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Try this one.

When cleaning a PC I tend to use Spybot, AdAware, Startup.exe (don't know where this comes from) and Hijack this.

I'm sure if you have a read through the rest of the comments you will find some other useful stuff, but these four are golden. Especially if you have a legit copy of AdAware Pro with AdWatch in.
AdWatch can cause confusion for (l)users, being another box that pops up for them to think about, but on your system it is the canine's testicles.

* Note:
There is a huge collection of Spyware tools hosted @ MajorGeeks.com, where I downloaded AdAware from.

Spy Sweeper Try this program in addition to SpyBot & AdAware. Spyware is one area where you need to seemingly use more and more programs to keep your system clean. Its one of the few known good pay-for-AntiSpyware products. Maybe even try Microsofts spyware? It surprises me how much stuff you find with each additional product you use. Crazy.

Since you seem to know what's going on I'm also going to suggest HiJackThis! Use it to find exactly what programs are opening on boot, and tons more information. If this is too much info for you just search google for HiJackThis Log Forums. Proffesional Nerds volunteer to help talk people thru the logs. Use it carefully as it is a powerfull tool.

I'm assuming you have some flavor of anti-virus and firewall.

If all else fails, maybe you need to format and upgrade to XP? Not sure if that's an option for ya tho.

Verisign is equally as much of a problem.

So? Just because a school may be flawed, that is no excuse not to get a degree.

If FF wants to be a real player, it has to play by the established rules many organizations follow.

I know of quite a few firms, financial institutions, and state government offices which do not allow employees to use anything other than IE; much of the reasoning coencides with what this article is saying. They all use intrusion prevention services and just have the helpdesk clean up the occasional mess caused by a sneaky spyware install or virus infested laptop trying to vpn in. This, in conjunction with AV protection (which you need regardless of IE), make for a feasable solution to these guys. They aren't getting hacked into, the employees don't worry about their workstations and the companies go make money like they should be focused on doing.

Even the lowliest of helpdesk personnel had best know how to remove any spyware which exists. I know this is mostly a Linux board, but some of us started with Linux and had to learn Windows so we would understand the IT world better so we could move above the limitations imposed by a "wINDOWS THE SUCK. LOONIX RULEZ!!!" mentality. Back to the topic at hand: There are only a few places in the Windows registry where Spyware and other malware can load upon boot and from the browser. It takes about a minute to flip through them all, disable the ones which don't have anything "extra", remove the associated files, reboot.

I know, I'll get modded a troll even though I just made clear a rare point on /. that spyware is tremendously easy to defeat. Keep that in mind when the next "intelligent linux guy" comes out and says he had to reinstall Windows over spyware. Then think about it, all the guy had to do was hit Google for a few minutes and his problems would have been solved. But no, he approaches it like a moron since he just because he wants to use a product he refuses to learn. But hates the product, yet appears to be hooked on using it.

Fix those registry entries here: HiJackThis (that is, if you work with Windows and are too lazy to RTFM)

You should know better than to point out that the article is also speculation and by no means is it a definitive word on how the company will proceed.

In my shallow wisdom, I see them releasing this as a free product with the option to upgrade. Either this, or they will probably end up releasing it for free, period, if public outcry is great.

As I read the thread, I see a lot of "Insightful" Microsoft bashes though they are the same ones as always. Spyware/Virus troubles aren't an issue for an advanced Windows user, just as running not using root as a user account in Linux is common knowledge for a Linux user.

1. Use FireFox
2. Run HiJack This! occasionally to look for new autoexec and browser oriented registry keys.
3. Install AdAware and Spybot, run if you actually ever use IE. I have yet to have any thing rude get added to my system while running FireFox.

Remember, every flame, FUD, and whine has the potential to be read and really hit home with a Redmond developer. Do you really want to be responsible for making Windows a better, more competitive choice? :) /Attaches spittle guard and waits for someone to launch some silly assult on me for my perspective.

Oops. I forgot the link to the Windows XP version of "TCP Fix" (from the parent comment): XP TCP Fix

Plain and simple, I think spyware is one of the nasty parts of computing/the internet that should be illegal and carry heavy fines (which is how I feel about spam as well).

Since it's unlikely that governments will take time out of their busy lives trading and selling each other's votes on porkbarrel bills, I'd hope that they'd at least set some guiderules for it..

- The EULA should be required to be understandable by a user with a 6th grade reading comprehension level. No legalese.

- In the EULA, they must specify

a) Exactly what data is collected and how,
b) which domains/companies this data is sent to,
c) Anyone they share collected data with
d) Which servers/domains the spyware opens connections to.
e) A valid physical address of the company, to file claims or complaints.

- Spyware should not be allowed to change the user's homepage.

- Spyware should NOT be allowed to be bundled with another program, in such a way that installing the software automatically installs the spyware without giving the user an option.

- By default, spyware should be "unselected" during install if bundled with another application.

- Spyware companies should be required to be bonded, and should be required to have enough cash on hand/on deposit to pay for any violations of the rules

- There should be a HUGE fine if removing the spyware destroys any part of network connectivity. There have been SO MANY times that removing spyware on a client's machine has completely destroyed IE's ability to browse, or destroyed the TCP/IP stack itself. I can't tell you how many times TCPFix has saved the day..

Anyway, for those of you who've had AdAware partially remove spyware (and thus bork the machine), or for those spyware programs that do a great job of destroying networking while they uninstall themselves, the following utilities are extremely useful.
TCP Fix: Win9x or if the TCP fix doesn't solve it, sometime's it's a LSP issue: LSP Fix. One of those two has never failed to restore a broken network connection after cleaning up spyware. It's useful to have them in your tech toolkit cd... -J

Well, it depends on how fast you can install Windows. I am sure it takes longer to reinstall than to run SpyBot, Adaware, HiJackThis*, MSConfig, then reboot.

* - Personally, I just use HiJackThis. It is freeware and gives you quick access to any non-default registry keys, IE extensions, plugins, and registry locations where programs can be quietly launched on startup. Personally, I have yet to find spyware/malware which could not be eliminated using this and MSConfig.

In addition to the above mentioned utilities check out HijackThis http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html. It is an extremely handy tool for getting rid of those annoying search bars and other browser helper objects that embed themselves in IE. The ones that AdAware and Spybot for some reason refuse to recognize as spy/spamware. Requires a bit of savy to use though, not for the novice.

hijackThis seems to find all the stuff that others leave behind, and it's free (as in beer). Almost everybody I know uses it too.

There's two utilities I use on a regular basis for winsock fixing:

1. LSP Fix. This program will let you see what dll's are embedded in your TCP/IP stack. Most of the time it will even detect stuff that's not supposed to be there, but you do have the option to override its judgement. Spybot S&D also has the ability to look into the stack, but you can't use it to remove offending modules, nor see their actual dll filenames.

2. Winsock XP Fix. This nifty little utility will basically reset all registry settings for the stack back to what they're supposed to be. This is usefull if some nasty has totally trashed the stack on its way out the door. It would also appear it works on earlier versions of Windows (certianly Win2k) but I've never tried it on anything but XP.

I used to joke that as long as people break their computers I'd have a job, but there are times when the spyware thing really drives me up a wall...

I've found the following helpful for the no-budget set:

Avast Home Edition Virus Scanner

Spybot Search and Destroy

HijackTHIS - Find out whats in your PC. (semi-advanced)
The site for HiJackThis seems to be down for now. THere are a few other little nifty freebie aps in there, too. Heres a mirror download site

AdAware - picks up a lot of crap in your PC

(Anyone wanna offer up a few opinions on this stuff? You know you do.)

Of course, the obligatory comment of "Use Mozilla, keep your shit patched, don't click every OK button you see" still applies.

Why not both? I have seen some things that Adware cannot remove but Spybot can, and vice versa. Another one to get is HijackThis http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html/

http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html

I love this little program. It makes cleaning up a PC fast and easy. None of this 2+ hours to clean it up. Just remove the stuff that you don't need (Must have some experience with PC's to know what is good and bad). It even can remove the software that hooks into IE.

I like HiJack this http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html/

I run Win98SE on two older computers. Here's what I suggest:

1. Hardware firewall. Forget zone alarm and the rest. Just buy a little Linksys or Dlink high speed router/firewall. There cheap.

2. Virus software. I use Free-AV http://www.free-av.com/

3. Setup FireFox http://www.mozilla.org/firefox/ and
Thunderbird http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/

Don't worry about much.

And when I need to I use HiJackThis to remove the odd piece of spyware that is installed.

I noticed a lot of spyware comes from Kazaa and other P2P networks. If your just web browsing the previous precautions should be enough. P2P is a completely different story!

I forgot to mention HijackThis. It's another great tool for getting rid of spyware, but it's definitely for the more advanced user. It'll show you both good and bad items, so discretion is important.

You can easily track down spyware by googling for the different exes and get tips on removing them.

http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html

You can get rid of it by running a personal firewall such as Kerio and scanning your system for spyware and what not with Ad-aware,Spybot-S&D, and Others

Spybot Search & Destroy (best and most up-to-date IMHO)
AdAware (the original big one, not as up-to-date as Spybot S&D, but it still catches stuff Spybot doesn't)
HijackThis (for the really nasty stuff that the others don't get, though this can mess up your computer if it isn't used properly)
SpywareBlaster (it isn't as good as the others mentioned, but it still couldn't hurt)

Get SpywareBlaster

KaZaA's an interesting example. if you go to www.spychecker.com (a database of programs known to be bundled with spyware) and do a search for KaZaA, one of the remarks is "Webhancer install optional but installed anyways".

This was last confirmed way back on 8/1/01, but it's not good for trust.

Opera is infested with their own implementation of Cydoor tracking technologies, sure they claim it isnt spyware and is Adware and go to great lengths to say otherwise, but then they would wouldnt they ? then end result is the same the users privacy is at risk!, their info page does say , and i quote....

"Once the browser has connected, it receives a unique user code back from the registration server. This is a unique ID which will be used in all subsequent communication with these particular servers" (emphasis mine)

also

"Without being able to set a unique ID to your browser, it would not have been possible to sell ads in Opera"

hmm i wonder why ?

of note is the "Unique ID" that Cydoor assign to you, tie this to your IP and/or a cookie and they can basically monitor the adverts shown to you and your response specifically to your machine , sure they havent got my name but then they have the next best thing, a supercookie, and we all know how much power doubleclick have/had by just using a simple cookie, it doesnt take a rocket scientist to imagine the data mining possible by using unique id's and a relational database

Spychecker list it as Adware

Spywareinfo do not reccomend it either and have a forum thread here and here where again Opera try to dispell concerns about Cydoor saying "cydoor used to spy on their customers" things get a little heated as workers/advocates clammer to defend their business relationship with Cydoor, but the fact remains that Opera "sponsors" Cydoor for want of a better word in their business practices however un-ethical, by continuing to use them.

Opera should revise their business relationship with Cydoor if they don't want their name dragged through the mud, there are hundreds of ways of generating revenue without resorting to "unique id's" being used

fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me

here
here
here
or of course, do your own google search here

You mean Opera the spyware with built in browser ?

http://spychecker.com

nice, i hope you value your privacy as much as you value your surfing

haha you mean Opera the profiling software with a built in browser ?

Right here

and you thought you where being clever ?
stupidity knows no bounds

hahahaha

That it too is spyware infested shite

see for yourself

of course opera claim it isnt (like morpheus) but cydoor would wouldnt they ?

Try this page

You still have the spyware installed on your computer! See here Spychecker Kazaa page. What even funnier is check out the privacy policy of Kazaa. :)

Spyware seems to fit this definition as a less-appreciated form of leech computing.

This is one of the worst things I know, SpyWare - I simply hate freeware/shareware/ad-ware programs that use SpyWare - I recently installed KaZaa (p2p filesharing) - but 5 minutes after, not having run it, I uninstalled it, because it had installed Cydoor software on my computer (when I explicitly told it not to install it). I removed Cydoor - but then KaZaa wouldn't run.

Worried if you have SpyWare? Get ad-aware from LavaSoft - it's free and reliable.
Or you can just check your programs here - just enter the name of the software...
Or Steve Gibson's (grc.com) OptOut

Don't use SpyWare!

I'm not sure if this advertisement-concept is known to the Linux people out there, but a lot of win32 software that is advertisement supported ships with spyware, profided by advertisement agencies as Radiate.com. This spyware is installed on the win32 machine together with the ad-supported software and it collects data of the user and transmits this data to a radiate server.

This spyware even sits on your computer when you've already deinstalled the sponsored program. You have to use software like Ad-Aware to remove al kinds of installed spyware and registry modifications done by his spyware.

It's not clear to me what kind of data this spyware collects, but it's both a privacy and security violation that a piece of software is able to sit on your machine to collect private data.

As long as it's not clear what kind of ad-software Opera uses for their version 5 browser, I would be very careful. Ad-supported software is more than just a banner on a web page.

For more information on spyware, have a look at: Spychecker or ZDNet.

Arleo