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I had been using both Lavasoft's Ad-Aware and Kolla's SpyBot Search and Destroy to keep my box free of crapware, before my boss turned me onto Webroot's Spy Sweeper.

I've been SpySweeper as my primary spyware scanning tool ever since, with Ad-Aware as a 2nd-scan chaser. On the rare occasion that Spy Sweeper misses something, Ad-Aware always gets it, with a 0% margin of error (when using Spybot S&D as a 3rd-round scanner). Conversely, there were a few occasions that Spy Sweeper missed something in Round #1, but Spybot S&D also missed a few in Round #2, so that it was necessary to run a 3rd scan at all using Ad-Aware.

To summarize: Spy Sweeper rocks. If you want even more security, run periodic Ad-Aware scans, and you should be spyware-free (assuming you keep your product definitions updated).

Symantec has a free online virus scan and virus removal tools.

Lavasoft makes an adware removal program called Ad-Aware which will help you with adware/spyware.

You are mistaken, Spybot Search and Destroy *IS NOT* spyware.

Here is a list of *SAFE* Adaware and Spyware removal tools.

*Free*

Spybot Search and Destroy
Adaware

*Not Free but Good*

Pest Patrol

I used to have to remove spyware and other malicious content from my family's computers also, sometimes two or three times a week. It's become almost a job in itself to keep a Windows box connected to the Internet free of this crap. The easiest solution is to download Ad-Aware, The Cleaner, and a good virus scanner, install them on your family's PC's and use the Windows Task Scheduler to do a daily scan on bootup and shutdown, or morning/night if they leave their PC on. It'll cover most ground for Windows users and keep you sane. -James

I guess we need to make the words "Ad-Aware" as ubiquitous as Google.

you probably know it more as savenow. a nasty varient of spyware. if you do a ctrl-alt-del and you see savenow in your process list, then you got it.

this site tells you what it does

spybot and ad-aware both remove it if you got it on your PC

click here for spybotSD
For Ad-Aware.

Adaware - http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

Both are freeware.

For adware/spyware, use Spybot and Ad-Aware for this.

For the average program, Windows XP comes with a very nice utility that allows you to restore your setup to a previous day. I've found it to be very useful. Don't know about more generic utilities for older Microsoft OSes.

Funny that AOL's own AIM Virus/Trojan Help page instructs the user on installing and using Ad-Aware (steps 5-8).

Of course, that was probably posted long before Ad-Aware would actually remove parts of AIM itself.

There would be the problem of attempts to take down the download site. With all the vulnerabilities out there, surely it could be set up so that it would dynamically change from host to host, maybe even use P2P technology. It would be in the interest (it prevents viruses by using a competitor's product: takes away business) of Norton and McAfee to block the "worm," so they probably would. New variants would have to be released.

Disclaimer: This is all a hypothetical, intellectual discussion, not an advocacy for it, nor an intention to carry it out.

Ad-Aware should advertise on Gator...

I prefer something a bit more powerful.

"firewalls create problems while performing daily business tasks on the server from home"

Not a well-configured software one. It's not as safe as a hardware firewall, but it is a heck of a lot safer than running around with your pants down, not knowing when your machine is connecting and what it is sending. It makes it difficult to connect *to* the machine, but your home winbox shouldn't be a remote server anyway.

Grab ZoneAlarm NOW, and put up with a few extra dialog boxes until it is trained.

Furthermore, good Antivirus software will detect many trojans. Get AVG if you have alredy abandoned your AV of choice.

This must sound like free windows security 101 by now, but get AdAware and / or Spybot, and schedule a regular download / check for once every week.

For encrypting sensitive or old data, you can either use windows built-in encryption (which uses your user password, enable this now if your machine is fast enough) and / or pick up a (non-free) copy of Dekart Private Disk, AKA The Bat! Private Disk, a simple encrypted virtual disk creator. Anything you really don't want people to see should go here... Just remember to shut it down when you're done.

Furthermore, don't use I.E. and don't use Outlook. What many people refer to as "computer" viruses or "windows" exploits are really just I.E. exploits or Outlook viruses. Firebird, I mean, Thun... Firefox is a powerful little internet surfer, which while not as flexible as my beloved Opera (ducks), does render pages faster, is more beginner friendly, and is free. Thunderbird is a good mail replacement, though pegasus mail, Opera's built in e-mail client, and the non-free The Bat! are all good choices. If you want the most security possible, try Secure Bat. At 140 dollars per copy, it isn't cheap, but it does encrypt all of your personal files and utilizes hardware token authentication to ensure that you really are who you say you are.

Finally, don't forget to regularly back up your disks to something not normally connected to the computer. For simplicity's sake, I'd attach an external USB drive and run Polder Backup once a week, removing the drive when done. For a more automated approach, get a PC controllable X10 unit, and have it turn on and off the external USB drive, so that backups can be completely automatic.

With the latest worm attacks and also the sophistication of them, I feel even more and more vulnerable each day.

Scared? Feel the terror! FUD that Linux users spread about Windows is mostly just that if you use just a little bit of common sense.

* Get a hardware NAT router / firewall (simpler and less complicated to make a bulletproof install than a dedicated box - although don't forget to disable remote administration and set a new admin password)
* keep an eye on network traffic (is the data light on the router blinking when you're not transfering any data? you have a potential problem)
* don't install any software you don't need
* run Ad-Aware occasionally
* run Norton Antivirus occasionally
* use something other than Outlook and Explorer (Mozilla for example)
* keep your system up to date (run Windows Update once a week or so)

..and you'll be absolutely fine.

For example, the parties to the letter warned that the bill could interfere with computer security by preventing information technology and security companies from collecting data to analyze and prevent virus attacks, and would also impair the delivery of local, targeted ads.

If they are that concerned about security they could have AV companies include a [X] "Report viruses to Foo.com AV Central" option to eliminate that minor complaint and be compliant with the new law. As for targetted ads.. well, that's what they're really concerned about. It's a multi-million (billion?) dollar industry. Screaming about how bad the bill is for security is just a smoke and mirrors game.

I only hope that the spyware people don't go after the AdAware or Spybot Search & Destroy folks under the guise of the DMCA.

The way things today are going though..

This is great except my dad would never go for it. He loves Winblows, AOL and Excel and will not wane off of them. Yes you can use all of them on an iMac, but he wants his PC. He was having problems with it booting and it took forever to login and get to the desktop. I downloaded Ad-Aware and (hint: Updated it) and it removed over 200 items. Whatever was causing his slowdowns, Ad-Aware took care of it. The only other option I would suggest is Norton's Internet Security 2004 . This includes AntiVirus 2004 with spamware support.

I don't quite agree with your car analogy there. While it IS a good comparison, you're comparing the wrong things. You can literally see your car has 4 tires and 4 doors, just by looking at it. You know it has an automatic transmission because thats one of the vehicles interfaces. You know the engine is a V4 (you've GOT to be euro if your car has a V4 btw... ;)) from either opening the hood or remembering the specs when you bought it.
Most of those are inherently visual elements. In the same vein, any computer user can tell you that they have a keyboard and mouse, a monitor, and some speakers. Some might even know the size of the monitor or the brand of the kbd/mouse (probably by the logo on it ;)). Quite a few users could also probably tell you that they have a "Pentium something", hinting at a very vauge knowledge of the specs when they bought it.

The problem, then, is that they don't know all the insides of their mysterious black (or beige) box. How much RAM? What speed? What processor? Sound card? Video card? HD size? Most people couldn't tell you that. But then the question is, what can you tell me about your cars engine internals? What's the bore and stroke? Is it an alluminum or iron block? OVH, SOHC, or DOHC? High or low impedience injectors? Interference design or not? Whats the total oil capacity? Do you know? Probably not (I certainly couldn't tell you my cars bore/stroke off the top of my head). Should you still be allowed to operate a car? Of course!
So in the same way that vehicle owner/operators may not have the foggiest idea of what goes on inside a modern internal combustion engine, the staggering majority of computer owner/operators have no idea what exactly goes on inside their case. Intimate knowledge of your vehicle isn't a requirement to operate it, so why should it be any different on a computer? Cars have diagnostic systems and idiot lights, why shouldn't an OS? If people want ease of use, then thats what you'll have to give them. I know it won't happen overnight (hell, it took the motor vehicle industry HOW long to get to where it is today?), but it *HAS* to be an eventual goal of Linux if it ever hopes to rescue the proverbial OS princess.

Now incase you're wondering, I use Windows XP. (Unfortunatly). I don't really want to, but for me to play all my games and use all my art/graphic design programs, I pretty much have to. But beyond that, I know roughly how Windows works and how to work in and around it. I don't have to touch a CLI (had enough of that in the days of DOS). I don't have to memorize a million little acronyms and commands. I don't have to mount drives or hunt down obscure libraries. I'd just rather not spend half my computing time trying to maintain my system. Don't get me wrong, i'm not anti-Linux, i'm just pro-me. I can use Windows, and my parents and sister can use it. Its easy, even if its a shitty program. That said, I long ago ripped off the Firestones. Both mine and my parents box runs Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, AVG, AdAware, and KPF. So I feel fairly confident that neither system is at great risk. Yeah its a pain in the ass, and i'd rather not have to deal with securing two boxes, but its the price I pay for the compatibility and ease of use I want, and my that familly demands.

And when the day comes that Linux offers the same ease of use and compatibility in a better package? You best believe i'm jumping ship and taking every computer in this house with me.

I patiently await that day.

• Use Firefox. No need to worry about ActiveX spybars.
  
  
• Get AVG Anti-virus. Keeps out the trojans and viruses.
  
  
• Use Ad-aware. Say goodbye to malware.
  
  
• Above all else, use a personal firewall. You won't have to worry about programs calling home without your permission.

Download yourself a free copy of Ad-Aware from here. I ran it on my computer the other day and it found 22 infected files, that it cleaned up for me :)

I have yet to find any spyware that wasn't easily removed

At least not at first. Most respectable programs will have a trial version out. And there are plenty of freeware/open source alternatives.
Good programs, I've encountered have been RegSupreme, Norton SystemWorks, AdAware, SpyBot, and numerous others.

In addition to Spybot, I use Ad Aware. Used together they get rid of all the baddies.

Since we're on the topic of spyware and spyware removal, I'm currently using Ad-Aware as my mal-ware removal program of choice, but I don't want to keep all of my eggs in one basket. Who can recommend some other good ones?

It doesn't matter how low they go... this piece of software works wonders.

It also helps if you "look before you leap" too, but I guess that's a trait which is uncommon for the majority of Windows users :o)

Spybot

Ad-Aware

There are others, but these pretty much have it covered i think.

"Third-party applications bundled with this download may record your surfing habits, deliver advertising, collect private information, or modify your system settings."

Who cares?

from Lavasoft: sites.zip These are the sites blocked by Ad-watch in Ad-aware Plus/Professional. It was updated four days ago.

AdAware

This story interested me because nearly half of our users have come to us requesting pop-up blocking within the company. We use IpCop as our proxy/firewall for over 100 users. I'm sure someone could rig Dan's Guardian or some content filter out there to do the job, but we have had very good success with Goggle's latest toolbar for IE. The users can keep using the browser of their choice, the toolbar lets them search quickly, and the toolbar blocks popups. We have also blocked the spyware sites that we are aware of by using IPCop's hosts file and have run AdAware on the workstations religiously.

I'll admit that it is a pain to install the toolbar on 100 machines, but I would like to think that it has saved us the time and agony of making our poor little firewall try to do something it wasn't designed to do in the first place.

I also realize our corporate user group is not the same as your ISP's user group. You have less control over the machines that access your services. However, you have to remember the KISS principle: Keep It Simple Stupid. If there is software that a user can install to block popups, that puts the choice in their hands. You can recommend the software and even provide an instruction set for doing it. Heck, you could even advertise that, "We will help you stay popup free."

Anyway, I highly recommend the latest google toolbar. You can download it here.

2. Offer different proxies with multiple levels of popup/junk filtering that your savvy customers can opt-into.

3. Send out a CD with free versions of Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, and so on. Or point them to links like the online version of X-Cleaner or one of many online virus scans.

4. You could also be a real saint and figure out how to put most of the important Windows Updates on CD for your dial-up users and have it automatically do its thang. At a minimum, the Service Packs and Security Rollups will make you their hero.

5. ???
6. Profit!!!

We know there isn't a quick fix solution, but 1 and 2 are eminently doable. I personally use a proggie called AdMuncher(.com) and since Dec. 25th its blocked 13,100 ads/popups/etc and supposedly saved me around 102MB of bandwidth. It ain't free, but goddamn its good (and only 157K).

and run ad-aware

Without digging into the registry, the tech might happen to mention Ad-Aware as an option. It is not complete, but it is easy to use and fairly safe. It's a good start, anyway.

Try ad-aware here. Don't forget to download and install the updated reference file for a more thorough scrubbing of your system.

Adaware free version, removes most spyware/advert contents .... would have saved him approximately $250,000 :)

For a programmer he doesn't seem to be very smart about computing.

• Something like Lavasoft's Ad-Aware would have removed any advertising/hijacking software he might have downloaded and installed by accident.
• As for pop-ups, certainly any of the pop-up blocking Mozilla based browsers would have done the trick. Also KHTML based browsers like Safari and Konqueror. A veritable cornucopia of choices!
• Finally, as the email seemed to originate from the same company, same product, I think even the simplest filter would have been able to recognize this as spam.

Today I cleaned a friend's computer from something which I haven't seen before (btw, it is already mentioned in four other comments here).

His IE always showed "here4search.com" as starting page which always reappeared after manually resetting it. Having seen similiar things before I tried AdWare and checked for some unsual things in Autostart. But after rebooting... it was there again!

This here4search.com-thing is part of the CoolWebSearch trojan and can be detected by Hijack This! and (which is even better) can be removed easely with CWShredder.
Nasty thing, but it was gone afterwards.

I surely do not need to mention that you should install some tools like a decent spyware killer (like AdAware), a decent virus killer, a small personal firewall and some other browser/mailclient than the duo infernale IE/Outlook, if you insist on running Windows.

If you use Ad-Aware, the Pro version comes with Ad-Watch that will monitor for all kinds of Spyware installation as you use your Windows box.

LavaSoft Ad-Aware

I've used ad-aware to good effect

if Adaware picks it up, it's spyware. if it tracks what i do or what ads i click on, it's spyware. if it's on my computer and i don't know or don't want it there, it's spyware.

Gator corp can kiss my big fat hairy ass.

Heck, any name is just as bad.
I'd take just as much offence to having my software called adware or spyware.
And I know just as well to avoid both terms.
Good thing Ad-aware removes both Spyware and Adware

Hydrochloric acid is dandy, but Ad-aware is safer and easier to download. The only "problem" is that it causes Kazaa to stop working, forcing users to move on to Kazaa Lite or some different program.

"I'm buying a new mid-grade laptop computer, which I plan to dual-boot between Windows XP Home and Mandrake 9.x. Before its arrival in a few weeks I'm trying to think of what 'essential' software I'll need to make a usable home system. In general I'd like to spend as little money as possible (free is good). As far as my needs, think 'typical family PC' without an emphasis on gaming. I know I can get something like Open Office for word processing, presentation, etc. needs, but is there such a good thing as a good free virus checker? A good free email client? A handy web browser? What would you consider the top 10 (or so) pieces of software for a new home system, bearing in mind that I need software for both the Windows and Linux side of things?""

These are the files I keep on my "Esential CDs" that I bring around to help out other non-techs (Windows users) people. (Of course because they are financially broke after paying $200 for their Operating System, they want everything else to be free.) ;-)

Anti-Virus: The best free antivirus program I have found AVG Anti-Virus 6.0

Office Suite: (Word Processing, SpreadsThe quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
The quick brown fox jumped off the edge. The quick brown fox ran off with all his toysheet, Slideshows, etc.)
Open Office 1.1

CD/DVD data/audio Burner: (and doubles as a CD image creator .ISO and .CUE)
BurnAtOnce 0.99a

CD/DVD image loader/emulator (perfect for people who often misplace their CDs): (loads .ISO, .CUE, .CCD, .CDI etc. files without burning them)
DAEMON Tools 3.41

MultiMedia Player (Mpeg, Mp3, AVI, etc.)Winamp Classic 2.91

or for audio only Foobar 2000 0.7

Zip Extractor:Ultimate Zip or7 Zip 3.11

Download Accelerator:Star Downloader v1.42

Internet Browser: (other than IE) Mozilla 1.4 or Opera 6.20

System Statistics: (Motherboard, Memory, BIOS, Video, Software info, etc)AIDA32 3.80

E-mail (other than Outlook Express)Thunderbird 0.2 or Pegasus Mail 4.12

Spyware/Adware killer:Ad-aware 6 or Spybot Search & Destroy 1.2

Pop-up Killer/Browser Enhancer (for IE)Google Toolbar 2.0.102

PDF document reader:Adobe Acrobat 6.0

FTP program (other than IE and the command line FTP)Winsock FTP LE 5.08 or FileZilla 2.2.1

Internet Chat Programs (other than Windows Messenger)Gaim 0.70or Trillian Basic 0.74E

Firewall Software:ZoneAlarm 3.7.211

or if you have Highspeed Internet, a spare 200mhz PC, and two network cards laying around...ClarkConnect 2.0

CD Ripper / MP3 Creator CDex 1.51

Graphics Editor (other than Paint) The Gimp

Graphics viewer (other

These are some of the free (speech or beer) software I'd install on a family, non-gaming machine:

• Web Browser: Mozilla or Mozilla Firebird
• E-mail: Mozilla (cross-platform), Mozilla Thunderbird (cross-platform), Evolution (Gnome), or KMail (KDE)
• Office Suite: OpenOffice.org
• Media Player: QuickTime (Windows), Zinf (cross-platform), RealPlayer (cross-platform), WinAmp (Windows), MPlayer (Windows), XMMS (Linux)
• Image Viewer: IrfanView (Windows)
• Instant Messaging: Gaim (cross-platform)
• Personal Information Management: Palm Desktop Software (great PIM suite even if you don't own a Palm)
• Other: Acrobat Reader (although I'm weary of their DRM), Java 2 Runtime Environment, Macromedia Flash and Shockwave players, Ad-Aware (spyware remover for Windows), ZoneAlarm, Sygate Personal Firewall (firewall, alternative to ZoneAlarm), Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus, FileZilla, WinRAR (not free, shareware with nag window), Ofoto desktop software (basic photo album and touch-ups, even if you don't use Ofoto's online services)

Some other software I'd install on my own desktop (dev), in decreasing order of importance:

• Cygwin, bascially all packages
• UltraEdit32 (45-day trial shareware)
• TightVNC
• Ghostscript and GSView
• Java 2 SDK
• Eclipse
• Borland JBuilder Personal
• ActiveState Perl, Python, Tcl/Tk (yes, even though they are in Cygwin), Jython
• GIMP
• POV-Ray
• At least one of Apache, Tomcat, or Plone (Zope)
• HTTrack (a website copier)

Drop Cygwin and Dev-C++. If you are going to dual boot into Linux, do development in Linux using Emacs and the Gnu or other OSS compilers. if your kids are learning programming in school, the best thing to do to help them is try to score a copy of Visual Studio. This what the lame windoze machine at school run.

Unless you are doing a lot of web development, I don't see the use for an FTP client.

Skip the AV program and get adaware. It will scrub the system of all the cookies, spyware, and sometimes even viruses that your family will inevitiable accidently let onto the system.

I would be very hesititant about putting some of the other stuff on family machine, unless you want your kids to join the l33t script.

2. Firewall (I use Zonealarm)

3. Mozilla or Firebird and Thunderbird

4. Openoffice

5. Winamp

6. Ad-aware

7. Nero Burning ROM if you have a CD-R or CD-RW

8. Kazaa Lite K++

9. A PDF Viewer (such as Acrobat Reader)

10. A install disk for your favorite Linux Distro. Windows Sucks!

Windows:

Kerio /or Sygate for firewall (both are good)
Aladdin's free StuffIt Expander (unpacks a lot of different compressed files, including SIT and Gunzip's)
AVG antivirus (free for personal home use)
QuickClear lite (deletes IE cookies/cache/empty's trash)
StartPro (well, it used to be free. Gives you a nice list of programs set to load at bootup, including registry keys.)
Ad-Aware everybodies favorite adware/malware answer.

Mandrake is (of course) easy:

Got the Easy Urpmi and follow the directions to install all the different media sites. Once you do that (its just a cut and paste job) you can fire up rpmdrake and search for software by name/description/type/etc. Mandrake installs with a lot of the right stuff already. I'd recommend maybe installing nano (easy command line text editor if you hate VI/VIM/EMACS/ETC) and of course if you running a system with a NVidia card get the NVIDIA drivers (rpmdrake, but if their not listed NVidia will have them).

Mozilla, powerful and free web browser/mail suite.
OpenOffice, powerful office suite.
Ad-Aware for keeping spyware (Gator etc) out.
BitTorrent for all your P2P needs.
ZomeAlarm a good firewall.
Avast! Antivirus good AV app, free for home use.
TextPad powerful and easy-to-use text editor.
SmartFTP powerful and free FTP client.

On top of these, I always install these non-free apps (non-development related):
Paint Shop Pro all the relevant functionality from Photoshop at a much better price.
Klient the best IRC client. Ever.

Some people have mentioned:
CygWin - a home, non-dev PC doesn't need it
VNC - a home, non-dev PC doesn't need it, and it has security issues
Dev-C++ - not needed on a home PC, it's for development.
NetHack - huh!?
Boingo - the article submitter didn't mention anything about having a WLAN card, so why would he need to find hotspots?
Winamp - redundant since Microsoft released WMP9, which I've found to be just as fast, more stable than WA3, and better at playing movies. Of course, YMMV, and some people prefer to stay away from MS stuff for ideological reasons.

Are you absolutely positively sure you want to use Windows XP Home instead of the much better XP Professional or even better 2000 Professional? I've had nothing but heartache with the PCs that my family members have bought that have XP Home on them...

Otherwise, people have already suggested Mozilla and a few have suggested Mozilla Firebird, which I myself think is a far superior mail product. Mozilla Thunderbird is what I use for mail at home right now, but it's an acquired taste.

Ad-Aware is indispensable. Every PC should have a copy of it.

For image viewing Irfan View is probably the greatest thing in the world.

You'll of course need WinZip and you'll need the DiVX codec and unfortunately you'll also need Quicktime and Shockwave for numerous braindead (and not so braindead) websites along with the latest Java VM. Besides that, the rest is left up to personal taste. I'd suggest a copy of MS Office because OpenOffice makes me want to gnaw my arm off but then again that's also partially because I can buy Office on student discount at the University Bookstore.
Oh, and get a BitTorrent client from somewhere.

It would be a good idea, though, to tell all students to please install software like Ad-Aware and an anti-virus program.

What I want to know is how their software works, does it phone home, and will AdAware and Spybot Search and Destory remove it like the malware it is.