The instructions contained in this post will help you to remove any unwanted parasites from your system.
Make sure you read this entire article BEFORE you do anything. Removing Spyware and other parasites is not as easy as you might think it would be and there is a whole lot more to it than many people realize.
An up to date page can usually be found at this website by clicking on "Spyware Help" in the menu on the left.Richard the Lion Hearted
Spyware, Adware, Malware and other parasites should not be taken lightly and you should always get professional help to remove any stubborn parasites that you may have on your system.
In this article you will find provisions for:
Help Resources
Specific Tools
Various Online Scanners
Instructions on what you should do
Forums in which to get help from trained personnel
Other Tools and Software can be found listed further down in this article.
Instructions on What You Should Do
Scan your system using Ad-Aware and SpyBot-S&D.
It makes no difference which order you run these two tools as they will each detect and remove what the other misses.
Always make sure the reference files are up to date.
SpyBot-S&D: Let it fix anything that is listed in red. Ad-Aware: Let it fix anything that it finds.
After you complete these scans, you will want to run a good Anti-Virus scan on your system. Panda Anti-Virus has a good online scanner which should detect and remove anything on your system.
If you are unable to go online or run any Anti-Virus you may currently have installed on your system, then don't worry about it as this can be taken care of later.
Another alternative if you have access to it would be to boot from a Knoppix CD and do an Anti-Virus scan From Knoppix. Knoppix is a Linux distribution which can be booted from a CD without the need to install it.
Once you complete the above steps, you will want to run HiJackThis, then post the contents of the resulting HJT log to one of the Forums listed below.
Once you post your HJT log, you need to be patient and check back periodically because the personnel who are there to help you can get quite busy working on HJT logs posted by other users.
It is also very important that any forum you decide to visit for help, that you read their FAQ before doing any posting if you want their help.
If you are a skilled computer user who is technically oriented and feel confident about your skills, then you could try using one of the HiJackThis tutorials which are listed below. I would suggest reading both of them as this tool can very easily mess up your system if you are not careful.
When running HiJackThis, it is very important that you follow any directions you may be given by Qualified personnel. You should not try fixing anything yourself unless you know what you are doing. This program can very easily make a mess of your system if you screw up.
MOST IMPORTANT
Always run HiJackThis from its own directory such as C:\\HJT
The reason for this is so HJT can create backups of anything removed in case you should need to restore something.
HiJackThis and SpyWare Removers
Anytime you run HiJackThis or any other tool for removing parasites, you should always close ALL Windows, especially any browsers and Windows Explorer.
The reason for this is if you leave any of these windows open, you may find the parasite to still be installed on your system.
If you are Unable to Run SpyBot-S&D, Ad-Aware, CWShredder or HiJackThis
There is a variant of the Coolwebsearch trojan spreading that closes several anti-spyware apps when you try to open them.
If this is happening to you, download PepiMK's CoolWWWSearch.SmartKiller removal tool (v1 and v2) first and run it. After it does its job, CWShredder and HijackThis will run properly (as well Spybot S&D, Ad-aware and several anti-spyware forums)
Fake Programs
One of the biggest things to watch out for is bogus programs which claim to be Ad-Aware or SpyBot when they're not. Or other programs which claim to remove parasites from your system. You can check this link to check to see if a program is legitimate or not. Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites
Sytem Restore
Any time your system is infected by a bad parasite such as a Virus, Trojan or Worm, you should disable "System Restore" before attempting to clean your system. Otherwise, the infection will remain to reinfect your system.
Internet Explorer Users
Go into "Internet Options > Advanced" tab
There will be 2 "Install on Demand" items and 1 "Enable third party extension"
Uncheck all three items as these present a security risk which makes it easier for parasites to install themselves on you system
BartPE BuilderBootable Windows CD/DVD Bart’s PE Builder is a free tool that allows you to create a bootable Windows CD or DVD from an existing install CD of Windows XP or Windows Server 2003. This Windows boot CD runs a cut down version of XP, with network, gui and FAT/NTFS/CDFS file system support. Since you can run Windows applications from this boot CD it’s a useful tool for fixing various problems on Windows 2000/2003/XP/9x system that can not easily be fixed while booted from the copy of Windows on the hard drive. Using Bart’s PE Builder to Make an Anti-Spyware and Rescue CD One great use for a PE Builder CD is to remove spyware from a computer and that is the task that site will help you with. Knoppix With Knoppix, you can boot from the CD and perform an Anti-Virus scan on your system without the need for loading MS Windows. UBCD for Windows UBCD4Win is a bootable CD which contains software that allows you to repair/restore/diagnostic almost any computer problem. All software included in UBCD4Win are freeware utilities for Windows.
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Quick Summary is created and edited by users like you... Add FAQ's, Links and other Relevant Information by clicking the edit button in the lower right hand corner of this message.
This thread has recently been rewrote and updated to provide more information and better help to those who need it.
As such, the previous replies were all removed to leave room for any other problems which may need to be addressed in the above article instead of users having to wade through a bunch of replies which have since been addressed with the rewrite.
Also, periodically, I am updating the above article to reflect new spyware fighting tools or information which may be needed.
There are a lot of spyware scanners out there, some real and a lot of fake ones, so I'm not about to list all the scanners. Instead, I just llist the tools which best serve the purpose for fixing one's system. These are also the tools you will find are used every day at the different forums where people can go to get help with trying to erradicate these parasites.
chuq said:Small correction: As indicated in this post, the Wilders Security forum no longer allows posts of HijackThis logs. Thank you for letting me know about this.
I'll remove them from the forum list soon as I finish this reply.
Would you consider adding the Webroot Spy Sweeper to your listing of spyware tools, please? It is NOT free, BUT it does have a 30 day trail available. PC magazine just named it editor's choice in spyware detection and removal and prevention.
I've been thinking of adding Webroot Spy Sweeper, yes. Just forgot to do so.
There are a lot of different ones out there with many of them being fraudulent which you can find out by checking the Rougue programs lists above.
I mostly try to list the best ones for use with fixing your system along with tools that are routinely used for parasite removal and repair.
PestPatrol is one which I will not list because their program will detect legitimate items as parasites and there have been other problems with their software. So this one is not for the average user as you really need to scrutinize the results before you fix anything with PestPatrol. They also are very terrible with trying to contact if there is a problem which in itself is not good.
As to their SpySubtract software, I'm waiting to hear a little more about this company before I add it to the list of useful tools as I do not want to add anything that may unknowingly be a rogue program. Hopefully, by the end of the week I will know enough as to whether or not it can be added.
The link for the newest version of CWShredder has been added to the list of "tools you may be asked to use"
DragonsLore, I was wondering about installing Spyware Guard, as it is one of your recommended tools.
Wanted to know, though, what issues you might be aware of, considering their prominent warning SpywareGuard is a work-in-progress. We cannot guarantee that it will not conflict with other security software on your machine. However we do strive to fix any compatibility problems that may arise.
If you are worried about potential compatibility issues with SpywareGuard, we recommend you download SpywareBlaster instead.
If you need a copy of Hijack This!, which is useful for the removal of several Malware/Spyware programs, check out that link from DragonsLore or download it from MajorGeeks. Also, this post on the same site has an in depth removal tool. Any dummy (and I do mean dummy...we all all at risk to these hacker scumbags who want to flood our computers with junk advertisements) can follow the steps to remove the software.
One thing that really, really bothers me. I have an I.T. degree (OK it's only an Associates, but I know quite a bit) and I was hit with TVM.exe and randreco.dll/.exe malware. These hackers/programmers have made it almost impossible to remove such garbage!
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