johny crunch]

Hey Dudes, I been using spyware doctor (yes I bought it) I found it removed stuff that all the other popular spyware programs couldint. Also been using Xsoft Spy it seems to work well as well

[fdjc4]

yes, different programs pick up things others dontm i read in a survey of which magazine that the best scanner is ad-aware's and the best protection was MS beta from what the had on test, now this was a freeware test however.

its always good to e protected ;)

[johny crunch]

yes, different programs pick up things others dontm i read in a survey of which magazine that the best scanner is ad-aware's and the best protection was MS beta from what the had on test, now this was a freeware test however.

its always good to e protected ;)

To true Dude, I am learning fast. Tryed to download nocd cracks from some dodgy sites, when you try to execute the crack all this ++++ just erupts out, porno toolbars etc MS beta blocked it everytime. Also just staying out o dodgy sites helps as well :blaceyes

[fdjc4]

yes indeed, keep off the porn ;)
and did my suggestion really help you? :D
if it did then glad i was able to help

[johny crunch]

Thanks dude yr input is always welcome

[furberger]

some of the tools listed here are ok but i've tried most of them and will never again. most of the spyware they detect are cookies, you have to recieve cookies to view most all sites you visit. some of these progs even remove important parts of your other programs(not often though). I only use ewido antivirus (the best bar none), bitdefender v10 firewall (just switched from norton 2007, used it for 5 years) noticed major improvements on system resources, it was a good decision. bitdefender also has antivirus, antispam, and antispyware (same as norton accept norton was only good for use as a firewall). i also quite like xoftspyse, i'd rate it 9/10 but i like the speed for a quick full system scan. ewido free version is the best one i've found yet as it is fully functional as a scanner, but the active shield is not functional unless you buy or find a serial etc. i bought it nearly a year ago and nothing yet compares to it. there is no funky sh*t going on on my computer. thats not to say i've not had problems, twice now i've had to reinstall windows, but it was not the fault of my progs. i simply got lazy and proceeded to open a file without scanning it first. i tried many things to remove the virus but they could not be removed. (do not open or run any files on your computer without first scanning them, even if you trust them) ewido has found probably 100 viruses,spyware, adware, and trojans in things i've downloaded, all of which would have been unleashed without it, some of which was released just by downloading it, it simply tried to run at the very instant the download completed, i would not have even known if it hadn't caught it for me. i think it was $50.00 (Canadian). and i do believe it is a Czechoslovakian (sorry if i spelled it wrong) program and it's somehow linked to avg (grisoft) dont misunderstand, i realy dislike avg 7 (free version) the first and second time i tried that one i got two viruses(piece of crap) mabey the purchased version is better ?
you can find ewido at
(http://www.ewido.net) i learned about it from afterdawn.com forums excellant site by the way.

p.s. my rating for a few programs

Norton any version - 8/10 good firewall piss poor for anything else
Bitdefender v10 - 9/10 to early to be sure
xoftspy any version - 9/10 to much to install to get the equivelant to ewido
Ewido - 10/10 cant find anything wrong with it
spyware doctor - 5/10 fu*ks around with registry keys too much it failed to fix anything, i think it may have just made things worse.
system mechanic pro 6 - 4/10 seems good so far but use with caution as it will remove things nesseccary to microsoft eg. screwed up my hp updates by removing a vital part of the progromming, i had to deactivate it to stop the error. be sure to read everything before proceeding with a removal.
spyware nuker - 1/10 piece of sh*t
registry mechanic - 6/10 i liked it but in the end i quit using it, it to may have been the root of a few problems, messes with those damn keys.


anyway hope i helped someone, any questions just ask, this thread will be on instant notification for a while

[susan4]

Hello, I am a new member on this forum attempting to post a link. My message has been flagged as spam, so it was replaced with this automated message instead.

[chen2]

Thanks! IT is very useful for me. :)

[acal3000]

Yeah Lavasoft Adaware it's a pile of crap. I don't know why they keep updating it coz never finds nothing. Spyware Doctor, Xoftspy. Spysweeper, are lot better than this useless program


And for Windows defender. (It comes bundles with Vista) I didn't like it disabled from the background long ago coz used to slowdown my machine as the same for the useless securitycenter (I'm not a noob not need a reminder every 5 seconds that certain program need to update or security is disabled reminder ) and the incipient windows firewall that less that do is protect the machine (Any savvy user knows that won't really protected with that thing and need a proper one)

[Random]

I find Windows Defender is quite good, it picked up a virus infection I had on my laptop the other day. :p

[acal3000]

When I installed vista at the beginning had an infection Windows defender detected but couldn't remove. can't remenber the name of the spyware infecting program. Anyweays i haven't launched the program for some momths and I don't plan to do it . What I don't like about windows defender is way that monitors everything. WEll anyways I don't let any antispyware program M$ product or not run with on time protection. I don't like coz conflict with programs and my games and waste resources. I only let run antivirus and firewall for system protection and untick any unneeed processes crap in msconfig

I use the spyware program just for do periodic scans. I alos don't like automated scans coz slowndowns my games when I am playing I do them manully every certain tome

And to be sincere installed Spyware Doctor 5.0 upgrading from 4.0 and ++++ed off my system I unistalled and on't paln to put again until the fix those bugs. But ussally detected spyware some other porgrams fails bad thing are those long loading services services imes and that crap it it easn''t for could be a very good product gonna use newwr version of spyware sweeper instead.

Anyways I haven't had really dramatic spyeware infections in some months by now jutsr some minimal . But when i installed vista at the beginnig had several severe ones I don't know if was coz I didn't a good firewall installed I don' t know

[Random]

Wow, you've had a spyware infection on Vista?

I've had nothing at all, no spyware no viruses, I thought it was immune for a while! :p

[fdjc4]

@Acal you can actually TURN OFF the realtime protection and use Windows Defender solely as a SCANNER!!!

Google and download "StartupCPL"
You can minimize things that boots with windows then much easier.

Oh yea if u hate Microsoft, why use VISTA?!??!

You constant bash MS, yes they are FAR from perfect but in the end, on XP for me, everything I need works..its not open source but it sure as hell beats the crap from Macintosh...

Ad-aware weekly scan finds about 20 tracking cookies on my laptop and now and again a troajn or adware bundler, its a matter of opinion!

I find (though dont use as its a waste of resources) AVG Anti-Spyware is actually pretty decent for anyone looking a decent Antimalware protection suite. Spywareblaster from www.javacoolsoftware.com (http://www.javacoolsoftware.com) is also a nice lil proffy and its freeware ;)

[acal3000]

Oh yea if u hate Microsoft, why use VISTA?!??!

You constant bash MS, yes they are FAR from perfect but in the end, on XP for me, everything I need works..its not open source but it sure as hell beats the crap from Macintosh...

;)


Well I didn't bash M$ this time as hard as i sometimes do it . And I use windows sometimes coz you can't play games in Linux and wine is far to be a good simulator . Linux aint perfect anyways had it's glitches too

What mainly dislike from from M$ it's not exactly the windows Os itself. It's the company ways to do the things. For example that things Halo 2 Windows Vista only. Direct x 10 not compatible wirh XP. XP need reactivate when changing hardware coz thinks is installing on another machine. The monopolictic tactic as long as other things is what i don't like about M$

[mammu]

I tried AVG Anti-Spyware trial version and it found more adwares and spywares than any other. I tried many of them in 1 go.
And more importantly it don't eat much of a ram. :wink:

[fdjc4]

Well I didn't bash M$ this time as hard as i sometimes do it . And I use windows sometimes coz you can't play games in Linux and wine is far to be a good simulator . Linux aint perfect anyways had it's glitches too

What mainly dislike from from M$ it's not exactly the windows Os itself. It's the company ways to do the things. For example that things Halo 2 Windows Vista only. Direct x 10 not compatible wirh XP. XP need reactivate when changing hardware coz thinks is installing on another machine. The monopolictic tactic as long as other things is what i don't like about M$

I agree the Halo 2 thing is a shambles but I am happy to announce with a few libraries (found on net) Halo 2 WILL work on XP :)

NOT flawlessy yet of course, they are still in beta but it installs, launches and i played the first level fine...then it hung loading the 2nd lol but I hear reports some users are having no problems at all.

[mammu]

Many spywares comes back even after removing, when visited to some site.:mad:

Is there anyway to stop these spywares from entering into pc/from getting installing.

[fdjc4]

Many spywares comes back even after removing, when visited to some site.:mad:

Is there anyway to stop these spywares from entering into pc/from getting installing.
Yea, stop visiting the site or install spywareblaster and update it and spybot search & destroy but make sure when installing the sd helper is ON!

[acal3000]

Yeah some spywares keep reinfecting again when were removed. that sometimes happens coz the antispyware programdsdidn't remove all traces the spyware program uses and keep redownloading them. And some of them even auto update their components assimilar as antivirus prigram does to not get detected by the antispyware programs

The best way in these cases is have several anti spyware programs and sca with all them coz some spywares componetnts elude from certain antispyware program and not being removed completely. And you know different programs pick up different things

But I would not recommned just stay with program like lavasoft Adware as only scanner This program has declined during some years (in the past was more effective) an don't detect infections as used too. Spybot S&d is good but has declienedt too It's fails to remove completely some spywares some times but it's better tha LAvasoft Adaware.. The spyware blaster feature when I used it on Xp also don't seems to be very effective to block infections ( I don't know if in later versions got improved I used long ago)

And never trust flamers like Masterdork (the one from xp myths flame circus thread that got deleted ) That said that free antpyware prigrams gives a a better rate then paid spyware programs giving (99% of rate) That doesn't true No program will give so high rate of detection and I have had better results detection spyware with paid programs than free ones

Also another things that could keep you getting infected as the same with virus are the windows vulneravilities that can infect you with only browssing on the net here is where the M$ security updates enter to patch the hole (And why I like Linux more since its' constantly upgradiingthe whole code updating the kernel and all that getting some distros release a new even every 6 months six moths so the vulneravitiles get fixed more faster not jjust patching the same code with small patches during several years that is the M$ way )

Some infections like one called "trojan.downloader. generic" or something like that ( there are several variants) it's a pain to remove sometiemes it infects on several files of the hd

[mammu]

Not visiting particular site is no solution.
My AVG anti-spyware shows paypal as spyware...........how can I stop visiting paypal site! And there are many others.

Isn't there any program which will scan for spyware before opening the contents for browsing.

Stopping it from installing is better than removing it after installation.

[igonni]

wowwwwww thanx

[angelez]

is zone alarm good? where i can see the review from many anti-spyware (test result?)