I need anti-spyware help!

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Hey everyone!

1st off, I don't surf porn!

But what happend about 2 months ago is I was trying to find a website on a new musician here, and ended up on a porn site that has totally been screwing (pardon the pun) my PC!

But the problem I have is that none of Webroot, Spyware Doctor and another whose name I forgot (all from download.com) will give me the version that quarantenes and removes the bad things! They just show me that they're there.

Money is kind of tight right now, so can anyone please

1) Tell me of a good free program I can download that'll clean up my PC

2) Tell me what (Canadian) stores I can go to that sell anti-spyware programs, once I have the opportunity to purchase one....I'm not comfortable purchasing anything online!

Thanks in advance!

 

I have Spybot Search&Destroy, found here. It's free, though he does accept donations. I don't know how well it will clean up an infected system because I never find anything viral when I use it.

 

Use Spybot in tandem with Ad-Aware (also freeware, http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ for best results.

 

Well...that's good to know.

A few questions and suggestion for you.

• Do you have a firewall? If not, one of the best firewalls out there is currently free for personal use. Zone Alarm is a top rated, easy to use and install firewall. Don't waste your money getting the "pro" version of the software.
• Do you have an anti-virus program? Avast! is a free anti-virus tool that is pretty good. When it comes to virus scanners, you really should invest in buying either McAfee or Norton. (Last time I checked, McAfee was rated higher than Norton.)
• When it comes to general spyware/adware, using Spybot Search and Destroy along with Ad-Aware is the best (free) one-two punch to get rid of your general spyware/adware.
• When you are ready to start scanning and cleaning, make sure you boot into safemode!
• But before you do anything...read Kitrax’s guide to killing Adware, Spyware, and Viruses. It's a sticky thread here in the Techno-Magic forum...but no one ever seems to read it before posting...

Hope that helps.

 

Thanks everyone!

I did all 3 recommended steps (Spybot, Ad-aware, the firewall), and it looks very promising!

Thanks to all!

Looks like some of the same names that've also helped me out in the BG series throughout the years! Thanks again!

Kitrax, I didn't initially read your stickied thread, because I was very tired after trying to scour the 'net for my needs! I just looked for the proper forum on SP to write my concern, and then speed-read to see if there was any blatant anti-spyware thread started (and by speed-read, I mean I looked at the general threads, not the stickied ones on top! )

However, after the thread here I started, I then searched the thread about spyware, and then immediately read your thread!

But I'm still glad that you and everyone helped me out in my own thread, as there is SO MUCH information in your stickied thread, that I wouldn't have known where to start even if I read your thread before creating mine! I needed specifics, and I got it, and thanks to you n everyone!

 

Just to give you an idea... I too don't surf pr0n, and since the reinstallation of Win2k three weeks ago, the firewall has blocked 789 (!!!) intrusions attemps, and 16 of them were high-rated.

Surfing the net unprotected is like unsafe sex: you can catch a lot of crap.

 

Hey everyone again!

Umkay listen! I got a new hard drive about 1.5 weeks ago (juss b/c my pops wanted me to have one), but I didn't install the firewall and stuff written in the thread here.

But get this, everything was cool, b/c I thought I'd just stick to the sites I normally surf.

But today, I went on site I've been frequenting for 4 years (www.nbadraft.net a basketball website) and I got this major virus! Tagasaurus n stuff!

Well, I installed Avast and got most of it out, but I still have this one folder in my Program Files which I cannot get rid of yet!

Its "popupwithcast".

It says I CANNOT DELETE Cast.dll: Access is denied.....Make sure the disk is not full or write protected and that the file is not currently in use.

So I have that to deal with, and I'm occasionally getting partypoker.net popup advertisements.

Any ideas on what I should do?

 

Have you tried starting your computer in Safe Mode? Hold down the F8 key when you first turn the computer on to get to the safe mode selection screen. Once you log on, try deleting the folder agin. And while you're at it, do another virus scan.

 

I think it worked Kitrax!

I did F8, did a Spybot scan, then I restarted and did a Avast scan, and it turned up nothing! So hopefully it worked!

I have 2 more little problems though...

1) my icons on my desktop all have a blue background behind the words, and they weren't there before the virus hit....anyway I can get rid of them? Is it just a new harmless setting, or something sinister?

2) When I go to add/remove programs, I want to remove this one program called "Answerworks Runtime", as I beleive it was part of the virus. However, I manually deleted alot of the virus folders before asking for help, and in the add/remove programs, when I click to remove that one, it says: "Unable to locate installation logfile Crogram Files\Wextech\AnswerWorks\Unist.isu. Uninstall will not continue"

Is that bad?

Thanks for helping me in all my ignorance! I'll keep you posted on my progress! Oh yeah, the original folder is gone! Thanks for that help dude!

 

For the icons make a shortcut icon and see if it is still blue. If not, just delete the old icon and make the shortcut permanant.

 

The shortcuts are blue as well.

Not only that, but I'm also still getting occassional popups, like it sees which websites I'm going to....I'm afraid to use google even! ahh!

 

I had the shortcut deal awhile back. I installed the Windows Power Toy: TweakUI that has an option to "rebuild icons" and IIRC that fixed the problem.

As for deleting a program's folder and then trying to use the Add/Remove Programs tool, you'll need a registry clean up tool. I use Registry Mechanic and it does a really good job of fixing up the registry. But I'm sure that there are some good free registry fixers out there.